American Girl Doll News

Today is the last day of American Girl's AG Rewards promotion for double points on everything, including new arrivals.

Hi everyone! I hope you all were able to read Samantha Learns A Lesson so we can discuss it today. If you don't have copies of these books going forward at home, you can check to see if a local library has them, and if no libraries have them, you can make an account at the Library of Congress's Internet Archive and check them out there. Samantha Learns A Lesson is about how, after learning that Nellie is being bullied because she is in second grade at the age of nine years old, Samantha decides to teach her best friend so she can move up to the third grade. Meanwhile, there is a speech contest going on about progress in America in Samantha's class, and after writing a speech about factories, Samantha learns a lesson from Nellie as well about how factories are really like - and speaks out about their true conditions. When I was rereading this book, several things came to mind about the themes within, and both their historical context and what it means to be a girl in 2025. I don't want these posts to be too long, so I'll list my thoughts, and let you discuss these topics as well in the comments! Right from the get-go, the differences between Samantha's academy, where wealthy young ladies attend, and Nellie's public school, where the rest of society attends, is clear. What are the differences, and what does it have to do with Samantha's social status? The biggest difference that jumped out at me regarding Samantha's academy and Nellie's public school is the teachers that are in each school. While Samantha has a kind teacher, Nellie has to deal with a class that makes fun of her, and a teacher that does nothing about it. This could be because private academies, just like private schools today, pay teachers more and are able to hire more experienced teachers, but it could also be because different things were expected of students in private academies versus public schools in society - after all, Nellie is a servant, and Samantha is the one being served. Samantha is told that factories make America stronger because they make cheap things quickly for Americans to enjoy, but what the adults don't tell her is that factory conditions are horrible. Do you recall something that you were taught in school, but learned the truth about outside of it? I'm from North Carolina, which was a state that was pro-slavery during the Civil War. Because of that, our education about the Civil War always leaned more towards the details of battles, while not humanizing the struggles that the enslaved went through. Luckily, through reading Addy's books, I was able to understand that the Civil War wasn't about "state's rights", but it was about the "right" to OWN LITERAL HUMAN BEINGS as property. Edith, a girl in Samantha's class, is prejudiced towards Nellie because of her social class, and chastises Samantha for hanging out with her. What were the attitudes surrounding the lower class in 1904, and how do you think they are similar today? The attitude back then was that the higher-class shouldn't humanize their servants, shouldn't interact with them much, shouldn't play with them. In the beginning of the book, Eddie's mom is complaining about Samantha hanging out with Nellie, and last book, Grandmary had to be swayed to accept Samantha's friendship with Nellie. Nowadays, it's less spoken out loud, but there is still a certain stigma about people in richer areas hanging out with and helping the poor. The Looking Back section of the book details how college, even for wealthy young ladies like Samantha, wasn't something most girls did. How do you think the culture surrounding women being educated has changed since 1904, and how have they stayed the same? I'm a college student. I'm a girl. That wouldn't be possible in 1904, and the expansion of the education that girls receive - all the way through high school and college degrees - is the biggest difference between 1904 and today. However, women still have to work hard at their education to be taken seriously, especially in certain fields. My college film classes were mostly men a few semesters ago, and they always made fun of me and the other girls in the class. But we worked just as hard, if not harder, and we know that it is a privilege to have an education, especially when college is so expensive. Next week, we will be reading Samantha's Surprise!

The American Girl Smart Girl's Podcast has been nominated for Choice Podcast at the Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards! You can vote at kidschoiceawards.com . The show will be aired on June 21, I'll let you know if it wins or not! (Also, for my sake, if it makes you vote for more categories, pleaseeeee vote Transformers One for Best Animated Movie. I need that sequel.)

Today is Luciana's birthday! She was born this day in 2006, making her 19 today.

Essence magazine, a lifestyle magazine targeted towards African American women, just released a new article about Addy Walker, the first African American Girl doll who has become iconic for her story and her style. The article included interviews from Connie Porter, the author of the Addy books, concerning the creation of Addy and how they worked the pattern of each doll having a new outfit to go with each book to Addy's unique circumstance being a newly-freed girl from enslavement. Explaining why American Girl went with the Civil War era for their first African American doll, Porter explained, "If you were to paint a picture of (the Civil Rights era, Harlem Renaissance, etc.), you’d have to begin with segregation, the fight for basic rights, and the Great Migration. So, we knew we had to take it all the way back to the root of all these things. And that is why when we meet Addy, she’s enslaved.” So much thought went into every detail of Addy's collection, including the dress she comes in, which is gifted to her by Miss Caroline, an abolitionist white woman. Porter explained, “The dress is symbolic of what had to happen in America in order for slavery to end. Black people stood up, of course, but white people had to stand up, too. Whether part of the abolitionist movement, or those conscripted into the army in the North, many people, Black and white, had to say, ‘This is the country we want, and this is the price that we have to pay to get it.’ Just like with the situation we’re in now as a country, where we will also have to make those decisions.” If you want to read about the rest of Addy's outfits and how they were created, you can check out the rest of the Essence magazine article, written by Jaha Nailah Avery, at https://www.essence.com/fashion/addy-walkers-dress-is-a-political-statement/ .

A new page has been added to the American Girl homepage: "New to American Girl?" For newcomers to the brand, it details items from each doll line, as well as product reviews for various dolls. The page is here: https://www.americangirl.com/pages/new-to-american-girl

The rumored release date for the new Truly Me dolls and new meet outfits is sometime in June. This was teased at the Chicago store by an employee, and posted on Reddit.

Blaire Wilson is the Doll of the Month for May 2025! Chef. Decorator. Chicken wrangler. Blaire does it all at her family's restaurant, inn, and farm. Her recent food sensitivity has made her time in the kitchen -- and time with friends -- a little tough. But now she's got the perfect distraction -- a wedding to plan! With her BFF by her side, and a million creative ideas saved on her tablet, Blaire is sure she can make the farm's first wedding an epic celebration.But between dress disasters, texting mix-ups, and more than one incident with a mischievous goat, Blaire soon learns that wedding planning is a tricky business . . . and that balancing friendships is even trickier. Can Blaire find a way to make things right, or will this wedding -- and her friendship -- turn into epic fails?

Hi everyone! I hope you all were able to read Meet Samantha so we can discuss it today. If you don't have copies of these books going forward at home, you can check to see if a local library has them, and if no libraries have them, you can make an account at the Library of Congress's Internet Archive and check them out there. Meet Samantha is an introduction to Samantha Parkington's world in 1904 New York. She is a privileged orphan living in a mansion with her Grandmary, who is more of an outspoken tomboy and doesn't appreciate the life her Grandmary has for her as a "proper young lady". Her life changes when her annoying next-door neighbor's family gets a new servant, a girl Samantha's age named Nellie, and they befriend each other, go on an adventure, and learn more about each other's lives and caring for others. When I was rereading this book, several things came to mind about the themes within, and both their historical context and what it means to be a girl in 2025. I don't want these posts to be too long, so I'll list my thoughts, and let you discuss these topics as well in the comments! Early on in the book, Samantha wants a certain expensive doll, but later in the book, she ends up giving the doll to Nellie, who hasn't been able to play with toys. What does that say about Samantha's character, and how does that apply to today? I think it says a lot about Samantha that she was able to give up the doll she wanted so badly and give it to Nellie, who never was able to have a doll of her own because she is a servant and can't afford wants like toys. Samantha's character arc in this book is going from a girl that is pretty sheltered, only thinking that her life is everyone's life and not aware of the suffering that is going on around her, to being empathetic once learning the truth about Nellie and the servants, and wanting to do something to help. In today's world, class divisions are pretty stark. While there are some people with millions, if not billions, of dollars, it is hard for a lot of people to get jobs, and many people are struggling to get by. Kids in these households don't have a lot of toys, and might not even be able to ever have an American Girl doll of their own. While some richer kids might assume that their life is the status quo, others may be like Samantha and be able to give back to those who don't have as much. When Samantha and Nellie go to Jessie's neighborhood to find her, they discover that her neighborhood is segregated because Jessie is African American. What do you think this means for how race relations were in 1904, and how does this still apply today? In 1904, the Civil Rights Act, which officially outlawed segregation between races, was still 60 years away from happening. While New York was a Northern state, where slavery was outlawed quicker than the Southern states, not having a longer history of slavery didn't mean discrimination didn't exist. African Americans could only live in certain neighborhoods, were discriminated against in hiring and other services, and weren't able to have as much money as white families because they didn't have as much generational wealth thanks to slavery. While we are now 60 years past the Civil Rights Act, the effects of state-sponsored discrimination against African Americans and Black people are still wide-reaching. Families are still experiencing the effects of lack of generational wealth, cities and towns in America are still racially segregated in practice due to the money gap, schools with majority-Black populations often have less money than schools with majority-White populations, and so on and so forth. While things are better for African Americans now than they were in 1904, there is still much more progress to go for people like Jessie. Samantha is given a degree of innocence that Nellie doesn't have because Samantha is rich and Nellie is not. How do you think both girl's worldviews are different because of their different experiences? Samantha and Nellie both have different views of the world at first, and I believe it's because at first, Samantha was sheltered from the real world. Her days are filled with servants serving her every whim, making art and playing piano with her wealthy grandmother, and the most dangerous thing she could do is play outside. Meanwhile, Nellie has a history of factory work, working for other families, attending for their every need, and didn't have much of a childhood. She was separated from her family, and because the world wasn't as kind to her as it was to Samantha, has a much different outlook on the world. Throughout the book, it is shown that while Grandmary is a traditionalist and doesn't believe women should have expanded rights, Uncle Gard's friend Cornelia believes women should be doing more than making samplers and playing piano. What were women expected to be like in 1904, and what areas do women still need to advance in 2025? Meet Samantha shows that in 1904, traditional society expected women to be "proper young ladies". Wealthy women were expected to keep their mouths shut, do gendered work, and live in high society without having to do much. In 1904, women were discriminated against in hiring. They couldn't vote, weren't expected to have much opinions, and "wife" and "mother" seemed to be the end goal that was expected of them. In 2025, things are much better, but the effects of sexism have still stained society. Women aren't expected to be leaders. Women aren't expected to achieve big things. Women still get paid less than men. There are more men named John as CEOs of companies than there are women of any name. Our country still has never had a woman leader. More young boys now believe that women are supposed to not achieve things and are supposed to be their devoted girlfriends and wives. And this is why American Girl is important - to keep empowering girls to be their very best.

Tomorrow, I'm going to start posting about an American Girl book once a week! I'm super excited about this - I haven't read many of these books since elementary school, so I can't wait to get back into these worlds. Each time we start a new series, I'm going to set the scene the day before we start to give you all a peek into the doll's time period and setting. We're starting with Samantha, the original American Girl - I know Kirsten and Molly came out the same time, but Samantha is often considered the first, so we'll start with her. Here's a bit about the world of Samantha - New York State in 1904: In 1904, the United States as a whole was in the Progressive Era. Progressive policies were being implemented in the government, President Theodore Roosevelt, who was once the Governor of New York, was advocating for better working conditions and taking down monopolies, and activists were fighting for bigger social change than they were getting. Women in particular had gotten more politically and socially active - and the woman's suffrage movement, which Samantha's Aunt Cornelia was apart of, was starting to gain traction. Women would gain the right to vote in 1920, when Samantha was 25 years old. New York was a safe haven for immigrants, especially Irish immigrants escaping famine. Nellie O'Malley, Samantha's best friend, was the daughter of two of these immigrants. New York was the richest and most populous state in the entire country in 1904. Skyscrapers and railroads were being built, and prosperity was abundant - for some. There was a lot of harsh working conditions in New York in 1904. Children were still working in factories and horrible conditions. However, in 1904, the National Child Labor Committee was founded, and it started to be seen as more of an issue. I hope you all are able to read Meet Samantha by tomorrow so we can discuss it! Talk then!

Today is Maryellen's birthday! She was born this day in 1945, which would make her 80 today!

Today is Lila's birthday! She was born in 2014, making her 11 today.