American Girl Doll News

The Girls of the Year are saved! Here's why: SCHOLASTIC IS GOING TO PARTNER WITH AMERICAN GIRL TO MAKE MORE AMERICAN GIRL BOOKS! Nobody will have to buy off third-party Amazon for all of them like me! Here's the details: -Scholastic and American Girl's new publishing partnership will begin in January 2017. -There will be some new American Girl book series . -American Girl will still publish BeForever books & advice and activity titles. -This is the first time American Girl licensed another company to make more books for them. -Scholastic will reissue all of the old GOTY books and add a new book to each series, starting with fourth books for Lea and Grace! Woo-hoo! -Scholastic will publish 18 new books -One of the new series will feature nonfiction historical books for middle schoolers. Perfect for me, because I'm starting middle school this fall! -The other new series will be a new contemporary fiction line with "diverse characters" for middle grades. Could this be a new doll line that would replace GOTYs? Or will they keep both? We will see! -Scholastic will also make American Girl novelty books, like treasuries, journals, and yearbooks with quizzes. -American Girl says the new partnership with Scholastic will help American Girl expand in areas of its' publishing program, such as BeForever books and The Care And Keeping Of You line. -American Girl also said that “We’re looking to outside partners because we want to expand. [Scholastic and Amazon] are going to further our storytelling.” -The books will be available in America (obviously), the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Hooray for international fans! -This was a evolution of having several American Girl books in Book Fairs. They only had books I already had, not fun! -Discussions of a partnership began in fall 2014. If you want to learn more about this partnership, make my bounce rate go up and click here. But stick around for the American Girl Trivia and the Comment Discussion Question! AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: 29 million American Girl dolls have been sold over 30 years. That's an average of 1 million dolls a year. Could my Melody or my Christmas present be number 30 million? We will see! COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: On a scale of 1 to a billion, how excited are you for new American Girl books and possibly a new doll line? MY ANSWER: A billion. But I need to go get my blood sugar down. Bye! Click Miss Link!

When I was swooning over the new Wellie Wishers from American Girl (Yes, I know the name of the line is all one word, but I'm a grammar freak so it will remain two over here), I thought that each Wellie Wisher looked like a different Truly Me doll. I could purchase those 5 dolls so I wouldn't have to start collecting a different size of dolls! I'll share with you the 5 dolls that could be 18 inch stand-ins for the real 14.5 inch dolls, and if I win the lottery tonight, I'll actually get them! Emerson's Truly Me doll is Just Like You 54. Both dolls have black hair with bangs, brown eyes and light skin. I know that #54 would be the close-to-perfect match for Emerson, but if I win the 500 million dollar Mega Millions jackpot (since I can't play the lottery, my dad entered), I'd get... Just Like You 4 as Emerson! (aka Ellie from Basilmentos) Just Like You #4 was retired in 2011 and was the only doll with her face mold. I don't know why, but the JLY #4 mold screams "Wellie Wisher!" more to me than the Jess mold. Next is Willa, my favorite Wellie Wisher. You guys helped me decide what doll looked more like Willa, #33 or #61. While Willa and #61 share the same eye color, her hair is too dark to be Willa, so #33 won by fan vote! Even though her eyes are the wrong color, her hair is perfect! All I need to do is add freckles and BAM! Willa! ' Next is Ashlyn. I love Ashlyn because she looks like a Truly Me doll that I've been wanting for a year now but can't find on eBay... THE RETIRED #2! #2 was retired in 2012. They are a perfect match. Just look! If only she wasn't retired... if she wasn't retired, I would probably already have her. Just keep searching eBay, searching eBay, searching eBay, eBay, eBay! Next is Camille. You guys probably know who this is going to be (hint: be and the last digit of her number rhyme) , but... It's obvious, it's #63! When I saw Camille for the first time back in February, I thought, "She looks like number 63 as a five year old!" I think that's what everyone else thought, too. Last, but not least, is my second favorite Wellie Wisher, Kendall! I put them in the same order that they are in the cover of the new catalog that is sitting on my blogging and leaking desk, so this is not order of preference. Here goes! I decided that #58 (aka Gabby from Basilmentos) looks the most like Kendall. I considered #46 for a bit, but then I opted out because A. she's retired, B. she might be remodeled into Tenney, Logan, Gabi, whoever GOTY 2017 is (I still think it's going to be Tenney but it might be Logan or Gabi or Della or Barbara) and C: It looks like #58 and Kendall have the same wig. So, if you made it to the end of this really long post, congrats! I'll be posting 2 AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIAS in this post, plus 2 COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTIONS that you can choose from? AG TRIVIA #1: The short lived Girls of Many Lands dolls from American Girl were sculpted by Helen Kish. AG TRIVIA #2: Even though Jess before her and every GOTY after her got pajamas, Nicki did not get pajamas. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION #1: What's in the area where your computer/phone/iPad is in? MY ANSWER #1: My mouse (my computer touchpad doesn't work, but I use it to scratch like a DJ when leaking gets hard), my diabetes stuff (shoutout to my mom, she forgot to check my blood sugar last night and now it's at the 300s), my phone, the new AG catalog, a $50 gift card to my local mall that has a AG store and, of course, water for leaking! COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION #2: Are you asking for a doll for Christmas? MY ANSWER #2: If my plan to get Melody and then not get another new doll until Christmas works (my dad likes to randomly give me dolls as seen with Jade), then yes! In fact, I have like, 10 dolls on my list and my parents will have to choose one. But, knowing Dad, I might get 2 or 3, though I doubt it.

I found a new dress on the huaclub_1984 eBay account. Judging by it's size, I think it is for the Bitty Babies. Anyways, this is a very cute dress and I'd get it, pair it with some leggings and I'll be good to go with my American Girl dolls. WOAH! IT'S AWESOME! AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: Bitty Baby clothes fit Bitty Twins. Some Bitty Baby outfits fit American Girl dolls. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Do you think the Wellie Wisher, Willa, looks more like Just Like You #33 or Just Like You #61? I want to get all of the Wellie Wishers in Truly Me form.

It's been six months since a flower dress reportedly for Melody leaked. Now, with just a month until Melody's debut, the full outfit leaked, complete with shoes and socks. Here it is: I love this outfit so much it makes me want to cry because it's so BEAUTIFUL! I'm ready for August! AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: American Girl's three "favorite" historical dolls in the early 2000's were Kit, Molly and Samantha. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Do you have a Girl of the Year? If so, who? MY ANSWER: I do! I have 10 Girls of the Year, Lindsey, Marisol, Nicki, Chrissa, Lanie, Kanani, Saige, Isabelle, Grace and Lea.

So, my day was awesome because I went to my endocrinology appointment for my diabetes and you'll never believe what book they had in my room. Usually, they only have picture books, but they had----- ALOHA, KANANI! I was so happy that I didn't put the book down until my doctor came. So, the shoutout goes to this week... St. John's, Parish of St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda! Antigua and Barbuda is located in Central America. WOW! I'm shocked. The majority of my viewers are from USA, making the shoutout more likely to go to the US. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: What's your biggest bragging right? MY ANSWER: A verified Instagram account responded to my DM. (The account was Olivia Rodrigo's, the girl who played Grace in her movie and who now plays Paige on the Disney Channel show Bizaardvark.)

I have an announcement to make about American Girl World 2.0. It's a bit sad, but it's not the end of the world. You can't see other players on American Girl World 2.0 like on Innerstar U. I wish that you could, but the only way that would happen is if all of you got Scratch accounts. Scratch said, "Hey, you can only do online multiplayer stuff if all of your players have Scratch accounts." Sure, that could happen, but then you would have to graduate to a certain status in order to use it. Which meant that all of you would need to learn to code, and coding is very complicated. It took me almost a year to learn how to do it. But, still, it's not the end of the world for all of you people that wanted to communicate with others! There will be a chat room in American Girl World! I will make a list of words that aren't allowed in AGW in my code so that it can be fun for everyone. AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: Innerstar U could only be accessed when getting a new My American Girl doll. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Did you have a Innerstar U account? If so, when did you join and what was your username or avatar? MY ANSWER: I did! I joined on Christmas Day 2014 and my username was Abigail4009.

Remember when AG Rewards popped up on Trademarkia back in April? Well, this new rewards system, as of today at 1 am Eastern time, is in place! Whoo! I know that my parents and grandparents will be so happy about this- every year all of the stuff on my Christmas list is American Girl stuff. They probably will save hundreds of dollars with this! I'm happy too because when I go to the AG store to get Melody, I'll get some extra coupons I can use to buy GOTY 2017 stuff. But I know that the person most happy about this is Santa Claus! He probably spends millions of dollars at AG every year. How it works is that you earn one point for every dollar you spend and you get a $10 off coupon for every 200 points. And, there are special perks, too! Here they are: The two perks I'm most excited about are: 1- The birthday gift for me every year. Wahoo! 2- Exclusive sneak peeks. Watch out, American Girl, I'm gonna leak them! And there are three different levels of perks. Here they are: I don't know why, but I have a funny feeling that me and Dad will get to the Berry level in no time. So, welcome to my life, AG Rewards! AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: After Lindsey performed lackluster, American Girl pulled her from sale early and gave the rest of the Lindsey dolls away to employees and charities. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Grace or Lea? MY ANSWER: Both, in different ways. Lea looks prettier, but Grace had a better story. (And she didn't disobey in her movie at all like Lea did. I watched the Lea movie again and changed my mind about it.)

I found this new ice skating outfit on the f106884 eBay account. I speculated that there would be a new ice skating outfit because the one that's out now was released in 2014 and Truly Me items usually have a life of 2 years before they are retired, and it looks like I was right! Here it is! (spills water) Ta-da! The new outfit. I'm a bit disappointed in this outfit because it's too pink for my taste. I would've adored this outfit when I was 5, but AG's target market is 9 year old girls, not 5 year old girls. But, if it was another color, I would probably skip it too because I have the Two-in-One Ice Skating outfit for my Beth on ice skates, so I'm good with skating stuff. Until I get Mia (who, judging by my AG World username, I really want!). Here's closeups on the pieces: AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: After Pleasant Rowland left American Girl, she restored a town in New York called Aurora and founded a reading program for kindergarten, first grade and second grade called Superkids Reading Program. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Did you watch fireworks last night? MY ANSWER: No! I'm firework-phobic, if I didn't tell you in another post.

If you are a regular reader of this site, you know that I really want American Girl to make a Girl of the Year with a disability. I've tried everything. A billion e-mails to American Girl's automated service email. A letter. 2 petitions. Nothing worked. I lost hope until the lady who e-mailed me about getting the Melody series for free e-mailed me. I then learned that the American Girl e-mail format is firstname.lastname@americangirl.com. So, I emailed the head product designer and the head of American Girl. Yes, I emailed Her Majesty, The Queen Of All Things AG Katy Dickson. About getting a doll with a disability. Here's my e-mail: July 4, 2016 To Ms. Dickson and Ms. Northrop, Hi. My name is Sydney Jean. I am 11 years old, have 31 of your amazing dolls and have Asperger's syndrome and type 1 diabetes. I've read the majority of your books and seen all of the movies, but I've also noticed a problem in your Girl of the Year line. Lately, you've been copying old Girl of the Year dolls to make new ones because your target market either wasn't born or doesn't remember the old ones. But I do remember the old ones. I know that Lea was based on Jess, Isabelle was based on Marisol and Saige was based on Nicki. So, why are you copying old American Girl dolls when there is a huge market of stories yet to be told- girls like me who have disabilities? We have inspiring stories to share, too. If you don't believe me, I have three whole reasons why the Girl of the Year 2018 or 2019 (depending on if you planned GOTY 2018 already) should have have a disability. One reason Girl of the Year 2018 or 2019 should have a disability is because millions of children will be happy if you make a Girl of the Year doll with a disability. This includes girls with disabilities, normal girls and even boys with disabilities and the girls with disabilities' brothers! The girls with disabilities will be glad that there is finally a doll like them and that they are true American Girls like all of the girls without disabilities are. I know that if I didn't have disabilities, then I would feel happy for the kids with them so I could learn more about them, set aside their differences and accept them for who they are, and I think that a lot of girls will do just that. And finally, the boys will be happy too because they will know that their sisters or their girl counterparts are finally getting represented in the toy industry. This is one important reason why Girl of the Year 2018 or 2019 should have a disability. Another reason Girl of the Year 2018 or 2019 should have a disability is that a lot of kids have disabilities in this world. In the United States of America alone, 2.8 million school-age kids (5-17 years old) have some sort of disability. In a country where the toy industry influences boys and girls across the country, the kids without disabilities might think that there is no such thing as them unless they know someone with a disability or saw one on YouTube, a movie or television. But YouTube, movies and TV usually never show characters or people with disabilities, and if they do, they are (most of the time) a side character. Just think how it would feel to deal with diseases everyday and only be a side character or a "friend" doll! It's time for girls nationwide to learn that there is a lot of girls that can't do what they take for granted, like running or eating without thinking or having hair or going to school instead of the hospital. This is another important reason why Girl of the Year 2018 or 2019 should have a disability The last reason why Girl of the Year 2018 or 2019 should have a disability is that it will be a learning opportunity for kids without disabilities. American Girl was started because Pleasant Rowland wanted a fun way to educate girls about history while using girls from the past around their age instead of the men in real history used in school. Even though kids don't really think of the books anymore, the kids who do will get to learn about a life far different from their own, and in the process, be more aware and accepting of people with disabilities. I applaud your decisions to make Truly Me disability accessories and dolls without hair, but I would much rather see a Girl of the Year doll with a disability because a lot of kids pay attention to who the next Girl of the Year will be and only buy accessories that represent herself. That's why I need American Girl to make Girl of the Year 2018 or 2019 have a disability. From, Sydney Jean P.S: On page 38 of your latest catalog, it says that Camila gave Lea a wish bracelet in Lea Leads The Way. The people who make the catalogs need to read the books, because that actually happens in Lea Dives In! BAM! I can't wait until they respond back! Hopefully they say yes! AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: Chrissa did not get meet accessories, but Mia (the GOTY before her) did. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Did you ever write a letter to a company and they listened to you? MY ANSWER: Yes. I convinced Chick-fil-A to stop frying their products in peanut oil with the exception of their chicken sandwiches. And, I'm not sure if this counts, but my friend Madison contributed to Barbie's decision to make different body types with a letter.

I thought, "If Lindsey was a real person, did she graduate college yet?" After that thought, this post was born. The only reason why I'm only doing GOTYs is because all of the historical dolls would be either out of school/dead if they were real people. Now, here's the list- Lindsey- Regardless of when her birthday is, she's out of college. Unless she wants to be a doctor. Kailey- Same as Lindsey. Marisol- Since Marisol's book begins on October 22, 2005 (which is a Saturday) and she is in fourth grade, that means she is in 4th grade in the 2005-06 school year. People who were in fourth grade then are in senior year of college in the 2016-17 school year, so that's the same for Marisol. Jess- Same as Marisol, because her book begins in January 2006. Nicki- In Thanks to Nicki, Nicki enters fifth grade during the 2007-08 school year, so that means that she is going in sophomore year of college. Mia- In Mia (which starts in October 2008), Mia states that she is 10 years old. The New York (where Mia lives) cutoff date for kindergarten is December 1st (which makes her a fifth-grader in Mia,) so Mia started kindergarten in the 2002-03 school year. Therefore, she is starting college this year. Chrissa, Sonali and Gwen- All three of them are starting fifth grade in the 2009-10 school year (proof: Chrissa Stands Strong: The Book), so they started kindergarten in the 2003-04 school year, which makes them high school seniors (12th graders) come the 2016-17 school year. Lanie- Lanie is about to enter fifth grade in the 2010-11 school year, and that means Lanie started kindergarten in the 2004-05 school year. Simple math shows that Lanie will be a junior (11th grade) in high school. Kanani- Since Kanani's grade isn't mentioned (the whole series takes place in summer 2011) and I know her age is 10 in the books, I looked up the Hawaii cutoff date for kindergarten (July 31) and that's when I knew that she would enter 5th in 2011-12. Simple math proved that Kanani would become a sophomore in high school in the 2016-17 year. McKenna- McKenna is a fourth grader during her whole series that is in the 2011-2012 school year (according to her movie), so she will be entering high school next fall. Saige- Saige is in fourth grade during the 2013-14 school year, so she will be a seventh grader next fall. Isabelle- Isabelle is in fourth grade during the 2014-15 school year (like me!), so she will be a sixth grader next fall. Grace- Grace was in fourth grade last school year, so anyone who knows 1 plus 1 can figure out that she is going to be a fifth grader next year. Lea- Lea was in fifth grade last school year (like yours truly, Sydney) so it's obvious that's she's starting middle school like me! There you have it! AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: Samantha's movie cost the least amount of money to make, and Kit's movie cost the most. Funny because Samantha's the rich doll and Kit's the poor doll. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Is there any dolls that are going in your grade next fall? MY ANSWER: Yes! Isabelle and Lea!

I found a closeup of the purse from Melody's meet accessories on the f106884 eBay account. Here it is: IT'S AMAZING! I'm totally getting it. AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: Samantha's old accessories originally came with a real Indianhead penny until they made it a reproduction coin in 1989. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Favorite historical doll? MY ANSWER: Maryellen

You know how I write books (click here to buy my last one)? Well, I'm writing a new one! And it's about . . , . . . CHLOE! Yes, that's right. I'm doing a book about the events from the first Anita Stops The Bullying in Chloe's point of view, and I'll explain why Chloe wasn't in the second one in there, too! I can't wait to release it, because it means MONEY FOR CHARITY! AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: Nothing was retired until Mattel bought American Girl. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Historical dolls or Girls of the Year? MY ANSWER: Historicals all the way! I love the Girls of the Year, too, but they need better stories.