American Girl Doll News

Today at 2 pm and 7 pm, the American Girl Live tour will perform in Fayetteville, Arkansas at the Walton Arts Center! Good luck to the performers and have fun, everyone who's going!

This morning, it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that an investor in Mattel has pressured company leadership to sell the American Girl brand due to declining sales. Mattel has owned American Girl since 1998, and has only been the second owner of the brand after original founder Pleasant Rowland. It's not official that Mattel is selling American Girl, but if Mattel ends up selling American Girl, who do you hope the new owner would be or would do?

American Girl's new release is on their website!

I completely forgot that yesterday was the last day of operations for the original American Girl Dallas store in the Galleria mall - I'm so sorry for forgetting! - but the opening day for the new American Girl Dallas store, at The Shops at Park Lane, has been set for March 2! According to CultureMap Dallas, "The new store will comprise 14,720 square feet with two levels, featuring a full assortment of American Girl dolls and accessories, along with the brand’s doll-and-girl fashions and bestselling books. The location boasts an all-new interior design, anchored by a floor-to-ceiling dollhouse feature and a reimagined full-service cafe with private party rooms. Not to mention dedicated personal shoppers and Instagram-worthy photo ops. For the first time in Dallas, girls will be able to join their dolls in getting a matching hairstyle, mini manicure, or ear-piercing (for the girls only, not the dolls) at the store's Dolled Up Salon. Reservations can be made in advance, and special packages are available with options for personalization. The American Girl Cafe will host seatings for brunch, lunch, and teatime. It features three private party rooms for birthdays and other occasions, plus a new Berry Bar that offers sweet treats to go." "We’re thrilled to welcome Dallas fans to our newly imagined experiential store,” says Jamie Cygielman, global SVP and general manager of American Girl. “Centrally located at The Shops at Park Lane, American Girl Dallas features an all-new look and feel that honors our heritage and offers exciting experiences and new ways to celebrate that will make any visit a special Day to Remember. Whether girls and their families are dining in the charming cafe or getting made-to-match looks in the Dolled Up Salon, American Girl Dallas promises to be the place to create unforgettable memories together.” The ribbon cutting will be on March 2nd at 9:45 am, with grand opening giveaways the weekend of March 2nd and 3rd.

Last month, Mattel and Paramount Pictures announced that an American Girl movie is in development - not one surrounding a specific character, like normal, but one celebrating all of the characters and the brand as a whole. When it was first announced, I made a post explaining why this was announced - again - after being previously announced in 2019 by MGM. However, long story short, MGM got bought by Amazon, and Amazon wasn't interested in pursuing the project. So Mattel went to Paramount, hoping they'd be the ones to make the American Girl movie. Let me just say: it's not looking so good right now. Because Paramount is in talks with several buyers to change ownership. Currently, Paramount is owned by a company called National Amusements, but they've been having some trouble lately, namely because several of the movies they released that they expected to do well in 2023 didn't perform as well as expected, and a few others that were supposed to go to theaters were sent to streaming. So, over the last few weeks, there has been rumors of another company purchasing Paramount - namely Skydance (known for co-producing several Paramount movies) and Allen Media Group (known for owning the Weather Channel). If this sale goes through - and I will tell you if it does, then the future of American Girl's theatrical movie is in limbo again. Not only was the previous iteration of this movie killed by a sale of a movie studio to a new owner, but after Warner Brothers merged with Discovery not soon after the Corinne movie was filmed and another movie for an unknown character was announced, the Corinne movie's intended release on HBO Max and Cartoon Network was cancelled, and the unknown movie was cancelled altogether. It might work out, due to the success of Barbie's movie and the resurgence of American Girl in the cultural zeitgeist over the last two years, but I know from personal experience that sometimes, movies can get their plug pulled out of anything out of the filmmaker's control. For example, a producer was interested in talking to me about Rebelle a few months after the original stopmotion released, but his other movie got cancelled due to financing issues, and the talks fell through because of that. So, yeah. Round 2 of trying to get an American Girl movie like this might fall apart. But it took Barbie 3 studios to get made. Hopefully third time's the charm for us too?

Last summer, Amazon Prime removed the American Girl movies Melody, Maryellen, Ivy and Julie and Z from their website. These movies were seemingly lost to time, but American Girl has announced that Z's movie, Summer Camp: Friends For Life, will be back on YouTube in a few days! It will premiere (again) on February 3. Let's hope the other movies that were removed come back too!

Took long enough - after nearly two months on backorder, Lila and her collection is back in stock!

I was able to pick up Truly Me 125 and 126 at the AG store today! My dorm only has so much room for dolls, but I'm surely going to pick up the rest of the new ones soon or when I get back from college. 126 has dark blue eyes, not gray eyes like the store photo lighting made it out to be. I love my new dolls and am glad I was able to figure out that they were coming today!

My theory was correct - the brand-new American Girl dolls and outfits were at the AG store when I visited today! Here's the new dolls: This is Truly Me 125! She has blond curly hair, the Josefina mold, light skin, and hazel eyes, as well as the new purple dress meet outfit. Next is Truly Me 126! She has the Classic mold, light skin, brown wavy hair, gray eyes, and the Show Your Artsy Side outfit. Next is Truly Me 127! She has the Josefina mold, dark skin, black curly hair and hazel eyes, as well as the new purple dress. Next is Truly Me 128! She has the Josefina mold, medium skin, black straight hair and green eyes, as well as the new purple dress. Lastly, here's Truly Me 129! She is a revamped Truly Me #88, with the classic mold, unicorn-colored wavy hair, light skin and blue eyes, in the Show Your Sweet Side outfit.

Continuing off from my post where I showed the new Truly Me dolls, here is all the new items at the American Girl store that just arrived in store today! The new items are: Pink Chic Accessories Floral Fashion Outfit Celebrity Chic Outfit American Girl On-the-Go Accessory Case

As January draws to a close, dates are starting to circulate surrounding the next American Girl release, including the highly-anticipated new Truly Me dolls. There are several options American Girl would probably go with: I've heard February 1st on the comments section here, but February 6th or 8th would also be possible. Either way, usually when American Girl releases items, they put the items out on the Sunday before they release, so if there's new items at the store tomorrow, then they'll come out the 1st!

In recent years, American Girl has reintroduced a certain historical character to the lineup in the spring or summer, along with some of their original collection. Molly came back in 2022, while Kit returned in 2023 for her 100th birthday. This year, however, rumors are starting to circulate that Kirsten Larson will be coming back sometime in 2024! DISCLAIMER: Posting leaked images of any kind before an item's official release date is against AGDN policy due to legal issues. Please refrain from commenting photos, links to photos or any other media with leaked items. Your support will keep AGDN running for years to come. Thank you!