American Girl Doll News

At the non-flagship American Girl store locations, AG has only released the outfits for the local team in-store and provided a QR code to order the rest. In the Charlotte store, for example, they only have the Panthers shirts.

The American Girl Costco sets for the 2023 Holidays have been revealed! This set is the Donut Dreams Set, which comes with a doll (either Truly Me 100, 111, 122 or 123) in pink donut-themed pajamas, a blue folding chair that folds into a bed, a knitted blanket, donut pillow, sleeping mask, robe and slippers. The set costs $134.99. Photo credit to @ItsADollAffair

Today is Makena's birthday! She was born in 2008, making her 15 today.

AGDN reader Cynthia D. sent me store photos of the American Girl Costco set for Holiday 2023, "Donut Dreams Set":

An audio excerpt of Meet Isabel and Nicki is now on the Penguin Random House website! The excerpt deals with Isabel and Nicki's trip to the video store and hopes and worries about the year 2000 coming. Here's the link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/727178/meet-isabel-and-nicki-by-julia-devillers-and-jennifer-roy/ P.S: Right after I post this, I'm starting my first college class! I can't believe it!

Today is Ruthie's birthday! She was born today in 1923, which makes her 100!

Out of nowhere this morning, American Girl released the NFL line they teased at Toy Fair earlier this year! The collaborations feature items for every NFL team, separated into three tiers: The five popular teams have Cheer Uniforms, which cost $40. These teams are the Patriots, Rams, Jets, Packers and Cowboys. The next tier of five teams get Fan Outfits, which consist of a shirt, pants, a pendant, sunglasses, and a mug. These cost $34, and teams with Fan Outfits are the Chargers, Saints, Bears, Giants and Steelers. The rest of the teams get $12 Fan Tees.

Here's Marie-Grace's bio, since she is the Doll of the Month for August 2023! Where she lives: With her father in New Orleans, Louisiana Her hobby: Singing Pet: Dog named Argos Her biggest dream: To be able to support her friends and make sure they're okay during hard times What changes her life: Moving to New Orleans and meeting Cecile Rey, who ultimately becomes her best friend What she discovers: Using your talents to make a difference is worth it in the end

American Girl dolls are known for covering many real-life issues, yet because of the controversial nature of some topics, specific dolls have generated a few sets of controversy, whether from hate groups, representation groups, and the public at large. Today, I will be talking about the 5 most controversial American Girl dolls and why they were considered controversial. 5. Cecile Rey and Ivy Ling Cecile and Ivy, who are on the right, aren't paired together usually, but with this specific controversy, they were. And the fact that they were produced wasn't controversial - it was the fact that they were discontinued. In May 2014, American Girl announcing that they were discontinuing 4 different dolls - Ruthie, Marie-Grace, Cecile, and Ivy, in order to phase out the Best Friends line. However, Cecile was only one of two African American dolls available at the time, and Ivy was (and still is) the only Asian American historical doll to be released. The public at large, as well as Asian American advocates, pushed back against the retirements due to representation issues, but Cecile and Ivy were still discontinued. Since their retirement, five more African American characters have been released, and two more Asian American characters have been released. However, both Corinne (who is of Chinese descent) and Kavi (who is of Indian descent) are modern dolls, and there has not been another Asian American doll released since. 4. Kira Bailey Kira Bailey was American Girl's 2021 Girl of the Year, an animal lover who travels to her aunts' wildlife sanctuary in Australia. Yes, that's aunts plural. Since before Kira was born, her aunt Mamie was in a relationship with another woman named Lynette, and they married once same-sex marriages were legalized in Australia. However, the conservative hate group One Million Moms took offense to the depiction of a same-sex couple in Kira's books, and they petitioned unsuccessfully to retire the Kira doll and books. It is worth mentioning that American Girl has been the target of boycotts from anti-LGBT activists four times (in 2005, 2015, 2021 and 2022), but Kira was the only one tied to a specific doll. 3. Addy Walker Addy Walker was a breakthrough doll for American Girl. Representing the Civil War and life as an enslaved person escaping the South and finding freedom in the North, Addy was the first Black doll and doll of color from American Girl. She was the first doll to have a different mold, hair texture, skin color and was an introduction to the concept of slavery for many girls. However, among recent years, the Internet has been divided over whether introducing a doll that deals with slavery was a good idea. There are many articles about the impact of Addy, including this one written in 2015 by future American Girl author Brit Bennett, but one thing is for sure - because she touched on a heavy subject, Addy has made her mark on doll history and many childhoods forever. 2. Marisol Luna Released in 2005, Marisol Luna was the third Girl of the Year and the first Girl of the Year of color, representing the Chicano Mexican community of Plisen, Chicago. However, this community didn't like Marisol all that much, because of a passage in her book (about leaving Plisen for the suburbs) saying that Plisen was 'dangerous' and had no places to play. This led to physical protests outside the American Girl store in Chicago, and while Marisol stayed Girl of the Year until year's end, book author Gary Soto retired from children's literature after the controversy. Gwen Thompson The controversy surrounding Gwen Thompson, a friend doll to 2009 Girl of the Year Chrissa Maxwell, can be summed up in a few words. "$95 Homeless Doll". While Gwen wasn't homeless per say, she was living in a homeless shelter during Chrissa's first book, and eventually moved into an apartment. It was mentioned that Gwen lived in her mom's car at one point, too. Because of the price of the doll and the story, people described Gwen as 'dubious' and made a big deal about her, and the controversy caused AG to shy away from tackling bigger issues in the early 2010s.

After the runaway billion dollar success of the Barbie doll movie, people have been talking about what Mattel toys will hit the big screen next. There are various projects based on Mattel toys that are under development, but ones further along in development include Polly Pocket, Barney and even Uno. Yet, five years after it's initial announcement and four and a half years after it was confirmed, we haven't gotten any word on MGM and Picturestart's adaptation of the American Girl doll. An article in the New Yorker published around the time of the Barbie movie's release last month confirmed that scripts for the American Girl movie are in development (but they have taken a pause due to the Hollywood writers strike). However, we haven't had the name of a writer, actor, director, or any talent attached to this movie like the Polly Pocket and Barney movies have gotten announced. And all I have to say is this. What about Polly Pocket makes it more interesting to make a Polly Pocket movie before an American Girl movie? What about a freaking purple dinosaur makes it more interesting to make a Barney movie before an American Girl movie? There's one reason why American Girl is the Mattel toy most deserving of a movie, and it's pretty simple. American Girl dolls already have had stories. They have had movies, most recently Corinne's movie that just came out on Amazon Prime, but the thing is with American Girl dolls, every one has a story. Every one (not counting Truly Me and collectors editions) has a name, time period, interests, friends, challenges that she goes through, and we all know and love these stories and know everything about them. The accessories and clothes relate to the doll's interests and events from their books, so we are used to playing out those stories. Unlike Barbie (don't get me wrong, what they did with Barbie was great), there is a known story to American Girl dolls, with more depth than just a career or a label slapped on to a Barbie. So if Mattel turned a movie about Barbie into a well-reviewed box office hit, I can only imagine what could happen if the American Girl movie hones into those backstories and uses them to enrich an amazing feature film.

I went to the American Girl store in Nashville today since I'm moving into college tomorrow, and I figured I'd share my pictures of all the displays!

Yesterday is August 15, the day that American Girl likes to commemorate as Kaya's birthday. I thought my blog would automatically post for it since I programmed it for all of the dolls's birthdays, but for some reason Kaya's didn't go through! I feel so bad for Kaya, because I love her, but to celebrate a day later, here's some fun facts about Kaya and her birthday! Kaya'aton'my is Kaya's full name. In Nimiipuu, the name of Kaya's Native American tribe, it means 'She Who Arranges Rocks'. Since Kaya's story is set before European settlers colonized the part of America she lived on, Kaya doesn't live in a specific state. The present day Nimiipuu, or Nez Perce, people currently live on a reservation in Idaho, but they lived across the entire Pacific Northwest region before colonization. In accordance to the Nimiipuu tribal custom of not showing your teeth when you smile, Kaya's mold was customly sculpted to have her mouth closed. Development of Kaya, who was released in 2002, started in 1997, five years before her release. This was the last doll to be worked on by Pleasant Rowland before she retired from American Girl in 2000. Kaya was the first American Girl doll to break from the standard naming custom for Central Series books. Kaya's designated birthday, August 15, was also the day in 2002 that the doll and her collection was presented to the Nez Perce tribe.