American Girl Doll News

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.

American Girl has extended their trademarks for these two names that have been trademarked years ago and are still unused. This means they are still intending to use these names in the future: Emsley (trademarked in 2023) has been extended for a second time. Avey (trademarked in 2021) has been extended for a fourth time. In related news, Trilby (trademarked in 2021) has been abandoned, as well as Fahari (trademarked in 2020) and Aracely (trademarked in 2020).

Today is Claudie's birthday! She was born this day in 1913, making her 112.

Who will be the Doll of the Month for May 2025 - Julie Albright, Nicki Fleming, or Blaire Wilson?

With excess tariffs on the horizon, affecting all sectors of products in the supply chain, it is a foregone conclusion that sooner rather than later, prices for American Girl are going to go up. I'll try not to get too political here, as I try to not do it here, but it is important to note that these unnecessary tariffs will hurt so many small businesses and everyday American people. It already has hurt the small doll brand Jilly Bing, which focuses on Asian American dolls, and I can imagine it hurting so many other small businesses that create products for our dolls, from clothing to wigs to accessories. Big companies like Mattel will be affected, too, of course, but if they bend the knee to the current government, they could be rewarded - and bending the knee to this government isn't a great idea, considering their disregard of human rights. However, I was thinking about how American Girl could navigate this situation, as new $125 (soon to be way more!) dolls become increasingly out of reach for the average American family and become more of a luxury item. And I then remembered how I connected with American Girl on a deeper level when I was younger - through the books available at my local school library. I went to two elementary schools throughout my time as an American Girl fan - the first one, I was there for third and fourth grade, and the second one, I was there for fifth grade only. Both schools had a wide variety of American Girl books to choose from. The school I went to in fourth grade had a variety of classic American Girl stories, from Kit's tales of the Great Depression, to Addy's journey to freedom, to Felicity's navigation of the Revolutionary War, and so much more. When I had only one friend and a school principal who excessively punished me for my autistic traits, I used to lose myself in the American Girl books I was able to access for free at the school library. I'd go through one book in the matter of a school day or two, immediately borrow the next one, and go through as many as I could. When I switched to a more accepting school in fifth grade, that school had a different range of American Girl books - Kaya's, Kirsten's, and even some modern books like Mia's and Chrissa's. I consumed them with as much excitement as I did in fourth grade, and was able to have a deeper bond with my dolls. When it was time for me to graduate elementary school, I used the prize money I won at a film festival that year to buy the entire Girl of the Year book set, and I was pleasantly surprised when the middle school library had one American Girl book: Good Luck, Ivy. In 2025, American Girl can still be relevant, but it won't be in the "profitable" way Mattel wants it to be. The true value of American Girl in a time where basic necessities become out of reach, expensive dolls become a luxury item, where the idea of what means to be an American and our history and girlhood is under attack, is not within the dolls themselves, but the stories they all share. The stories that showcase girls through adversity, that educate girls about our country's past, that allow girls to enjoy reading and to feel seen and to learn about girls who don't share their background. The idea that the stories of American Girls, and American girlhood as a whole, is valued. And as many topics have become more "controversial", a history starting of Mattel bending to peer pressure and retiring books with queer representation, American Girl books becoming shorter, with less story, and books not even coming with dolls anymore, with corporate telling us that girls these days don't want to read and using that as an excuse to make less books - this all shows us that going back to the roots of American Girl - the stories - is how American Girl will stay relevant, weather this storm, and teach girls that they too, can be heroes, in an era where women are being under attack. And I'll start the conversation here on my blog. Every week, on Fridays, I'll start a new feature where we are able to talk about a specific American Girl book, and how the historical message relates to girls today. We'll start from the beginning. Meet Samantha. I'll see you then!

Today is Julie’s birthday! She was born this day in 1966, making her 59.

From now until May 17, American Girl is having double rewards points on all purchases - including new releases!