American Girl Doll News

In American Girl's newest catalog, I noticed a unfamiliar doll. She was in the display with the Trundle Bed And Bedding with one of the Dolls Without Hair. Could this just be the lighting, or is this Truly Me #67? The doll is so pretty! She looks like a custom doll. If she is a future doll, than I will get her. Here's a comparison between this new doll and Just Like You #65 to see if she is a unique doll. The dolls have the same hair part, but it looks like #67's hair is brown instead of red. Yep, different doll. AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: Melody's the only doll to have her books released before the doll so far. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Have you watched Mermaid Cove by Basilmentos or/and Wildwood by Rockstar13studios yet? If so, what did you think! MY ANSWER: I watched Mermaid Cove and loved it! Wildwood has a couple more hours until it's released at the time of this post, but I'm watching it tomorrow morning. I'll let you guys know what I thought!

Today, I got Melody's Bedroom Accessories from the American Girl store. And let me just say this, all of the pieces were eh. Except for one. The radio. IT ACTUALLY PICKS UP STATIONS! But the problem is, since I live in a small-ish town, there's not that many stations to choose. I only get a couple from the city. These are the list of channels I get on Melody's radio: A boring talk station (three times!) A pop station (YAY!) A opera station (UGH!) A EDM station (in bad quality, ugh!) Kiss 95.1 (YASS!) A rock station (twice, not my taste) A station in so bad quality that I couldn't tell the genre A Christian station Another bad quality station A oldies station A station in commercial Another rock station A football station A station in Spanish Another country station YAY! A pop station! There's only 16 stations, and only a couple are good! So, here's the way to get more stations on Melody's radio (or any radio, for that matter) Here's the one easy trick to get more stations: PUT THE RADIO ON TOP OF SOMETHING! I put it on top of a sideways tissue box. Here's the list of stations I got after I did this trick: A opera station A pop station A opera station (AGAIN) A country station Another pop station A rock station Kiss 95.1 Another pop station A station in commercial Another pop station A sports station Another rock station Another opera station A rap station A R&B station A oldies station Another country station Another oldies station A Spanish station A talk station Another pop station This simple trick got me 5 extra stations! AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: The winner of Best Accessory from American Girl (according to us) is Melody's radio! COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: What type of music do you like best? MY ANSWER: EDM.

We all know that American Girl has been repeating old ideas lately. One reason why is because they are just lazy. Maybe aliens abducted the American Girl headquarters or something? But the most logical reason is that all of the target-age American Girl fans answer boring, uncreative answers to American Girl's polls and stuff. When American Girl thinks up doll ideas 3 or 4 years before they actually come out, they look at those and see that "Oh! Girls like international travel. Girls like the Olympics. Girls like animals. So let's kill three birds with one stone and create Lea! We're obviously copying Jess! How brilliant are we?" So I came up with an method for us to share our ideas of dolls with American Girl! It might not be until 2019 or 2020 that our ideas hit the shelves, but hey- the future is better than nothing, right? Method 1: Participate in American Girl's Weekly Polls on the Play page. On American Girl's Play page, they release a Weekly Poll every Thursday. Click on the answer that you want a future GOTY to have, and try to get other people to vote for that, too! I selected "Using new school supplies". It's about time American Girl makes a doll who's main hobby is math or something! See how all the 8/9 year old target girls click the same old answers? If I didn't cook up this master plan, we'd get another cliché friendship plot! Proof that this works from the Wayback Machine circa January 16 2013: This poll made Lea like photography! Method 2: Submit answers to the "You Said It!" column on American Girl's magazine page. It would be so cool if a GOTY had a fox as a pet! Proof that this works from the Wayback Machine circa April 13, 2012: Look at Addi from Kansas' answer. Do you know why Grace loves baking? This! That's all you need to do to make your voice heard by AG! AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: American Girl donated the excess Lindsey dolls to charity. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Do you think this will work?

If you guessed me, than congrats! You are CORRECT! I GOT SONALI EEP EEK! So, how in the world did I end up with Sonali? She costs an arm and a leg on eBay! So, here's the story of Sonali: Early in the summer, my mom and dad decided on a behavior program for my school year. If you are new to this blog and have no clue, then I have Asperger's syndrome, which makes me sometimes stress out about little things and make them big things. My parents said that if I did good in middle school (good days all month), then I would get a doll per month. It sounds like a lot, but if I don't have motivation I do bad things. Later in the summer, my Dad found a listing for American Girl dolls on the same bargain Facebook page that I got my Samantha doll from. It was a mother of a teenager that had 8 American Girl dolls she wanted to sell. They were $75 each and they had no idea what dolls they were. Dad didn't know either. So he FaceTimed me. I declined twice because I was in the middle of reading a Kaya book. The third time, I gave in. He said, "A lady on Facebook is selling some AG dolls. I texted you the images if there's any dolls you want." I went on the Messages app and saw the 8 dolls. They were Lanie, Julie, Chrissa, Truly Me #23, Truly Me #56, Truly Me #35, and.... GWEN + SONALI!!! I said, "OMG TWO OF THE RAREST AMERICAN GIRL DOLLS ARE IN THIS!" Dad said, "OK! I'll get you the dolls! But you have to wait to get them for the dolls a month program." I was so happy! I quickly took a shower, threw on some pajamas and went to a local restaurant with Dad to pick up Sonali and Gwen. I was so happy when I received a Forever 21 bag with Gwen and Sonali in them. I looked through the bag during the car ride home, and I was so happy. When I got home, Mom put the two dolls in a closet to wait. Fast forward to this week. This week had some tough times, so on Wednesday morning Mom said, "If you make it through this week, than you can get your favorite doll out of the dolls-in-waiting early!" I was so happy. I made it through the week, obviously. So welcome Sonali Matthews to the family! Doll #35! AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: The world record for American Girl doll collecting is at least 150 dolls. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: How many dolls do you have? MY ANSWER: 35! 36 if you count Gwen-in-waiting.

I made a social network completely dedicated to American Girl dolls! Click here to join.

American Girl is heading to Toys R Us! American Girl has started selling Wellie Wisher dolls and accessories at all of the Toys R Us toy stores in the United States of America. But that's not all. 97 Toys R Us stores will have a American Girl "store-within-store" that will sell Wellie Wisher dolls and Truly Me dolls only by the end of October 2016. BeForever dolls, the Girl of the Year, the upcoming contemporary characters and Bitty Baby dolls will not be sold at the mini stores. No doll hair salons or bistros will be there, also. More "stores-within-stores" will open in 2017. Katy Dickson, the President of American Girl said this about the new stores: "Partnering with a top retailer like Toys R Us allows us to meet our customers where and when they want to shop and to take our timeless life lessons to even more girls." That's exactly why this could be good for American Girl. I see that in 2017, American Girl will be about expanding to other girls who can't get to the dolls. In May, when American Girl announced the "store of the future" in New York City to open in fall 2017, Racked.com said this about a possible American Girl 2017 revamp: "The new store fits in with a bigger brand refresh customers will notice in the coming year. “We’re evolving as a total brand," says (Wade) Opland (Senior Vice President of Retail for American Girl), "and this will be one expression of that."" I feel really optimistic about this move because it will give the American Girl experience to girls who are hours away from getting to a actual store. AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: Sonali and Gwen were the only time a Girl of the Year had a best friend, and any doll had two best friends. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: How far away is your nearest American Girl store? MY ANSWER: About 25 minutes away.

Hey guys! Today I am interviewing Laurie Calkhoven, an American Girl author. She has written The Traveler's Tricks: A Caroline Mystery and four of the discontinued Innerstar University series books. When I picked up the last copy of The Traveler's Tricks at Barnes And Noble, I knew I wanted to interview the author right away! The story was so hard to put down once dinner arrived because I read the majority of it in a restaurant waiting for dinner to come. Here's the codes to who says what: AGDN- Me LC- Laurie LC- Hi Sydney! What a great blog! I’m delighted to be a part of it. Thanks for interviewing me. Before I answer your questions, I wanted to tell you about a new book! It comes out on September 6, 2016, so you’re getting a sneak peek. Here’s the cover: I was absolutely thrilled to be a part of this celebration (with Erin Falligant and Carrie Anton) of American Girl dolls and their stories. This Ultimate Visual Guide covers all of the BeForever Dolls, the Girl of the Year Dolls (through 2016’s Lea), and the Truly Me dolls. This book is a great resource for anyone who loves American Girl dolls. It’s full of gorgeous photos and behind-the-scenes info. AGDN- Thanks for sharing this with us! This book seems like a good thing to read. However, I already have that book in my head after almost 3 years of studying American Girl history! LC- Now to answer your questions! AGDN- What did you like writing better- the Innerstar University books or The Traveler's Tricks, and how did you get introduced to American Girl? LC- I started writing for American Girl because I loved the books they published. I was writing children’s books, and I wanted to be a part of the work they did. I sent a resume with info about my books to the editors there. I didn’t break in at first, but I kept at it. I kept writing books for other publishers and sending my resume to American Girl. Eventually an editor called. They were just starting a new fiction series—INNERSTAR UNIVERSITY—and needed writers. I jumped at the chance. Writing the INNERSTAR UNIVERSITY books was a creative challenge. Working on my first book in that series (FORK IN THE TRAIL) meant learning a whole new way to tell stories—each book has more than 20 different endings. That was kind of like putting together a really hard jigsaw puzzle. Once I wrote the first one, I couldn’t wait to do more! At the same time, I’ve always loved history. I’ve written a number of historical novels in my own BOYS OF WARTIME series and I love mysteries, too. So I welcomed the chance to write a mystery starring Caroline Abbott, the character who lived during the war of 1812. I read all the Caroline books by Kathleen Ernst to get ready. I wanted to know all about Caroline and her friends and family before I got started. I also read about the town she lived in and what was going on around her at the time. I discovered that a stage coach route had just opened up between Sackets Harbor, where Caroline lived, and Albany. Today you could make that drive in a car in a few hours. Back then, the stage coach took three days! I thought a stage coach journey would be a really fun place to set a mystery. And it was! AGDN- Do you have a favorite BeForever character? If you do, than who? LC- I don’t have ONE favorite BeForever character, although I do have a soft spot for Caroline since I’ve written about her. Kirsten’s stories remind me of the tales my Dutch grandmother told about sailing to America and traveling across the country (to Iowa in her case) to build a new life with her family. And I grew up in the 1970s, so Julie Albright is a favorite, too. AGDN- Do you ever want to write for American Girl again? LC- I hope to write many more books for American Girl in the future. It’s a wonderful way to connect with smart, passionate readers like you. Thanks again for thinking of me and asking me to participate on your blog. Thanks Laurie for letting me interview you! AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: Innerstar University was both a choose-your-own-ending book series and a online game. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: What is your favorite BeForever Mystery? MY ANSWER: Either The Traveler's Tricks or The Finders-Keepers Rule (Maryellen).

Kailey sent in her pictures for the Melody Release Team from her local store, Houston. Please do not reuse these pictures without Kailey's permission. Thanks! This is a photo of two Melody dolls in her bed and her table and chairs. This is a display of a Melody doll with her microphone and piano. This display reminds me of the cover of the book "Never Stop Singing". Meet outfits for girls! I won't get it for myself because the top and skirt clash. A lot. Here's the craft table for Melody's Summer Block Party! The events weren't going on when I went to my local store, Charlotte, so I didn't get to take pictures of the craft table. Melody's whole collection! It looks like there were quite a few Melodys sold. Melody's microphone set and accessories, featuring terrible lighting! I know it's not Kailey's fault. It's the AG store's fault. Melody's awesome recording studio! Featuring Addy's only section of the store and a random dad who had no clue he'd be on AGDN. The FOOD TABLE! My Kit doll's dream! THE FOOD TABLE! Plus, the server had AGDN-awareness! Hooray! A photo for the Lift Your Voice campaign. Last, but not least, Melody's bedtime set! Thanks for these photos from the Houston store, Kailey! I will post my photos from the Charlotte store later this week. It's hard getting photos off my phone. AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: Addy has been around for the longest time out of the BeForever dolls without being archived- twenty three years in September. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Who is your least favorite doll? MY ANSWER: Nobody! But I don't like how #22 and #27 are almost identical.

In non-related news, today I start school! (insert school name here), watch out for Sydney Jean! OK, we can get to the point of this post now. On Amazon, mini dolls have been listed for Girl of the Year 2017 and Contemporary Character 1! Turns out the "MG" series by Kellen Hertz is actually for a doll! Here's the cliché description for GOTY 2017's mini doll: "This 6-inch mini doll brings Girl of the Year 2017's world to life on a smaller scale. She arrives wearing her signature outfit inspired by her stories. Plus, she comes with a miniature-abridged version of the first book in her series." And another one for Contemporary Character 2017: "This 6-inch mini doll brings Contemporary Character 1's world to life on a smaller scale. She arrives wearing an outfit inspired by her stories. Plus, she comes with a miniature abridged version of the first book in her series." AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: While Isabelle's series is about her performing arts school, she's never shown taking in regular classes like reading, math, etc. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: What doll are you more excited about: GOTY 2017 or Contemporary Character One? MY ANSWER: I can't wait to see GOTY 2017's collection, but I wonder who the Contemporary Character will be! Is it Z from Z Crew like proven? #Tenney #Gabriela

Today is the last day of summer for me! My eighty days of dolls all day have now came to an end. I am starting sixth grade, which is middle school in my area. School ends way later than it did in elementary school, so I will have less time. So, I will be posting less often. My YouTube channel, SM Network will be my main priority, and then American Girl Doll News. So, here's my weekday schedule: I usually get up at 5:30 AM, so... 5:30-6:30: Free time! 6:30-7:15: Get ready for school 7:15-7:30ish: Leave for school 7:30-7:45: Drop my sister off for her high school 7:45-8:00: Wait for the doors to school to open 8:00-3:45: School! Around 3:50- I come home 3:50-4:30 (most likely, judging from last school year): Homework 4:30-5:00: Free time! 5:00-6:00: Dinner 6:00-8:45: Free time! 8:45: Go to bed As you can see, I only have 3 hours and a quarter of free time every day. The first window will be dedicated to this site and getting ready for filming after school, and then I will use the other 2 for filming and outdoor play. And maybe another time for this blog if I can fit it in. I will be posting only when there's a leak or news, and the Hump Day Shoutout every Wednesday. if we go a week without a leak, than I will post something else on a random day. With that being said, I will post at least twice a week. Have a great school year! Make sure to accept people for who they are! AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: Happy two year anniversary to BeForever and Samantha getting out of the archives! COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Have you started school yet? If you haven't, when do you start school? MY ANSWER: No, but I will start tomorrow.

One year ago today, the one and only Maryellen Larkin came out! It's also been one year since I got my very own Maryellen! Dad had to go to the debut for me because of school. Here's the video of me opening Maryellen! I advise you to turn the volume down, I was very excited and loud that day. AMERICAN GIRL TRIVIA: It has been confirmed by various news sources that Melody's Amazon Prime special starring Marsai Martin is called Melody: 1963: Love Has To Win- An American Girl Story. COMMENT DISCUSSION QUESTION: Do you like Maryellen or Melody better? MY ANSWER: It's hard to choose!

A 360 degree look at my newest doll, Melody!