American Girl Introduction

I'm starting my series of American Girl posts this way just as a sort of introduction to what I'll be doing. For anyone who is unaware, American Girl has so many doll lines now that if I were to try to write about all of them in one post I'd be working on that post for about six months... and it would take you about that long to read it. When I was sitting down to figure out what posts I was planning on doing for this blog (since I'm trying to get back to actually writing... I looked at the date my last post was published and just hung my head) I kept having to come back to add more to the AG series, since I kept forgetting about the different doll lines!

I'm going to cover all currently active lines. So older lines like the Hopscotch Hill Girls or the AG Minis or Girls of Many Lands or Bitty Twins will not be covered (well, Bitty Twins will more than likely get more than a mention in the Bitty Baby review but not a review of their own.) While most of the Contemporary line is scheduled for retirement, at the time I'm writing this they're still currently active so I'm going to get to them before year end.

If you're one of those people who are so familiar with the history of American Girl that you can recite it in your sleep, then you can stop reading here. This next bit is for those new collectors, or the parents whose kids just said "I just found these really cool dolls online and I want one" and would like to know what in the world they're getting into.

The world of eighteen inch dolls is pretty vast at this point. Everybody has their own lines, and everyone has their own preferences. There's American Girls here in the United States (and while they will ship to other countries there are no stores in other countries except for like two in Canada) Our Generation dolls at Target, My Life As dolls at Walmart, Maplelea dolls in Canada, Journey Girls in the now defunct Toys R Us, the eighteen inch My Twinn line (which is also no more) and... well there's many options. And I'll get to the "but why American Girl" question in the individual reviews, but unlike the rest of the above list (well, except for Maplelea) it's impossible to refer to American Girl as anything but American Girl. American Girl has become its own entity, its own crazy world, and it can be hard to navigate if you're new.

Pleasant Rowland started Pleasant Company in 1986, with the mission of teaching children, and girls in particular, about history in a way they could identify with. Pleasant Company (the American Girl Collection) launched with three dolls: Molly, Samantha, and Kirsten. In 2018 Molly and Kirsten are retired (although rumor has it that Molly may be getting a rerelease in 2019!) and Samantha has been retired, brought back, and partially retired or "cubed" (meaning they only sell the doll, accessories, and books in stores) again. The oldest dolls have white muslin bodies and are typically called "white body" dolls. They typically carry a slightly heavier price tag since they're easily identified as older and rarer, and some dolls (and these come with VERY hefty price tags) are even signed by Pleasant herself.

When Felicity was released in the early 90s, there was a dilemma. Historically, Felicity's clothes would have had lower necklines that, on a doll, would reveal the difference in the body and the vinyl skin. But they couldn't just have one doll with a tan body and the rest with white bodies, so they made all the bodies tan. Pleasant Company later released Addy and Josefina. 1995 saw the release of the "American Girl of Today" line (which has gone by many names, such as Just Like You and My American Girl but in 2018 is known as Truly Me) which were modern girls, whose story was left up to the girl to create: they even included blank books with the doll for girls to write in.

In 2000 the company was purchased by Mattel (the purchase began in 1998 but wasn't completed until 2000) but Pleasant supposedly had a heavy hand in creating the next two characters released: Kit and Kaya. In 2001 American Girl began the contemporary "Girl of the Year" line, starting with Lindsey Bergman, which still continues into 2018. In 2004, American Girl began releasing "best friend" dolls, or companion dolls to the already existing historical characters made from a character in their books.

The best friend dolls are now retired, and many of the historical characters have either been retired outright or are "cubed," leaving the longest running character (with a full collection) as Josefina. Both the Girl of the Year line (often abbreviated as GOTY) and the modern "pick your own character" line, which began as "American Girl of Today" and is now called "Truly Me" still survive.

Bitty Baby has been around since 1995 (earlier incarnations were Our New Baby and are highly sought after among collectors) and used to come with a little five inch bear called Bitty Bear. The older babies have somewhat softer face paint than the newer babies (which have distinct eyebrows) but are generally unchanged.

The WellieWishers are new dolls, and are smaller at 14.5 inches, and designed with the same age range as Bitty Baby (younger girls) in mind. They don't have cloth bodies but are still not designed to get wet!

And there you have it! My crash course on "what in the world is American Girl?" Hopefully you know what you're getting yourself into (or what your child is getting you into...) or at least have a better idea. It can be overwhelming to walk into an American Girl store for the first time (just ask an associate to explain the layout and everything will be fine.) If you're online only, it can be easier to find things, but you often might not know what you're looking at! Hopefully this crash course helps.