All-American American Girl

the history of America's most historically accurate dolls

Welcome back to another week of history class. You’re never really too old to play with dolls, and American Girl/the Pleasant Company, named after founder Pleasant T. Rowland, has made sure of that. Today, I’m going to tell you about my favorite childhood toy that actually still exists: the American Girl doll. I’m focusing on the historical doll line, characters centered around different historical periods and events, and their books, clothes, and accessories. For those of you that may not be familiar with my historical background, I am a history major at University of California, San Diego with an emphasis on pop culture. I’m working on a thesis about Sesame Street (this will be a future episode), and children’s media is my historical strong suit. So sit down and stop talking because the bell is about to ring.

The Pleasant Company founded the American Girl line in 1986. There were originally only three dolls: Kirsten (a Swedish immigrant in the prairie Midwest), Samantha (a wealthy girl in suburban New York during the end of the child labor years), and Molly (her dad is an army doctor during World War II stationed in England, she lives in Illinois). In fact, the idea for historical dolls actually came from a visit to Colonial Williamsburg. For those of you that don’t know me personally, I LOVE Colonial Williamsburg. It’s worth the trip. Anyway, Mattel bought the Pleasant company in 1998, but not a ton of changes were made. For the most part, I’m going to go through the more influential historical dolls and talk about their histories and backgrounds. The chosen dolls will be presented in chronological order of their timeline. For example, I’ll talk about Kaya, the Native American doll, before I talk about Kirsten even though Kirsten came first. For most of the historical dolls, their creation was dependent on advisory boards made up of several representatives. Advisory boards helped develop the characters and advise their book authors on proper representation. On average, historical dolls take three years to create.

Kaya, short for Kaya’aton’my meaning she who arranges rocks, is part of the Nez Perce tribe located in the northwest. Her stories take place after European settlement and colonization in the area, but before the land was completely taken over. This is demonstrated due to the fact that many of Kaya’s experiences rely on horses, something the Spanish brought to American in the fifteenth century. Her grandmother also has pockmarks on her face reminiscent of those left by smallpox, another fun gift the Europeans brought with them. Kaya’s advisory board had an anthropology professor, a Yakama tribal member and museum curator, a representative from the Colville Confederated Tribes, a former Nez Perce language assistant, a park ranger and interpreter at Nez Perce National Historical Park, an arts coordinator for the Nez Perce tribe, and two Nez Perce tribal elders. The board was responsible for Kaya’s stories being devoid of European intervention. The goal was to create a character and story that showed Nez Perce culture at its prime. Kaya taught a lot of kids about Native American history, even if unknowingly. I never read her books because I got the doll when I was too young to really take them in, but her physical being taught enough. Her clothes were meant to mimic the traditional deerskin worn by the Nez Perce people. She came with accessories that were equally accurate, like a porcupine quill necklace. Kaya’s collection was always smaller than the other dolls, but in part that comes from her life being drastically different from any other character (many sets are designed around Christmas, school, and birthdays). Kaya was released in 2002, and continues to teach young children about precolonial Native American history.

Up next we have Felicity. Her whole thing is that she loves horses (like all 10 year old girls do) and is living in Williamsburg, Virginia during colonial times. She works in her father’s store, and sometimes overhears crazy things about the British plans. She goes to lessons to learn calligraphy, how to serve tea, and embroidery. Her best friend is from England which sometimes makes things tense for her. In all honesty, despite being super popular, I think Felicity is super boring. Felicity was release in 1991 and been on again off again released since. No more time will be spent on her. Sorry horse girls, Kaya’s cooler.

Josefina is a pretty cool one. She, like Kaya, demonstrates a different lifestyle than many of the other characters. Her stories take place in New Mexico while the state was still Mexican territory. Her mother died before her story begins. She has three sisters, a father, an aunt, and some goats who fill up her house. A lot of her stories use Spanish words throughout which is cool. I think the assumption is that she would not speak English at all, but think of the audience. All of her books were also released entirely in Spanish, specifically the style that would have been spoken during the period when her stories take place. Her advisory board contained a professor at New Mexico State University, a professor of history at University of Arizona, an archivist as the New Mexico Records Center and Archives, two museum curators, a professor of Spanish at University of New Mexico, a research librarian, and a historian. While Felicity’s stories also take place when the location wasn’t technically modern America, I find Josefina’s stories line up much more with Kaya’s. Family culture and expectations are drastically different in Josefina and Kaya’s stories than Felicities. They both reflect a time before modern America, specifically pre-colonization, in ways appropriate to children, making them unique not only to the American Girl line, but to dolls everywhere. Josefina was released in 1992 and continues to teach children how to say “cookie” in Spanish.

Kirsten, one of the original dolls, is somehow both super boring and super cool. I never really got into Kirsten, but she also went through a lot for a fictional character meant for children. In her first book, her best friend dies during the journey from Sweden to America. Then she settles in the middle of nowhere Minnesota in 1854 with other Swedish immigrants. As a whole, her story teaches kids about immigration and starting new in a completely different environment. That being said, it’s all just done in a really boring way. Like Felicity, she’s boring, but unlike Felicity, she doesn’t have the fans. Kirsten is no longer available for general purchase (a special anniversary edition can be found), probably because she’s so boring.

Arguably the best and most influential American Girl doll is Addy. Her storyline is absolutely insane, but really well done. The first book opens with Addy as an enslaved person with her family in the south. In 1864, she and her mother flee the plantation and settle in Philadelphia. Her father and brother were sold to a different plantation. Her baby sister had to be left with family. Addy’s main plot is to see her family reunited. In the second book, she learns how to read and wins the school spelling bee. She is the only person in her family who can read, and when she (spoiler alert) eventually is reunited with her father, he cries seeing her ability. She gets reunited with her brother and sister too. Her brother lost an arm serving in the army during the Civil War. Her sister is brought by her Aunt, who dies shortly after. Addy also faces racism in every book. Despite all the tragedy, Addy’s story is really a story of hope and persistence. She somehow always turns things around. When confronted with not knowing her true birthday, something very common among the formerly enslaved, she’s motivated to pick her own. She chooses the day the Civil War ends to celebrate not only her birthday but that her entire family is now free. In an educational sense, readers learn about methods people used to find the formerly enslaved and get reunited. I reread her books recently and they hold up. They’re by far the best. Addy’s advisory board includes a director of Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, a producer of the Atlanta Third World Film Festival, a professor of African American and Public history at George Mason University (also a curator and Smithsonian historian), a researcher of multicultural literature, a historian of American slavery, a former expert of the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Ohio, and a librarian from Howard University. The choice to start Addy’s story with slavery was deliberate. The board felt that Black history could not be discussed in a recent sense if slavery were not addressed first. Addy’s hair is textured. She is the only doll to have this. It was actually a choice with deeper meaning than it seems; the board did not want the implication that Addy was the result rape, something many Black women faced during slavery. Since Addy, there have been three more Black historical American Girl Dolls. Two of them are newer and the third was only available for a few years. Addy was released in 1993 and is still part of the main line teaching kids that they truly can overcome all obstacles.

Samantha does not require much discussion. Compared to nearly every other doll, her life is pretty much perfect. She lives with her wealthy grandmother. Her struggle is helping a local girl who was a child laborer at a factory. Her books revolve around her recognition that factories aren’t all great and child labor is wrong. She also takes part in the suffragette movement briefly. Compared to all the stuff every other character has went through, Samantha just seems kind of flat. Can you really complain about how tormented you are when you chronologically come right after Addy? Samantha’s stories are fun and her collection is cool, but she just isn’t as interesting. Even Felicity and Kirsten had something. Samantha is still available, encouraging children everywhere that going to school actually isn’t so bad.

After Samantha comes Rebecca, American Girl’s first Jewish historical doll. I wanted to include her because I was actually around when she was released in 2009. I never found her stories that interesting, she wants to be a movie star and lives in New York City, but I liked that there was some representation. She speaks Yiddish which is also pretty cool. In doing my research for this, I realized that me and Rebecca kind of have a lot in common. A major plot point in one of her stories is that her teacher says Christmas is an American holiday for everyone. Rebecca, who obviously doesn’t celebrate Christmas is uncomfortable participating in the activities. If there is one person who gets it, it’s me. Additionally, Rebecca’s parents don’t want her to be an actor because that is not a respectful career option; they want her to be a teacher instead. My parents wouldn’t care, but this demonstrated a pretty legitimate depiction of Jewish familial ideals such as prioritizing education. Rebecca’s story does a pretty great job of explaining Jewish culture and the struggle of assimilation. It’s nice to see your holidays and traditions recognized somewhere. Many of Rebecca’s accessories involve Judaism too, she even has a mini menorah. Luckily for Jewish kids out there, Rebecca is still available to teach all the non-Jews that Christmas is NOT an American holiday.

Next up we have Kit, short for Margaret Mildred Kittredge. Her story takes place in the heart of the Great Depression in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her house is turned into a boardinghouse so the family doesn’t get evicted, which Kit hates. She wants to be a journalist, and writes a house newspaper for the boarders. In one book, she sees her father eating at a soup kitchen while she’s volunteering. This in turn puts her entire experience into perspective. From that point, she becomes even more resourceful and in some ways her attitude changes. She also has a really great movie that I used to watch with my mom all the time. Kit’s pretty straightforward, but it’s not often you see a doll that comes with an understanding of the economic state of America. Released in 2000, Kit is still available to teach kids how to make dresses and bloomers out of chicken feed sacks.

Last but not least, we have Molly. Molly’s dad is an army doctor stationed in England who is not physically present in any of the books, though it is announced he is coming home in the last book of the series. At one point in the series, an English girl named Emily comes to live with Molly and her family for a few weeks. Emily experienced bombings, her dog died in one, and does not find Molly’s jokes about the war amusing. While Molly finds her presence initially annoying, she learns about what war is actually like and becomes more sensitive to the situation. Like all the other American Girl books, Molly’s series does a great job in the details. For Molly’s birthday, she mentions that the housekeeper has saved up enough rations of sugar to make a dairy and egg free cake with chocolate frosting. Yum! Molly also wears glasses (nerd) and loves tap dancing. Molly is still available to teach kids about how chocolate cake is way better than lemon tarts.

The dolls I talked about are not the entire list of historical dolls. Here are the ones I skipped (dolls in bold were introduced after I was over 15 and are too new to be interesting):

Caroline - War of 1812

Cécile and Marie-Grace - 1850s, New Orleans

Claudie - 1920s

Nanea - World War II in Hawaii

Maryellen - 1950s, space age

Melody - 1960s, civil rights

Julie - 1970s, divorce

Courtney - 1980s

Nicki and Isabel - 1999

All of the existing dolls have been remodeled into Beforever, which kind of ruins the vibe. They also all got new books, which I haven’t read, but I doubt they’ll top the originals. I did not consider any of the dolls that were introduced in only Beforever format.

To conclude, American Girl dolls can be credited for getting me into history. I had Kaya (I liked her hair), Cécile (I liked her hair), and Kanani (a girl of the year my ex grandma got me even though my mom said no). I can credit these dolls to getting me into history. What suburban white eight year old knows what camas root is if not from having Kaya? It’s also nice to know these dolls were well researched. From my own experience I can say it was nice having a doll representative of my culture. American Girl is evolving and isn’t the same as it was when I was into it, but their dolls still speak for themselves and teach children, especially young girls, how much they’re really capable of. If there’s a doll brand that’s a good role model, it’s this one. I’m anxiously awaiting the day an American Girl doll themed around post-2003 comes out and then I’m really too old to still be talking about it, but until then Kaya, Cécile, and Kanani sleep peacefully in my closet until I randomly decide to fix their hair over winter break. This show is really just to say American Girl is awesome. I hope they keep doing what they’re doing.

1. “Rich Girl” by Gwen Stefani

2. “When I Go Low I Get High” by Ella Fitzgerald

3. “La Camisa Negra” by Juanes

4. “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone

5. “Waterloo” by ABBA

6. “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke

7. “Ladyfingers” Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass

8. “Piano Man” by Billy Joel

9. “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi

10. The National Anthem - Jimi Hendrix version