OVERVIEW: Girlhood Journeys

Juliet and Shannon

The mid-90s brought us the small Girlhood Journeys line. They're a historical-themed line of 14" dolls that have mostly soft bodies that end in vinyl arms and legs. The soft body goes down to about the bicep and mid-thigh, then turns into the vinyl limb. It makes them floppy and unable to stand on their own, but also pretty huggable.

Ertl produced four dolls for the line and each had a set of 3 books.

Juliet's books take place in 1339-1340 England. She's a lovely doll and probably my favorite character from the line.

Shannon, shown with Juliet in the photo here, is from 1880's San Francisco. I had to use this old picture to get a shot of Shannon in here. She was actually the first doll I got from the line and even though I bought her boxed, her face was all sticky and had odd dark spots on it. I ended up donating her before we moved and have never replaced her. Maybe someday! She's the least attractive of the four dolls though, so maybe not.

Kai

Kai is from Africa in 1440. She's a really awesome doll with great hair.

And Marie is from 1775 France. She's so gorgeous. She's actually my favorite doll from the line, though Juliet is my favorite character. I think. It's actually been a bit since I reread the books!

Marie

There is actually one more book. Isabella is the fifth character, a girl from Peru in 1820. She never got her other two books or her doll produced, sadly. And what's driving me crazy right now is that I know I saw a prototype image of the doll years ago and I can't find it now! I only ever did one LJ entry mentioning these girls, which amusingly says I'd only ever want Juliet. It was written in 2008 and I ended up with all four dolls in 2011. Heh. How my mind changes. But I know I saw that picture and I apparently didn't save it anywhere. Argh.

Anyway, Girlhood Journeys is a pretty low-cost line to collect. You can get the books quite cheap and the dolls usually run $30 or less even boxed.

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine.