OVERVIEW: American Girl

Ivy when I first brought her home.

 American Girl is a pretty big topic, but thankfully, I've written about it before in my VVD Livejournal, so I've got the framework already and don't have to go crazy digging up info.

I loved AG from the moment it came out, but expensive dolls weren't something my family could afford. So my first AG was an original Molly that I'm pretty sure was purchased by my grandmother. I had her, the dog and her green Christmas dress, but I thought Samantha was pretty well-dressed and got her burgundy Christmas dress and nightgown for Molly, too. I had no trouble deciding on Molly out of the original trio. I never liked blondes as much and Kirsten's hair looked not fun, so she was a no and I loved that Molly wore glasses like I did, so she was it, although Samantha was pretty. Samantha was like the It Doll. Everyone I knew that had an AG had Sam. I played with Molly some, but never bonded with her, as I preferred dolls I could play with without fear of ruining the expensive doll. I ended up selling my entire childhood collection to get some extra money before moving to NYC for my second grad program.

Felicity and Nellie

One thing I did always keep up with though was the books. I read a lot of them from the library, but eventually got them all used on ebay, I think. I had all the boxed sets, except only 1-3 of Josefina's for some reason. Then I got all the collected hardcover editions and ended up selling my boxed sets last year or so. I finally realized that I didn't need the boxed collections anymore, as long as I had the hardcovers. I have all the historical AG books, the short stories, the mysteries, all of it. I've been slowly rereading and reviewing them all on my book blog:
http://redblackandwhitebookreviews.blogspot.com/

Julie at American Girl Place in New York City

When I got to NYC, I still had a healthy love for AG. I would get the catalogs periodically over the years and had watched all the new characters come out. I loved a lot of the dolls, but not enough to buy another one, because they never quite captured the characters for me. A lot of the dolls look much younger than their 9-11 book ages.

In 2007, the first year I was in the city, I decided to visit American Girl Place. I wanted to see all the dolls in person and look at the displays. Julie was out at that point and I wanted to see if there was a mini Ivy doll yet, even though I was pretty sure there wasn't. Well, I went in and my breath was taken away. The store is gorgeous and has amazing displays. A lot of them are practically like museum displays. I asked about the Ivy mini, was told there were no plans for one that they knew of, and ended up going home with 18" Ivy. I quickly sold off her ugly Meet outfit and put her in the pretty blue pajamas she wears in that first picture up there. I love my Ivy doll, but she's not one of the big personalities in my group.

Samantha in modern clothes

In February 2008, I was back at AGPNY again with plans to buy two dolls, since I had done well with sales. I knew Nellie would be one of them, but I debated quite awhile on the second until I finally chose Felicity. Lissie is one of my fave characters, so she was a good choice. Sadly, they were sold out of her blue Christmas gown, so she got one of Elizabeth's outfits instead, which suits her better than Elizabeth, I think. Nellie had some lavender PJs and eventually got Elizabeth's blue tea gown. All of these items would eventually be sold off. I hung onto Lissie the longest and she's the only one I really regret selling. Someday I'll get another Felicity.

A month later, I went to AGP again and bought Samantha this time. Whenever I reread Sam's books, I want Sam's doll. Amusingly in the entry when I first got her, I praise her hair. It is nice and curly, but eventually how far back it sits got to me. Sam got stuck in this modern outfit, because I didn't care for hers and Elizabeth's tea gown, bought at the same time, suited Nellie better. Sam stayed in this the entire time I had her, which wasn't too long. Nellie and Sam were both gone by summer, because by then I'd gotten into Karito Kids and needed money to support that habit. Only Ivy and Felicity made the move from Brooklyn to Greenwich when I had to quickly relocate for my school job during the summer. (I got promoted a little early.)

Roslin (#30)

The Karito Kids took over my collecting life until October. I think I'd gotten all 6 of them by then. (I'm still mad that line ended so early, but that's another topic.) I asked around for suggestions on who to buy next and someone suggested #30, because she has the Ivy face but with longer hair. Well, that person (or persons) is a winner, because Roslin was exactly what I needed. She remains my favorite to this day. She inherited the black shirt from Samantha, paired with new capri pants and calf-high pewter-colored boots. She's also my AG mini me, although obviously not looks-wise. She likes monsters and small toys and 80s fantasy movies. And she's Ivy's older cousin.

Chrissa

In early January, I brought Chrissa home. She was my first Girl of the Year. I loved her movie, so I got the doll, but we did not bond. After her and Nellie, I was a bit wary of the Josefina mold on white dolls, because I didn't seem capable of bonding with them.

Roslin, being the strong personality she is, started having a say in which dolls I brought home. This little picfic from 2009 is pretty indicative of her personality:
http://veni-vidi-dolli.livejournal.com/347350.html
Yes, Chrissa was already gone in March. We really did not bond.

Molly #2

If you read that picfic, you already know who came next: Molly. Yeah, I missed Molly. A lot of people make fun of her character now, but she was my childhood favorite. The Mattel Molly is also way cuter than my poor childhood one was. My Molly is pretty much book Molly with less concerns, although her button is Samantha. She knows how much more popular Sam was when the first three originally came out. She knows and she does not like it. Although I did have fun with this when she found out I was planning on adding a Samantha to the collection and I got to tell Molly Sam had been archived. She was satisfied enough to allow her into the apartment. (I really did a lot of these photo conversations with my dolls back then.)

Kirsten

In April, entirely on a whim, I stopped at AGP on the way home from my internship and brought Kirsten home. I don't know why. I just decided I wanted her. It took me awhile to find something I liked on her (this random ebay outfit in the picture) and it took me little time to risk playing with her hair. Bad idea. Her hair is in an adorable style, but I suck at hair, so playing with it was a bad idea. I didn't bond with her, mostly because of the hair thing, and by June, she was sold.

SamNotSam (#16)

Around the same time as Kirsten, there was another new girl. I decided #16 would make a great Samantha, because she had the hair I preferred for the character. As luck would have it, a friend had her and she sold her to me. I got this fabulous knockoff outfit and totally anachronistic shoes on ebay and this is how she's looked ever since early 2009. She's far from my favorite (she actually ranks close to the bottom in my list of faves), but Sam is a very endearing character and every time I read her books, I want her doll, so this solves the problem. She's not going anywhere.

My beloved Julie

In June 2009, I finally bought Julie. If you look way back near the top of this entry, you'll see a photo I took at AGPNY of Julie back in 2008. That was how long it took me to think her over. I always thought she was lovely, but someone else was always the one brought home. Well, Julie finally made it home and she's been my #2 favorite after Ros ever since. She's had a few outfits, but Cecile's red number is what she's been in for ages now. Julie has broken the curse of the No White Girls with the Josefina Mold and I stopped being afraid to buy new ones after bonding so thoroughly with her.

Marie-Grace the incredibly beautiful

I liked the look of a lot of Marie-Grace and Cecile's collection and in November 2011, ended up with M-G, her green dress, Cecile's red dress and Cecile's purple and gold outfit (Roslin wore that for a long time). Marie-Grace has an absolutely stunning headmold that I wish they would use more often. Stop giving everyone the Josefina mold and give us more M-G!

Girl of the Year 2015 Grace

I've never been a huge fan of the Girl of the Year line. Chrissa sure didn't stay long and by the time I got into AG, both the ones I liked best (Jess and Lindsay) were more than I wanted to pay. But when Grace came out in 2015, she was so beautiful that I bought my first AG doll since Marie-Grace in 2011. She's not my favorite character books-wise and I honestly haven't even finished the 3rd one yet, but she is a gorgeous doll and that's saying something, because there were plenty of characters I liked in the books that I never bought the doll for.

BeForever Kit

I am one of the people who doesn't mind the BeForever changes, because they really did some of the characters justice. Kit instantly went on my want list and she came home in March 2015. I always thought the doll was cute, but her outfit...ugh. This new dress is one of my fave AG outfits ever. The colors. The print. The SHOES. I love it. I love her. I even bought her accessories solely to get that bracelet.

BeForever Josefina

After wanting her for years and never getting her, Josefina finally made it into my collection, also in her new BeForever form. I love the colors of this new outfit far more than her original Meet outfit. Josefina's been one of my favorite characters since she came out and her doll is very sweet. I admit, I haven't really bonded with her, because I want her hair to lay better, but I don't want to take out the braid and mess up the flowers. I adjusted it a bit since I took this photo last year, and we've bonded a little more now. Even if we never fully bond, she's not getting sold.

BeForever Rebecca

Like Kit, Rebecca's outfit got a massive BeForever upgrade. The purple is so much nicer than the burgundy coat thing! She was added to the collection in October 2015.

I currently have no plans for more AGs. There are no new ones I'm after. I may eventually want another Felicity, so I'd have to hit ebay for that, and I might want a Kaya, since she's been on my want list for ages, but I've learned that I don't like BeForever Kaya, so I'll need to find an earlier version that I prefer. Melody is cute and I think she'll have some great outfits, but I will never like the Sonali mold. I've seen it in person multiple times and I just do not care for it. Lea is beautiful, but not an addition I truly need. Maybe some of her clothes though someday. I do love the bright colors. And I need to finish her books! I've only read the first one so far.

Holiday Addy, Caroline, Holiday Josefina, Holiday Felicity mini dolls

I should add that I have a small collection of the mini dolls, too. I bought the original versions of Addy, Samantha and Josefina when they were on super clearance many years ago. Addy is the only one I never sold. I bought Caroline when she came out. Then I started picking up the holiday dress minis of some of the characters I didn't have in large doll form: Felicity, Josefina and Addy. I bought a rose print dress Felicity off ebay, because I happened to see a very cute one. I have a regular outfit Julie with no shoes that I found at Savers years ago, and I bought Ivy when she came out.


American Girl is something that's been special to me for most of my life and it probably always will be special, even though I go through big breaks in between periods of collecting the dolls. Right now I'm more looking forward to the Wellie Wishers, but I will always look forward to new stuff from AG, even if I do pay more attention to other lines.

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine.