For many women, American Girl is a nostalgic childhood doll company from which they remember decorating and customizing their own dolls or purchasing more well-known dolls, like Disney characters or characters from American Girl’s own book collections. Memories of doll costumes, accessories, and playsets come to mind. To me, American Girl is so much more than this, and I can explain why with a short history of what American Girl is and why I’ve come to see it as a hallmark of historical girlhood.
American Girl was founded by Pleasant T. Rowland in 1986 with the goal of creating aspirational stories with characters that young girls could look up to and relate with. Rowland was already very invested in American history when she established the first American Girls Collection, consisting of only three dolls: Samantha, Kirsten, and Molly. Since then, American Girl has exploded as a brand, with dozens of characters and dolls with their own accompanying stories, both historical and modern.
The goal of the American Girl Historical Characters book collections was to depict the lives of American girls throughout the centuries, across various societies and different time periods. What I really love about this is that there is no “one” American girl; there are so many ways to be an American girl and so many stories that come with it! The collections also sought to educate young girls on topics such as poverty, war, slavery, and other historical subjects in a manner that suits such an audience.
The importance of American Girl is evident when looking at how classrooms usually teach history. Topics like war, politics, and business are critical to history, but primarily shown from a male perspective. This leaves us with questions like, “What did women and girls do during wartime?” and “How did women and girls deal with the changing societies around them?” American Girl novels focus on giving readers a more female outlook on historical events. For example, Meet Addy follows a young African-American girl who escapes slavery during the Civil War with her mother, before learning to read and pursuing an education. Meet Molly follows a girl who has to adapt to her new life as her father is away fighting in the Second World War. My personal favourite, Meet Kit, follows a young Swedish-American girl who must navigate an economically unstable childhood during the Great Depression. I remember finding so much of myself in Kit, relating to her stubborn and tomboyish nature. American Girl has been continuously dedicated to amplifying women and girls’ presence in history.
I think it’s so important for girls not only to read the American Girl novels but also to have the chance to customize their own dolls. One of my favourite features of American Girl is the option to model a doll after yourself and customize her as you please! To me, that really solidifies the point of American Girl: that you are who you make yourself to be. You can be adventurous like Caroline, headstrong like Kit, inquisitive like Samantha, and so forth. It might sound far-fetched or crazy, but being a young girl and seeing myself in historical girls was groundbreaking in my realization of myself.
Overall, I think American Girl is far more than just a doll brand. Rather, it’s an epitome of girlhood and what it means to be a young girl still growing into herself.