The Importance of American Girl
I don't know about the other girls who grew up in the nineties, but for me, the American Girl Collection was the highlight of my life. Through them I experienced history, through them I learned about friendship, honesty, family, loyalty, and that growing up is always hard, no matter where or in what time you do it.
The addiction hit me quickly: before the time I was six, I was reading the catalogs on the bus on the way to school, dreaming of the day when I would be able to act out Felicity's stories with the beautiful doll that I saw in the catalog and touched with hungry fingers. I wanted to be part of that life, to know how it felt to live in those times and do those things.
So I saved up my money. It takes an extremely long time for a girl to save up enough money for one of those dolls, especially when her allowance is twenty-five cents a week. But I saved up every week's allowance, and the dollar that my grandparents included in cards that they sent me for holidays, and the quarter I got from the tooth fairy when I lost a tooth, and I saved for three years. I thought I would have to save for another three years, because I only had about fifty dollars after that time, but my parents were kind and matched what I had saved. I think they were a bit surprised that I had concentrated on one thing for that long.
And for my ninth birthday, I got Felicity. I really think that that was the happiest birthday I have ever had in my life. I can still see myself in my grandparents' sunroom, holding Felicity and spinning around in exhilaration. My grandparents, who are more apt to spoil me than are my parents, gave me a couple more dresses for Felicity and one for me, as well, that matched hers. That next Christmas, I got another dress for her and one for me, and we played all the time after I finished my schoolwork. I made her scarves, hats, purses, pillows, beds, and houses from the materials available in my room and my family's craft box. She gave me a reason to use my imagination and my creativity without wreaking havoc on my neighborhood, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Over the years since then, American Girl was bought by Mattel, and things changed. There isn't as much focus on each doll, as more are coming out all the time, and the dolls and their accessories are slowly being retired. Samantha and her things are already gone, and Kirsten is next in line. The catalogs that I pored over on the way to and from school everyday have been gone for years, as everything is on the internet now. The dresses that I wore to match my doll haven't been made in a long time, and are difficult to find. It saddens me to see these icons of my childhood being packed up and archived, as if the childhood I had less than ten years ago is disappearing without any chance of being remembered except in the boxes that girls pack up before college. My Felicity is sitting on the rocking chair in my room at home, right beside Katie, the My Twinn doll that my sister gave me for Christmas the year I was twelve, when I gave her one of her own. But how many American Girl dolls have been shoved into closets to make way for this age of technology and industry? I don't really want to know the answer.
Life moves quickly, yes, and it is always changing. But there has to be some room left for the imagination, and for tradition, and for the pure enjoyment that a girl gets when she finally receives the doll who has been alive in her mind for years as the girl from a series of books that she loves. I wish more of the world could know that joy, and understand it for what it is. It's not a childish desire for possessions, or a yearning to have what everyone else has. It's the longing for a friend who is like you and knows what you are going through, despite the fact that she lived a long time ago, despite the fact that she doesn't dress, speak, or live like you, and most of all, despite the fact that she is fictional. Some of the most real people that I have ever known only live in my imagination. Whether they are real or not doesn't matter. They understand how I am feeling and what it is like to be me, and that is all that is important to me
The addiction hit me quickly: before the time I was six, I was reading the catalogs on the bus on the way to school, dreaming of the day when I would be able to act out Felicity's stories with the beautiful doll that I saw in the catalog and touched with hungry fingers. I wanted to be part of that life, to know how it felt to live in those times and do those things.
So I saved up my money. It takes an extremely long time for a girl to save up enough money for one of those dolls, especially when her allowance is twenty-five cents a week. But I saved up every week's allowance, and the dollar that my grandparents included in cards that they sent me for holidays, and the quarter I got from the tooth fairy when I lost a tooth, and I saved for three years. I thought I would have to save for another three years, because I only had about fifty dollars after that time, but my parents were kind and matched what I had saved. I think they were a bit surprised that I had concentrated on one thing for that long.
And for my ninth birthday, I got Felicity. I really think that that was the happiest birthday I have ever had in my life. I can still see myself in my grandparents' sunroom, holding Felicity and spinning around in exhilaration. My grandparents, who are more apt to spoil me than are my parents, gave me a couple more dresses for Felicity and one for me, as well, that matched hers. That next Christmas, I got another dress for her and one for me, and we played all the time after I finished my schoolwork. I made her scarves, hats, purses, pillows, beds, and houses from the materials available in my room and my family's craft box. She gave me a reason to use my imagination and my creativity without wreaking havoc on my neighborhood, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Over the years since then, American Girl was bought by Mattel, and things changed. There isn't as much focus on each doll, as more are coming out all the time, and the dolls and their accessories are slowly being retired. Samantha and her things are already gone, and Kirsten is next in line. The catalogs that I pored over on the way to and from school everyday have been gone for years, as everything is on the internet now. The dresses that I wore to match my doll haven't been made in a long time, and are difficult to find. It saddens me to see these icons of my childhood being packed up and archived, as if the childhood I had less than ten years ago is disappearing without any chance of being remembered except in the boxes that girls pack up before college. My Felicity is sitting on the rocking chair in my room at home, right beside Katie, the My Twinn doll that my sister gave me for Christmas the year I was twelve, when I gave her one of her own. But how many American Girl dolls have been shoved into closets to make way for this age of technology and industry? I don't really want to know the answer.
Life moves quickly, yes, and it is always changing. But there has to be some room left for the imagination, and for tradition, and for the pure enjoyment that a girl gets when she finally receives the doll who has been alive in her mind for years as the girl from a series of books that she loves. I wish more of the world could know that joy, and understand it for what it is. It's not a childish desire for possessions, or a yearning to have what everyone else has. It's the longing for a friend who is like you and knows what you are going through, despite the fact that she lived a long time ago, despite the fact that she doesn't dress, speak, or live like you, and most of all, despite the fact that she is fictional. Some of the most real people that I have ever known only live in my imagination. Whether they are real or not doesn't matter. They understand how I am feeling and what it is like to be me, and that is all that is important to me