Because of Courtney, Liz, and Mindy, I present

[throwingpens]

THE AMERICAN GIRL DOLL POLL

Poll

Apparently there are more dolls/books now? But Kit was BRAND NEW when I was 9 and I thought it was super cool that she had freckles like me.

Please rant about how great your favorite character is below.

Comments

[yumytaffy]

I picked "other" because I am American and, at least in this case, not terrible. I just wasn't into the American Girl dolls for various reasons. For one, price. (Seriously, guys, they are so expensive.) Also, as a minority, I just always felt it was a little off for them to be called "American Girls" when I didn't see myself in them. Now, I wasn't hurt about it, and I don't begrudge anyone for liking them. Everyone has their reasons, is what I'm saying.

I know this is a much larger discussion for another time and way too deep for what I know is a lighthearted discussion about dolls growing up. It's just my two cents. (Hey, guys, I had other toys growing up! I was a child who played with things! I even had a Build-A-Bear phase!)

And now I'm going to respectfully back out of this post because I'm afraid of what fresh hell will be rained down upon me.

[throwingpens]

Thanks for your input! But can you tell me about your build-a-bear phase?

The mall in amarillo has a knock-off build-a-bear place and it is...amazing. But I've never built a bear.

[lizinstereo]

They are doing a terrible job with diversity. They've had so many opportunities and they've shied away due to controversy. It's been years and there are no Asian American dolls. An Asian best friend doll, but no Asian doll as the star of her own series.

That's why I was so thrilled to see a doll that looked like me.

I do understand what you're getting at and it makes perfect sense. A doll is a doll is a doll. The imagination and play is what counts.

[saucydiva]

You know, I like to think I'm aware of things. I'm pretty well-read and I read a lot of tumblr and I think I'm pretty well on the look-out for racism, sexism, etc, etc, but I will admit I just went through all the historical dolls and it didn't occur to me that they didn't have an Asian-American one.

(They do, as opposed to when we were young, have a Jewish one, a Native American one, a hispanic one, and another black one, and about eight more white ones).

[emilyla]

I always loved Felicity but somehow I ended up with a Kirsten doll--when I was like 12, so I wasn't interested in it for very long. Kirsten was probably my second favorite, but I always enjoyed Felicity's hair and her love of horses. And her clothes.

I will join with courtknees and say that, from an adult perspective, these dolls are kind of creepy as hell. But I guess better an American Girl doll than Rick Perry's HPV vaccinating doll (never mind saucydiva it's from a show that exists).

[throwingpens]

Rick Perry's HPV Vaccinating doll would make things really easy though.

FELICITY HAD A HORSE SO SHE WINS

[lizinstereo]

I saw a breastfeeding doll somewhere. It was a true WTF moment.

[fairytiger]

Samantha! Okay to be fair, I'm pretty sure she was my favorite because she looked like me. But I liked the clothing and her Aunt Cordelia (I thought that was the prettiest name in the world at the time) and idk man, Samantha ftw.

[ballroom_pink]

86 comments already.
I liked Molly. I liked homefront stuff like that as a kid. I read Samantha and a little bit of Felicity and a friend of mine was named Kirsten and had all those books.
I grew out of it before the dolls came into play. And my grandma does not have any of them either. Not really her style.
Did you ever read the magazine? I would read it at the library and every month or every other month it would come out with a paper doll for another time or it was based on a reader.
I also always wanted a hippie American Girl and I think they finally got one named Julie a few years ago.

[whimsical_irony]

Other, because HOLY SHIT you guys, are these dolls seriously $100+ each? (They are meant for kids, right? Not like collectors' items?) Growing up I got $25ish for Christmas every year, so these were way way way out of my price range. No chance in hell my Asian parents were buying me a $100 doll.

Side note: not super bothered that there isn't an Asian one. I don't have super high expectations of toy companies when it comes to proper representation tbh. Growing up, I don't think I owned a single non-white Barbie/doll.

[rikyl]

Yes, they are way expensive. There was a bit of a fantasy element to looking at the catalogs, so I guess that's where my nostalgia comes from, but I never knew anyone who actually had one.