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American Girls Collection: Difference between revisions
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The American Girls Collection -- generally referred to as "American Girl" -- is a collection of dolls and books that show history in various time periods ranging from Late Native America to [[The Seventies]] -- all through the eyes of the average nine-year-old girl.
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'''The main Historical Characters currently consist of:'''
* Kaya'aton'my (1764): Nez Perce Native American in the Pacific Northwest, pre-European settlement. Tries to get rid of her [[Embarrassing Nickname]] 'Magpie' by proving to her tribe she isn't like the selfish bird. She has a [[Cool Horse]].
* Felicity Merriman (1774): Strangely, ''not'' part of the original three, yet pulled from the lineup in 2011; she was later re-released in 2017 as part of the BeForever reboot. [[Fiery Redhead]], daughter of a merchant family in Virginia as [[The American Revolution]] approaches. Her series has a lot of plots focusing on the conflict of independence vs. loyalty to tradition. She also has a [[Cool Horse]].
* Josefina Montoya (1824): [[Shrinking Violet]], daughter of a rancher in Mexican-controlled Southwest. Her [[Missing Mom|mother died]] just before her series starts, leaving her, her three sisters, and their grieving father somewhat lost, until her aunt Dolores moves in and helps everyone discover their [[Hidden Depths]]. [[My Name Is Inigo Montoya|No relation.]]
* Cécile Rey and Marie-Grace Gardner (1853): Two very different girls (a French-speaking African American and an English-speaking Caucasian American, respectively) growing up and becoming friends during the boom of 19th century New Orleans, Louisiana. The girls' stories involve embracing one another despite differences and cultural barriers, and giving aid to those in distress, most notably during [[The Plague|the breakout of yellow fever]] which struck New Orleans in 1853. The first of the main historical characters to be marketed as a duo (although each have their books, and their dolls can be purchased separately), and the newest to be released as of summer 2011. Also one of the
* Kirsten Larson (1854): One of the original three, pulled from the lineup in 2010. Swedish immigrant to Minnesota in Pioneer Times. The series focuses on the difficulties of adapting to a new life in harsh surroundings and features many staples of "frontier" stories, such as scary weather, a strict [[Schoolmarm]] and a [[Black Best Friend|secret Native American friend]].
* Addy Walker (1864): The first non-white doll. First a slave in North Carolina, then escapes to Philadelphia, during [[The American Civil War]]. Her family is separated and has to reunite, and stories focus on issues faced by former slaves, such as catching up on the education they'd been denied and the fact that "free" black people weren't all that free, even in the North.
* Samantha Parkington (1904): One of the original three, pulled from the lineup in 2009 and was re-released in 2014 as part of the BeForever line. Marketed as Victorian Era despite 1904 being [[The Edwardian Era]]. She's a rich orphan being raised by her conservative grandmother in upstate New York. She learns about the women's suffrage movement and the horrors of child labor.
* Rebecca Rubin (1914): Russian Jewish immigrant living in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and aspires to be a movie actress, despite her parents and grandparents' more traditional views.
* Kit Kittredge (1934): Cincinnati, Ohio, during [[The Great Depression]]. Learning to make-do with and without a lot of things that many people then took for granted.
*
* Molly McIntire (1944): She lives in Illinois during [[World War II]], while her father is serving in England as a doctor, and her books are largely about adapting to the changes brought on by war. Emily Bennett, an English war evacuee and the family's ward, was released as a Best Friend doll in 2006. They were both retired in 2013, though Molly was re-released as a Costco bundle in 2018.
* Julie Albright (1974): Lives in [[San Francisco]] in [[The Seventies]]. She learns how to deal with the changes her parents' divorce caused to her life while navigating social upheavals like [[You Go Girl|second-wave feminism]], the environmentalist movement, and the changing rights of racial minorities (explored through her relationship with her Chinese best friend).▼
* Maryellen Larkin (1954): The first character to be released after the BeForever reboot, hailing from Daytona Beach, Florida. A polio survivor (thus making her the first character to have a disability, though it isn't explicitly shown in her doll) and the middle child in a large family, she tries to make herself heard.
▲* Julie Albright (1974): Lives in [[San Francisco]] in [[The Seventies]]. She learns how to deal with the changes her parents' divorce caused to her life while navigating social upheavals like [[You Go, Girl!|second-wave feminism]], the environmentalist movement, and the changing rights of racial minorities (explored through her relationship with her Chinese best friend).
* Courtney Moore (1986): Hailing from Orange Valley, California, Courtney is into video games such as ''[[Pac-Man]]'' and STEM subjects. Has two best friends whom she hangs out with at the local video game arcade, and dreams about a video game character whose name is "Crystal Starshooter".
There is also a set of dolls, called "My American Girl", which offers multiple dolls of varying looks to make into a personal character. This can lead to [[Mary Sue|some unusual characters]].
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'''Girls of the Year so far include:'''
* Lindsey Bergman in 2001. She was sold until the end of 2002. She was the first Jewish character to come out of American Girl and in her stories, she tried to help people with [[Stop Helping Me!|negative consequences]]. She had terrible sales when available, yet ironically she's one of the [[Ensemble Darkhorse|most sought-out dolls]] by collectors nowadays.
* Kailey Hopkins in 2003. A surfer girl who tries to save the California tide pools from development projects.
* Marisol Luna in 2005. A Hispanic girl who loves to dance, yet has to move to the other side of town where they don't have dance lessons.
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* [[Adaptation Dye Job]]: in the original Felicity books, Felicity's best friend Elizabeth is a brunette, but in the movie (and later, for her doll) she's a blond.
* [[All Girls Like Ponies]]: Felicity, Kaya, and a big chunk of the modern collection.
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* [[Blithe Spirit]]: Julie. Heck, her first book is about Julie trying to have her new school accept girls onto the boys-only basketball team.
* [[Blitz Evacuees]]: Emily Bennett.
* [[Braids, Beads, and Buckskins]]: The only Native American doll, Kaya, is set in 1764. Guess what she wears.
* [[British Stuffiness]]: Emily Bennett from Molly's story fits this at first, and the trope is also mentioned by Molly's mother.
* [[But Not Too Black]]: The dolls of color in the Just Like You collection. The Asian one looks like a pale white girl with black hair and "almond" eyes, the company added several new dark skin models in 2010 (some even with the new Sonali mold), and the tan dolls are all racially ambiguous. They recently toned down the "textured" hair of the black dolls so the hair is less "natural" and more like chemically straightened hair, and the dark skin tone has gotten noticeably lighter. Some people will even purchase the Just Like You #26 doll and put her in Addy's clothes.
** In an interesting subversion, the Sonali doll actually has ''darker'' skin than the original character.
* [[Child
* [[Coming of Age Story]]: The center of the historical dolls' stories.
* [[Cool Big Sis]]: Some of the older sisters have their moments, like Francisca in ''Josefina Saves the Day'' when she's the one to accompany Josefina into Santa Fe in the middle of the night to get the stuff Patrick O'Toole left for them.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: The Girls of Many Lands book and doll line and the History Mysteries book series (both discontinued). Both series had slightly older protagonists than the historical dolls, and both touched on some of the darker and sadder parts of history the main historical series tend to play down.
* [[Death
* [[Denied Food
* [[Disappeared Dad]]: Stirling's dad from Kit's series, Molly's dad until the end of ''Changes for Molly'', and Gwen's dad from Chrissa's series.
* [[Don't Split Us Up]]: In ''Changes for Samantha'', when the orphaned Nellie was to be sent on the orphan train without her sisters, Samantha helps the three sisters to run away and hide out in her attic so they could be together.
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* [[Edible Theme Naming]]: The Coconut pets are all named after various food items.
* [[Even the Dog Is Ashamed]]: From Lindsey's book --
{{quote|
* [[Everything's Better
* [[Every Proper Lady Should Curtsy]]: In ''Happy Birthday, Molly!'', one of Molly's friends tries to curtsy while wearing pants when she meets the English girl Emily, and she says that she thought English girls always did that. Felicity and her peers have to learn for real.
* [[Everything's Worse
* [[Fake Brit]]: Molly and her friends fake British accents while anticipating the arrival of [[Shrinking Violet|Emily]].
* [[Fashion Hurts]]: In Molly's last book, she's obsessed with curling her hair so she'll be more likely to get picked for the lead role in a patriotic dance for her tap class. After trying various increasingly uncomfortable methods, she resorts to one that involves sleeping with soaking-wet hair, which causes her to catch a cold and not be able to perform at all.
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* [[First Love]]: This trope is alluded to in one of the [[American Girls Collection]] of stories, this one being Josefina's, whose [[Missing Mom|mother has died]] before the series began, and it turns out the poem was a favorite of hers, even though she could not read, although the reader is allowed to infer that Josefina's papa read it to her mother, and their relationship was very close, as it takes Josefina's father some time to grow to [[Second Love|love her aunt, Tia' Dolores]].
* [[Force Feeding]]: Addy's first book, when the slave driver forces Addy to eat slugs off the tobacco plants.
* [[Four
* [[Girliness Upgrade]]: Kit states that she doesn't like pink, and her collection originally reflected this with no pink outfits and items. Once her movie came out, [[Out-of-Character Moment|Kit got a batch of pink outfits and a pink blanket]].
* [[The Great Depression]]: The setting for Kit's books and [[The Movie|her movie.]]
* [[Gray Eyes]]: Molly.
* [["Happy Holidays" Dress]]: Almost every Historical Character has a holiday dress.
* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]: In the Rebecca mystery "The Crystal Ball", one paragraph mentions "the gay crowds". Since this story takes place in the 1910's, the language is accurate for describing a cheerful group of people. On the other hand, the story was published in 2012 - and today's average tween and young teen reading this book is likelier to be much more familiar with a very different meaning for the word "gay".
* [[Heroes Want Redheads]]: Arguably, part of the justification for the Ben/Felicity pairing.
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* [[Missing Mom]]: Josefina's mom died a year prior to the first book. This becomes a plot point in ''Josefina's Surprise.'' Marie-Grace's mother has been dead for four years at the start of Mare-Grace's first book.
* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Why Kevin Zegers was cast as Ben Davidson in ''Felicity: An American Girl Adventure'' and likewise for Max Thieriot as Will Shepherd when the AG movies went theatrical in 2008 with ''Kit Kittredge: An American Girl''. This trope also appears in the books, where readers have admitted to crushing on male characters drawn beguilingly handsome such as Kit's older brother Charlie from her books.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Lindsey, [[Stop Helping Me!|over and over and over again.]] Although it's not just Lindsey -- April indirectly gives her the idea to put smiley-face stickers on the neighbors' trash cans, which lands her in hot water with them, her mother, and the ''police.''
* [[Not the Intended Use]]:
* [[Official Cosplay Gear]]: There were girl-sized outfits and accessories that matched the outfits available for the Historical Characters. Now this is generally only applied to their nightclothes and the modern outfits. ▼
** In-universe with Kit's mother Margaret who used fabric from feed sacks to make Kit's birthday outfit.<ref>[https://americangirl.fandom.com/wiki/Birthday_Dress_and_Headband Birthday Dress and Headband]</ref> [[Truth In Television]] as housewives repurposed flour sack fabric into articles of clothing since the early 20th century. This led George P. Plant Milling Company and other firms to sell flour and feed packaged in dress-quality sacks especially during the Great Depression and World War II when fabric was in short supply.
** In terms of doll maintenance and repair, benzoyl peroxide, normally used and sold as acne treatment, is often if not always used to get rid of ink and marker stains off a doll's vinyl skin.
▲* [[Official Cosplay Gear]]: There were girl-sized outfits and accessories that matched the outfits available for the Historical Characters. Now this is generally only applied to their nightclothes and the modern outfits. The BeForever reboot changed this to outfits ''inspired'' by the characters rather than ''directly based on'' their outfits.
* [[Orphanage of Fear]]: Nellie and her sisters get sent to one of these. Thank goodness Samantha helps them escape and they all end up [[Happily Adopted|adopted by Samantha's rich family]].
* [[Parental Abandonment]]: A few, like Samantha, the orphan. Addy is also a partial case of this, as only she and her mother make the initial journey north. In ''Addy's Surprise,'' she is reunited with her father.
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* [[Pretty in Mink]]: Some of Samantha's outfits.
* [[Proper Lady]]: Elizabeth. This is also how Grandmary is trying to raise Samantha.
* [[Raised
* [[Recursive Canon]]: Courtney Moore was given a Molly doll by her father during the year American Girl was founded. Assuming that the characters do have a shared universe, it could be implied that Molly and the rest of the cast were real people in the ''American Girl'' mythos, and that their toys and stories were based on their lives.
* [[Retcon]]: This is dramatically seen with Elizabeth Cole -- Felicity's best friend -- being changed from a brown-eyed brunette to a blue-eyed blonde. All the images and text of Felicity's stories were updated to make it like she'd always been blonde.
** A more minor example is Emily. She was originally portrayed as having a bob-like hairstyle,
* [[Rule of Three]]: The first three girls were released together: Samantha, Kirsten, and Molly.
* [[Shadow Archetype]]:
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* [[Strictly Formula]]: The central books always followed a pattern of 'Meet ____' (introduction), '___ Learns a Lesson' (school), '___'s Surprise' ([[Christmas Episode]]), 'Happy Birthday, ___!' (self-explanatory), '___ Saves the Day!' (adventure), and 'Changes for ___' (winter, New Year's, or some sort of closure to the story). The books broke the pattern with Kaya because Native Americans obviously didn't have things like schoolhouses or Christmas, and all dolls released after her have followed a similarly loose formula.
** This also counts as [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]].
* [[Take That]]: The racist class bully in ''Melody 1963: Love Has to Win'' is a thinly-veiled pot shot at [[Donald Trump]]. [[Word of God]] has it that the Donald character was to be named Douglas, only for someone misreading the script, and the name stuck. Given how Trump's political ambitions were all over the headlines in 2016, not to mention the rise of neo-fascist and racist movements in the United States along with Trump's connections to them have drawn the ire of many, this isn't surprising.
* [[Title Drop]]: Occurs in the last line of ''Really, Truly Ruthie''.
* [[Token Minority]]: Josefina, Ivy, and Kaya all have unique
* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]: Felicity and Elizabeth, Kit and Ruthie, Julie and Ivy. Note that [[Real Women Never Wear Dresses|the tomboy is always the star of the series]].
** Molly's friends Linda and Susan, with Molly as [[The Kirk]].
* [[We Interrupt This Program]]: The NBC broadcast of ''Saige Paints The Sky'' was interrupted at the last minute by the George Zimmerman verdict. The parental outrage ensuing from the sudden interruption may have accounted for why ''Isabelle Dances Into the Spotlight'' was aired on the Disney Channel as it would be far less likely to be disrupted by a broadcast interruption if it were aired on a niche children's network.
* [[Wounded Gazelle Gambit]]: Lindsey stops Blair from tormenting April, so Blair pretends that Lindsey attacked her on the way to school. It only partially works.
* [[You Mean "Xmas"]]: Up until they created Kaya, each of the American Girl characters had a Christmas story as a part of her book series. Since Kaya obviously wouldn't have celebrated Christmas, living before the Nez Perce had much contact with Europeans, they gave her a story about "giving" as her obligatory "holiday" book.
* [[You Go, Girl!]]: Julie's efforts to joint the basketball team serve as a kid-friendly representation of second-wave feminism.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Historical Fiction Literature]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Toys]]
[[Category:American Girls Collection]]
[[Category:Toys of the 1980s]]
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