Just last week I was deleting pictures off of my phone, and I came across one my mom sent me from New York City this summer. It was a picture of the American Girl Store, and I had kept it because I wanted to write about my feelings toward American Girl. And now, I see that the general public is in an uproar over what was once a company I held very dear.
See, when I was little, I remember my mom reading Meet Molly and Kirsten Saves the Day and Changes for Samantha to me. I loved those books and once I learned to read I reread them over and over. Each girl was from a different era, and had six books teaching them as many life lessons. I still have my original copies and they are battered from the constant attention I gave them.
I didn't know until 2nd grade (how could you hold out on me, Mom?) that there were dolls to go with the books, and suddenly I fell in love with those stories even more. I could touch Samantha's satin birthday dress and braid Kirsten's hair and polish Molly's glasses. These dolls, they made the books that much more intriguing to me. And that was what the point of the dolls was to me--a compliment to the book, a way to get girls to personalize the characters and love them even more, which in turn would lead to a love of American history and of learning. They even started to add more girls to the line-up: A girl from Colonial Williamsburg, and a girl who escapes slavery with her mother.
But then, Mattel bought the American Girl creators, Pleasant Company, and shortly thereafter the whole line became this terrible Barbie-like collection that had nothing to do with history and learning. The "Girl of Today" doll came out in 1995 and American Girl hasn't been the same since. Suddenly, Mattel was pushing for you to have a doll! That looks just like you! And of course I bought into it, but part of the draw was that she came with six blank books, just like the other doll so you could write stories for her just like the others. And I may not be the most self-disciplined person in the world, but I'll have you know that there is one whole book called Meet Megan sitting on my bookshelf at home written by none other than Loren L., age 11.
As I got older and lost interest in the whole AG (we're going to call it this now, ok? Because it's faster to type and because Mattel would be proud that we adopted its slang name) collection, it added a clothing line and a TON of crap you could buy for yourself and your Girl of Today. And now evidently they've got some "Girl of the Year" doll that changes every year which I think is more about keeping girls interested in something new than teaching them about making good decisions and doing your best and being a good person, blah blah blah (which is what I think they'd argue). And the Girl of Today, she doesn't come with six books anymore. She comes with one, and it's a scrapbook.
Oh, Pleasant Company, you sold out. You sold out hardcore. And I suppose this is my most personal experience with corporate America trying to make money, and I suppose there's no getting around that. But I am so disappointed in the loss of what was once so important to me, because it is no longer a priority for the people at Mattel who are in charge. And it breaks my heart a little to know that people are more interested in buying a little white dog for their look-alike doll than they are in reading about Molly's father fighting in WWII or Addy's escape from a Southern plantation. Thanks, Mattel, for making another line of dolls a little bit more like Barbie.
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