Trailer for "An American Girl: Isabelle Dances Into the Spotlight" and American Girl Deals

The 2014 American Girl Doll of the year is Isabelle, a ballerina. My daughter has both the 2011 and 2012 Girl of the Year Dolls (Kanani and McKenna). She has decided that she has enough of American Girl Dolls for now, so I don't know too much about Isabelle. She is however looking forward to "An American Girl: Isabelle Dances into the Spotlight" which will be released this summer.

Disclaimer: I am compensated for sales through Amazon & Zulily links. I appreciate your support of my blog by shopping through my links. Zulily quantities may be limited and available for a short time only.

She loved the previous two girl of the year movies: An American Girl: McKenna Shoots for the Stars and An American Girl: Saige Paints the Sky. However, her favorite American Girl movie is for the historical doll Molly which is included in the 4 Film Favorites: American Girl with movies based on Kit, Samantha, and Felicity.

The trailer below for "An American Girl: Isabelle Dances into the Spotlight" was released on May 1:

American Girl is currently running a deal for 25% off of selected sports sets. My daughter has the soccer set and loves the outfit. I think the cleats are adorable. I also bought the lacrosse set for my niece.

Zulily is currently offering deals on the Springfield Collection of clothing, furniture, and accessories for 18" dolls like American Girl dolls. My daughter has several of their outfits and loves having the extra variety. I like the look of the Pink Plush Doll Chair and the Leotard & Skirt Ballerina set.

Deals for Girls - Princess/Fairy Costumes & Doll Clothing/Accessories

Over the years, my daughter has had her share of Princess/Fairy Costumes. She was Snow White at 1.5, Tinker Bell at 2.5 and 3.5 and Rapunzel at 5.5. Even when it wasn't Halloween, she went through a phase where she was dressing up in a costume every time she went to the basement to play. I ran into an issue with her height, where she was outgrowing the standard dress up costumes which come in a single 4-6x size. It was particularly noticeable in the two piece costumes (top and bottom) where there was a 2" gap between the pieces. Post-Halloween clearance sales are a great way to inexpensively add to your child's dress-up wardrobe particularly if the standard size 4-6x costume is too big or too small.

Last year we moved on from Princess costumes when my daughter decided she wanted to dress for Halloween like Molly her American Girl doll did.

Speaking of American Girl, my daughter loves her American Girl and pores over the catalog when it arrives. However, with their prices, she can't have everything. I have found that it really matters to her with a few pieces to have the piece from the catalog, but on others she is just as happy to have a less expensive equivalent. For example, with her historical dolls (Molly & Emily), she really likes to have their clothing since it relates to their stories and is time period specific. But, for things like a bed or furniture, she is less concerned about having it match the catalog.

Disclaimer: I am a Zulily Associate and am compensated for sales through Zulily links. I appreciate your support of my blog by shopping through my links.

Today, sales have started on Zulily for both Princess/Fairy Costumes and 18" doll accessories from New Best Friend.

The Princess/Fairy Costumes include both licensed Disney costumes and accessories, and generic princess or fairy accessories. Costumes are available starting from infant to size 12/14.

New Best Friend offers clothing, furniture, and accessories.  Some cute options are the bunk beds, sleeping bags (and only $7.99), and table and chairs.

Both of these deals are valid through Tuesday morning - or while supplies last.

American Girl Movie - Saige Paints the Sky - Airs on Saturday

Is your daughter an American Girl fan? My daughter certainly is. She loves her American Girl dolls, and after placing an order this morning for some of the pieces of the Molly & Emily collection that she wants before they are retired, I am hoping to talk her out of asking for another doll. Although, I have a feeling Saige, the 2013 Girl of the Year, will be on her Christmas list especially since we visited Albuquerque next summer.

Saige Copeland hails from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is an artist and also loves horses. After her grandmother's injury she takes over with her Grandmother's horse Picasso to lead the Balloon Festival parade. She also works to keep the arts program at school alive despite budget cuts.

American Girl has partnered with NBC to make the movie Saige Paints the Sky which will be on NBC on Saturday, July 13 at 8p/7c. The movie is also currently available for purchase on the American Girl website.

from AmericanGirl.com

My daughter loves the McKenna movie that they made last year about the 2012 Girl of the Year. I had purchased it in advance of it's air date because we were having American Girl day with her friends and they wanted to watch it. I am glad that I bought the movie on BluRay since it had a digital copy for our iPad & her iPod Touch.

In reading some of the reviews, one mentions that the movie is sad and depressing for children. I have not seen Saige, but had the same thought the first time my daughter watched the Molly movie even asking her if she wanted me to turn it off. However, my daughter was loving the movie and has watched it many more times.

Disclaimer: I am an Amazon Associate and iTunes Affiliate and am compensated for sales through Amazon and iTunes links. I appreciate your support of my blog by shopping through my links.

My plan is to DVR Saige Paints the Sky on Saturday. If she likes it, then we will consider buying the movie. I was thinking to just buy the iTunes version, but Amazon is currently offering the BluRay-DVD-Digital Copy for less than the iTunes only version.



Also, American Girl will be hosting a chat with the movie's star Sidney Fullmer tonight, July 10 at 8p (ET) on their Facebook Page.

Enter to Win an Albuquerque Trip

The 2013 American Girl Girl of the Year is Saige Copeland from Albuquerque.

To celebrate, the Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau is giving away a trip to Albuquerque that  includes a Saige doll. Your package includes 2 nights at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa, an American Girl Saige doll with books signed by the author, Watercolor class at the resort to paint the mountains and forest surrounding the resort, a visit to the Tamaya Horse Rehabilitation Proogram and horseback riding at The Stables at Tamaya, and a chance to groom the resort's Picasso horse, a Tamaya Mist salon experience for your daughter and her Saige doll, a geogaching scavenger hunt, amking S'mores, Saige will have her own bed, a visit to Albuquerque including admission for 4 to Sandai Peak Aerial Tramway, ABQ BioPark and the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque Internation Balloon Museum, and a $40 VISA gift card for travel expenses.

We briefly visited Albuquerque just last summer as part of a wedding we attended in Santa Fe, I entered to win a trip for my daughter. She is very excited to win and have her own Saige doll.

I think this was a brilliant marketing strategy for Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau. I know my daughter's interest in Saige was increased because she had just been to New Mexico. Last year, when we were in Santa Fe, every time we were in a store with a book section, I had looked for a Josefina book since she is from Santa Fe. I found other American Girl books, but never a Josefina.

They even have a page setup to help families plan a Saige-inspired trip. If we were going this year instead of last year, we definitely would have read the Saige book and considered some of these options.

Goodbye Molly & Emily

Today, American Girl announced that they will be retiring their Historical Doll Molly and her friend Emily. No date has been set for the retirement, but I expect that items in the catalog will start to sell out and not be back in stock.

My daughter is disappointed since she LOVES Molly - she saved the money to buy Molly herself and was even Molly for Halloween.

She has put Molly's Ice Skating Outfit & Accessories on her Christmas list since it is the only outfit she does not have for the dolls.

Personally, I am not surprised that Molly was the next doll to be retired as she was the last of the original 3 dolls. The only thing that surprised me about the timing was that Molly had a new bed and PJs introduced this spring. When they introduced those new items, I figured Molly had at least another year left.

American Girl has added new historical dolls each of the last two years (Marie-Grace & Cecile in fall 2011 and Caroline in fall 2012), so I understand that they need to retire some in order to release new historical dolls. The other retired dolls (Samantha, Felicity, and Kirsten) live on in the books, the American Girl website, and mini-dolls. I expect that Molly will receive the same treatment. I am glad that they continue to introduce new dolls and expose girls to different eras of American life.

In reading the comments on American Girls' Facebook announcement, one jumped out at me. It was that the poster's daughter had a father deployed in Afghanistan and identified with Molly since Molly's dad was in England fighting World War II (I'm sorry, I can't seem to link to a specific comment).

Gymnastics Equipment for American Girl Dolls

My daughter loves American Girl. Last year, she received McKenna, the 2012 Girl of the Year for Christmas. McKenna is a gymnast. One of her accessories was a balance beam and bars set. The set sold out early and was on back order for awhile (it was also fairly pricey).

My daughter wanted gym equipment for her doll. I found it very easy to create a balance beam and a floor exercise mat.

The Floor Exercise Mat was a simple repurposing of a foam alphabet mat that I had bought for our basement. Instead of using all 26 squares that it came with, I used 9 of them to make a 3x3 mat. My daughter loves flipping McKenna around to do her gymnastics routines.

Floor Exercise Mat

The balance beam took a little more work, but still was very easy. I had purchased a set of 4 corkboard bars with the intention of allowing my daughter to display her artwork, but I had never hung them for her. I started with a cardboard base and covered it with two sheets of card stock to act as the mat around the beam. My cardboard strips were not quite tall enough for a beam, so I glued pairs of them together and then glued each set next to each other to make a longer beam. The craft took about 5 minutes (plus drying time). McKenna now had a beam to practice her routines on.

Home Made Balance Beam

My daughter did receive the beam and bars set for her birthday (well, two months later when the back order finally came in). (I think bars would also be fairly easy to build with a few wooden dowels).

The Historical Girls are Still a Big Part of American Girl - My Thoughts

Disclaimer: I am an Amazon Associate and iTunes Affiliate  and am compensated for sales through Amazon and iTunes links. I appreciate your support of my blog by shopping through my links.

Recently I have had a few Facebook friends and other bloggers share articles from the Washington Post¹ and the Atlantic² about changes at American Girl and the emphasis of recent catalogs shifting away from the historical characters.

I am the mother of an American Girl loving 7 year old. My first exposure to American Girl was through her as I was 12 when the first dolls were released. Honestly, I did not even realize that originally the Historical Dolls were the only dolls until we got more interested in American Girl. My daughter received her first doll for Christmas 2011 and saved to buy her second in 2012. (more on this later). I have issues with both articles, particularly the Washington Post article. The Washington Post article implies that the historical girl line is gone:

Forget Samantha the Victorian girl, Molly the plucky World War II doll with the Victory Garden, or original Colonial girl Felicity. Felicity’s been retired to the Upstate Doll Farm. So’s Samantha. Kirsten the pioneer? Gone.²

Many comments that I have read both from Facebook shares and the article's comments from people who grew up with American Girl are not currently familiar with American Girl took this statement to mean that the historical line is gone.

This is simply not true. Yes, American Girl has branched out from the historical girl roots and are not prominently featured in every catalog. Yes, several of the original or early characters have had their dolls and accessories retired. The books, mini-dolls and movies (Felicity & Samantha) for the retired dolls are still available and they are still featured on the website.  So, no they have not abandoned the historical dolls. As a matter of fact last fall, they introduced Caroline who lived in upstate New York during the War of 1812 and this spring Molly and Emily received new items in their line - pajamas and a redesigned bed.

American Girl Historical Doll Release & Retirement years with total dolls from the collection with other key company developments³:

• 1986 - 3 - Molly (1944 Illinois - WWII), Samantha (1904 New York - Edwardian), Kirsten (1856 Minnesota - Pioneer) released
• 1991 - 4 - Felicity (1774 Williamsburg, VA - Pre-Revolutionary War) released
• 1993 - 5 - Addy (1864 Philadelphia - a former Slave) released
• 1995 - American Girl of Today (now My American Girl) released
• 1997 - 6 - Josefina (1824 New Mexico under Mexican rule) released
• 1998 - American Girl Place opens in Chicago & Mattel purchases the company
• 2000 - 7 - Kit (1934 Ohio - Depression)
• 2001 - First Girl of the Year released
• 2002 - 8 - Kaya (1764 Pacific Northwest - Native American) released
• 2004 - 8+1 - Nellie (Samantha's Friend) released
• 2005 - 8+2 - Elizabeth (Felicity's Friend) released
• 2006 - 8+3 - Emily (Molly's Friend) released
• 2007 - 9+4 - Julie & Ivy (1970s) released
• 2008 - 9+5 - Ruthie (Kit's Friend) released
• 2009 - 9+4 - Samantha & Nellie retired, Rebecca released (1914 Immigrants)
• 2010 - 8+4 - Kirsten retired
• 2011 - 9+3 - Felicity & Elizabeth retired, Marie-Grace and Cécile released
• 2012 - 10+3 - Caroline released (1812)

A few things jump out at me, blame is largely placed on Mattel and the corporate, profit drive. the My American Girl dolls which are much disparaged in both articles were released in 1995, 3 years BEFORE Mattel purchased the company. Likewise, the first store was opened about the same time as the sale.

At the current time, there are 13 Historical Dolls Available (10 main dolls and 3 friends). (Marie-Grace and Cécile are both considered co-main characters and share a 6 book series, 3 books with each as the main character.) While there have been 3 main dolls retired, new ones have been added. 10 is the most main characters that they have ever had. They also offer the Girl of the Year doll and a selection of My American Girl dolls so girls can find one that looks like them. The books, movies, and mini-dolls are still available for the original dolls.

One of main contentions from The Atlantic article is that the catalogs and website no longer features the historical dolls in as much detail or with prominence. I disagree on the prominence. There have been at least two catalogs that featured Caroline prominently since her September 2012 release. Similarly, there were several catalogs featuring Marie-Grace and Cécile (New Orleans 1854) when they were released in fall 2011. These catalogs typically feature other historical dolls in the front section.

It seems most of the authors are comparing the catalog of their youth from the late 80's or early 90's when there were 3-5 dolls to today when there are 10 main historical characters plus assorted other characters. It is simply not practical to cover 10 characters in the same detail that was provided when there were only 3-5 characters. Plus, the website is now available for more more information on the characters.

Now, to discuss the website. The Atlantic article discusses the website and the historical dolls:

They are almost an afterthought on the website, where the homepage features matching doll and girl outfits, plus the product line and online game for Saige, the latest Girl of the Year.¹

I just went to the American Girl website. I would argue that the home page is little more than a landing page. The main content now is largely generic. While the Shop link highlights Saige (2013 Girl of the Year), the Play tab highlights Kaya's new game.

I selected Play first. Here the Historical Girls are not hidden. As a matter of fact, the historical dolls link is above Girl of the Year or My American Girl. You can select any of the main characters (including the retired Felicity, Samantha, and Kirsten) for more information and to play games related to them. Personally, I'd rather send my daughter to the website to learn about the dolls instead of a catalog. The Play section of the website is separate from the Shop section so they can learn about the history without the "Buy This" message so obviously in their face.

In iOS Apps, there is an app for each doll released since 2011:

• Caroline's Port to Port and  Marie-Grace & Cécile's Secret Wardrobe for the new Historical dolls
• Saige's Paint Ponies, McKenna's Gymnastics, and Kanani's Shave Ice for the Girls of the Year
• Runaway Pup and Cheer On for Innerstar University (My American Girl)

Since the apps are available for all dolls released after 2011, I don't have a problem with their being more Girl of the Year apps than Historical doll apps. All of the apps are free except for Runaway Pup  which costs $2.99. My daughter has all of the apps and uses them all.

For the record when my daughter first asked for an American Girl doll, I knew none of the company's history. Until that point, my daughter had expressed no interest in dolls. I was planning to buy her a My American Girl doll, but she was fascinated by the stories that came with the dolls and as a bookworm loved that they came with a book. The two dolls that she wanted were Kanani (2011 Girl of the Year) and Molly (1944, an original which we did not know at the time). She was fascinated with the idea of Kanani being from Hawaii. Plus, she fell in love with the Monk Seal, since Kanani was only available that year, we bought her Kanani and the Monk Seal for Christmas. I'm not sure why she identified with Molly - maybe because of a slight resemblance or because Dad is always watching shows about World War II on the History Channel. She saved the money to buy Molly herself. She now has Molly's friend Emily and McKenna - the 2012 Girl of the Year.

My daughter has 7 complete sets of the Historical Girl books. Before Christmas in 2011, Costco had sets of the books with a mini-doll. At the time, I bought her the Felicity set and my parents bought her Kit. When she loved those, I was upset that I had not bought additional sets. This year when they had the sets, I bought every set that was available where she did not have the books already. Before having the sets, she was routinely checking the books out of the school library.

Last fall as Halloween approached, she decided to be Molly for Halloween. Not just Molly, but Halloween Molly. Of course there is no Molly costume for girls, so we got to make it. Fortunately she already had a red sweater like Molly and we were able to make her own skirt.


I don't see the stores mentioned in the article, but would like to add a few thoughts. First, I live 4 hours from the nearest American Girl store (Chicago) so we have only been once, when my daughter bought Molly. Before we went, I looked at the calendar and saw that an upcoming day had Molly themed activities so we decided to wait for "Molly Day". In looking at the events calendar, they currently have Kit's Imagination Celebration, Kit's Tree House Craft, American Girl Historical Character Scavenger Hunt, Marie-Grace & Cecile's Dance Slipper Craft, Julie's Bracelet Craft, Julie's Seventies Party, Julie's Disco Dance Steps Demo, and Molly's Victory Garden Craft. We did Molly's Victory Garden Craft and the American Girl Historical Character Scavenger Hunt as well as a Molly themed dining event.

The Chicago store is an anchor store of Water Tower Place on two floors. The first floor is street level. When you walk in from the main Michigan Avenue entrance, you encounter the books (with the historic dolls series prominently featured), a small display with the Girl of the Year and proceeding forward is the Historical Girl area. The My American Girl dolls are upstairs (as is the doll salon and cafe) as is the larger display of Girls of the Year.

I also disagree with the disparaging of the issues faced in the Girl of the Year books. In Saige's book, she deals with cuts to the arts program and ways to help. From the Washington Post article:

OH GOD! NOT THE ARTS BUDGET! THAT’S LIKE WORLD WAR II AND SLAVERY ALL ROLLED INTO ONE!²

Yes, it is not on the same scale, but it is a real issue that is being faced in many communities across the country. I guess the author has no problem with slashing arts budgets since it is unimportant on the grand scale. Plus, how can you blame American Girl for tackling a mild issue. A few years ago the Girl of the Year Chrissa was given a friend Gwen who was formerly homeless following her dad leaving, her mom's job loss, and a foreclosure. At the time, American Girl received criticism for this both for both portraying men as unreliable and the cost of a doll depicting the homeless.

The Washington Post article goes on to disparage the Innerstar University books such as Bound for Snow. These books are written in the first person and allow you to make choices guiding the course of the story...much like the Choose Your Own Adventure Books that I read growing up. I loved them because I could read them multiple times and they would be a different story each time. We don't have Bound for Snow, but have Innerstar University 4 Book Sports Set. As a parent, I love that I can buy one book which will encourage my daughter to read it over and over. 

So why stop with American Girl? Maybe we should disparage all literature that is not historical fiction or doesn't tackle a huge social issue. The My American Girl dolls may lack the spark of history, but since they are devoid of a backstory, they are much more available for imaginative play. Honestly, my daughter has never been greatly into imaginative play which is why I think she never liked dolls before the American Girl dolls. She wanted the dolls who had their characters and stories established.

Another reason that I personally see an increase in interest in the non-historical characters is the demographics of the customer. In the initial years, American Girl dolls were targeted at tween girls (ages 8-12). Now, American Girl is starting to attract the second generation. Moms who had their own doll, or always wanted one, are eager to share their experience with their daughter and are buying them their dolls at younger ages. My daughter is 7 and most of her friends have an American Girl doll. Younger girls are less likely to be interested in the historical characters since the books are targeted towards a more advanced reader. The subject matter in the books and movies is also geared towards an older audience. Many 5-6 year olds would be disturbed by themes in the books.

Personally, I think they achieve a nice balance with t Historical Girls, Girls of the Year, and My American Girl.

What do you think? Are you disturbed by American Girl diversifying from the historical roots?


References:
¹Schiller, Amy. "American Girls Aren't Radical Anymore". The Atlantic. April 23, 2013. Web. May 8, 2013
²Petri, Alexandra. "Even more terrible things are happening to the American Girl doll brand than you thought". The Washington Post. May 1, 2013. Web. May 8, 2013.
³ History_of_American_Girl. American Girl Wiki. Web. May 8, 2013

American Girl Doll Salon

On our trip to the American Girl Store in Chicago, my daughter brought along her Kanani doll in addition to the Molly doll that she bought when we were at the store.

Watching Kanani's
Salon Appointment

She received Kanani for Christmas and Kanani has long, thick hair that over the prior 6 months had filled with tangles and knots and looked "ratty". I had looked up tips on brushing their hair, and done it once without much success. My parents had watched my daughter one night the week before the trip, and I had not known that my Mom had worked on Kanani’s hair. I knew the store had a doll salon and my plan was to have them brush out Kanani’s hair.

Hair Stylist with the
"Tools of the Trade"

The doll salon is located on the second floor of the shop next to the doll hospital. Doll hair styles start at $5 and go up to $25. They have styles for short hair, long hair, and curly hair. My daughter selected the style of the month and we had an appointment to start in about 20 minutes. You need to pay for the hair style before you can pick up your doll, so we went to pay before our appointment. Kanani sat on the shelf with our order ticket until her appointment time. We made sure to return to watch Kanani's visit to the salon. As we were waiting for Kanani’s turn, my mom commented that they could have quite the business giving girls and dolls the same hairstyle. Of course they probably do a sufficient business with the dolls hair that they don't need the added space, equipment, and licensing that would be involved in also doing hair styles on girls.

When her appointment began, the stylist strapped Kanani in the styling chair and put a styling cape around her. They began by misting her hair until it was fairly wet and then began brushing out her hair. We talked to the stylist as she worked and received some tips on styling - always wet the hair before brushing, use a stiff bristle brush (like the metal bristle brush they sell), and a hard bristle toothbrush is good for smoothing the hair. Also, be very careful not to get the water in their eyes as the eyes are metal and will rust. We were also advised that we should leave Molly’s hair in its braids, or redo it right away if it comes loose. By wetting the hair, the doll lost much less hair than when we had tried to brush it dry.

Kanani's Hairstyle

My daughter was able to choose two ribbons to go in Kanani’s hair. I think she did a great job picking a blue and a pink that matched Kanani’s dress very well.

As our stylist was working on the hairstyle, we questioned whether she knew we were doing the style of the month since it didn’t look quite the same as we had remembered. She got about half-way through and said wait a minute. We were there on the first of the month, and she had started the previous month's style. Since it was half-way done (and we liked it better), we told her we were okay with her finishing that hair style. The style we ended up with looked more intricate, so I am not sure if it had been the same $20 price, but it was less effort for her to finish the hairstyle than undo it and do the current hairstyle.

First Day of School with
Kanani's Hairstyle

My daughter loved Kanani’s hairstyle and asked me to put her hair in the same style the next day. The style was fairly time consuming, so it will be a special event hair style. The only change that we made is that her hair is not long enough to braid the resulting pony tail at the bottom so my daughter wears it without the braid. My daughter requested the hair style for the first day of school and willingly woke up 20 minutes early to have me do the braids. She is also planning on wearing this style as a flower girl in my sister's wedding. I took lots of pictures for the hair stylist to be able to replicate the hairstyle.

If your daughter’s doll has hair that is a mess, it is worth paying for a hairstyle - especially one that results in her hair being fully captured in braids and pony tails.