American Girl's Hidden Scandals 

When I was a young Black girl, I was in love with Addy and her story. I was in third grade when I was introduced to American Girls, and the fact they had a Black girl, a Black girl who made the hard choice to become separated from the rest of her family for a chance of freedom, after her brother and father had been sold to separate slave owners was absolutely amazing. I went to a pretty much all white school, and everyone there tiptoed around racism, and here was a book story that said "Here's a girl that went through what no one wants to talk about. She lost her family, she decided to be brave and run, and even in freedom she faces racism. But she learns how to read, and she finds Black friends, and has a Black teacher, and her father comes back and Addy teaches him how to read! And he teaches Addy how to love the earth again! Her brother comes back after fighting in the war for the freedom of other Black people, and he lost his arm, but he's still her brother. Her family reunites with her baby sister and her aunt, who they had to leave down south, and there's hope for a brighter tomorrow!" Anyways, Addy's story is important, and more people should actually read it, instead of going "Oh, they made a book about slavery. That's in poor taste." Like... pick it up. It's a story about hope.

Don't forget the Logan scandal. Logan has the Kaya face mold, he's the only doll besides Kaya to have this mold. Kaya is the only Native American doll and her mold is special because it doesn't show teeth as showing teeth in her culture is a sign of aggression. So American Girl took this special Kaya mold made with her specific culture in mind and they slap in on a white dude, and not only that the only guy doll at the time. To me that just smacks of disrespect to Kaya and the whole people group she represents.

Almost all the American girls stories went into so many heavy topics. I sobbed when Kirsten’s best friend died of cholera in the books. I remember one of the kids stapling his fingers in the Samantha movie, Emily going through the bombing of her city, Kit worrying about being evicted and seeing that in the movie really shoved the reality of homelessness in everyone’s faces…

I do think American Girl has done much better this year. The goty doll for 2022 is Corrine Tan who who is a Chinese-American girl and her books cover the topics of post-covid racism towards Asian communities. Corrine even has a brand new facemold so she doesnt look like any doll from before. She's also getting a movie later this year. I do fully agree though, Gabriella was a big fuck up and I hope their future dolls are more diverse and well thought.

I didn’t wake up this morning thinking that I wanted to hear a law student explain the nuances of capitalism and privilege using American Girl dolls, but I definitely needed it

Former AG employee here, I loved this video!!! I started there during 2017 so I was very personally invested in the Gabby-Tenney discourse, lmao. I wasn't around for the late-2016 rumours BUT I heard there was tons of discourse online at the time because of Tenney leaks, so I feel confident that she was GOTY and they had to pivot at the last minute because people were pissed. The fandom can really be a wonderful, progressive place devoted to positive change!!! AG definitely has a diversity problem, but I think part of it does legitimately have to do with sales. I worked in a very diverse city but the dolls of colour always stayed on the shelves WAY longer. A memory that's pissed me off for years is when a woman saw the Z doll on display and said she was beautiful, which she is! But then she saw the real-life young model on Z's book, her reaction was "oh no this doll can't be asian, she's too pretty. She's definitely white." I also had a lot of parents ask me to pick a doll that looks like their child but then say I picked one with skin that's too dark. I think it's part of a larger societal problem with where generational wealth lies and the association of American Girl with upper-class white families, as well as just a subconscious response of either 1) white kids defaulting to what they themselves look like, or 2) non-white kids being trained to not like their own features? Like, Luciana was the coolest doll they've maybe ever had but I still had to actively convince people to buy her. *I'm not giving AG a pass though*, it was just frustrating to see even their meaningful attempts fall flat. I'm still really pissed that they put out an empty BLM statement in June 2020 about being committed to diversity while having more than half a year to rework GOTY 2021 but still just going with Kira, their most bland blonde GOTY to date (IMO). We all know they did it with Gabriela last minute, couldn't they muster up SOMETHING to make Kira less boring? I'm still annoyed by how nothing she was... Anyway thank you for talking about the Gabby incident, non-doll people need to KNOW

These babies were too expensive for my family growing up, but my friend had,, dozens? That could be an exaggeration but she had SO many all piled up and didn't even remember all their names. When I was slightly older a family friend bought me a gift certificate to build-a-bear and so they became my obsession.

Growing up a Type One Diabetic was REALLY hard, mostly because of the lack of representation for me. I didn’t have anyone that I could relate to in media, but AG had a T1D kit and my favorite doll could share the experiences I had. That kit had everything I used irl. One of my best childhood memories 😔

My favorite character was 100% Kit. I have no idea what drew me to her so much, but she sparked a life long hunt for a roll top desk like hers. I was googling like crazy hunting for one I could convince my parents to buy. Now at 23 I just inherited one that originally belonged to my family from the same time Kit was from. Life has a funny way of working out sometimes

I wasn’t into American girl dolls for long, but my first experience was with Kanani, a Hawaiian doll of the year. I just remember being so thrilled that a doll had hair super long like mine, past the waist even as like a 6 yr old, that I instantly connected. I wish every girl had an experience like that where they could just relate and connect to a doll who made them feel seen

I loved AG growing up, Marisol, the girl of the year for 2005 was my girl, because she looked like me. She even lived in the same area as me. I know she’s not perfect, but growing up as a Mexican girl in a mostly white area, it felt nice to see a girl like me, and I didn’t have to wish to be a pretty blonde girl for once. I remember I was even reading her book in a waiting room, and someone asked if it was me on the cover. I think I donated her years ago since I grew too old to “play” with her, but a part of me misses her lol.

I swear to god I also remember Taylor Swift having a blue guitar but when I just looked it up, I think it's because the "teardrops on my guitar" cover had that same turquoise blue color and I just associated it so much with "Taylor Swift" and "guitar".....that's my only reasoning for how this blue guitar association started.

Also the 2020 girl of the year Joss actually is deaf and wears a hearing aid, I grew up being partially deaf with lots of surgeries and I think it’s really cool that she has a hearing aid. Granted if you want to get any other doll a hearing aid you would have to send them to the doll hospital to have a hearing aid put on which I kind of think is really silly.

There was also one where there was a homeless girl. None of the profits of sales of her went to help homeless children so people complained.

I have a "just like me" doll from maybe 2010. I adored her. We had matching pajamas and I used to save up to buy her outfits. I'm from the UK and heard about them through a friend who is of Indian heritage. Her Dad bought her a "just like me" doll while travelling in the States because he'd never seen a doll that looked like his daughter.

I 100% agree the whole Gabriella incident was horrible from American girl lol like that was really outta pocket, the first black girl of the year doll and your going to reuse a truly me doll. The first girl of the year to be 100% a recycled truly me doll, they could have given her different eyes, different hair, but no they redressed their old truly me doll in a new outfit and sold her. I remember people looking at her body tag and seeing like 2013 on it and stuff like she was litterally recycled. And personally I was pretty upset about that because I was so excited to hear about the first black girl of the year and then what we got was a slap in the face. They pretty much said "a black girl of the year doll isn't worth the development, budget, unique designs that we give to our white dolls" it was very disrespectful.

The first disabled American Girl doll (goty) was McKenna. They say in the movie that she has dyslexia. I am also pretty sure it says she has a learning disability in the book but I don’t remember, but I know in the movie for sure they say she has dyslexia. It was a pretty big part of her storyline too since the movie was based on her struggle with dyslexia and managing gymnastics.

Not me, a 6ft3in carpenter, passing my time during my workday by learning about AG doll controversies.

I’ll never forget when the dolls went from $95 to $105 🤠

The Taylor Swift one is new to me, but I've heard about the Luciana scandal before. Honestly, I think both cases are pretty weak, especially when it comes to the clothes argument- in 2018 you couldn't go anywhere without seeing galaxy print and holo clothes, and purple streak hair is also like Tumblr girl 101 fashion. Same with the 'Taylor Swift' doll allegation; that's just what the popular fashion was, so of course both a really popular musician and a Girl of the Year doll were wearing it. I was obsessed with AG as a kid, I loved the historical dolls so much and would get a lot of their books. Samantha was my favorite too, I loved her clothes so much (still am obsessed with Victorian/Edwardian fashion). I've finally fulfilled my childhood dream and got a Samantha doll recently off eBay, currently working to fix her up. It makes me really sad how many of the historical dolls have been discontinued/archived, I loved them so much as a kid and I think they're just... better? They're more diverse than the GOTY collection, educational, and just something different from a lot of other dolls. With Addy having a harsh backstory... it's true but I think that kids should be able to learn about that, a lot of the historical dolls deal with overcoming historical challenges- immigration, poverty, war, etc. Honestly I also wish they'd gone harder for Molly- and bring up more about WWII in Europe- but you can't complain that her story didn't go hard enough and say that Addy's was too hard at the same time. But with how much schools like to gloss over and lie about terrible periods in history like slavery, I'm glad we had a company that was trying to bring up some of these issues to kids.

There’s rumors we are supposed to be getting a black 1920s historical doll this year or next year. I hope they continue to diversify their lines. I do think the new World By Us line is a good move as well.

Pleasant Company really cared about representation and learning and hope with the doll's stories, and Mattel just threw that away when they bought the company and made it American Girl, especially meaningful good representation.

I understand that American girl is far from a perfect company however I wish we could also take a moment to appreciate all of the wonderful things that they have done for different children, too. Most toy companies don't have "hospitals" where you can send your doll when they get an injury. They also offer hearing aids, casts, wheelchairs, I even saw a video of a little girl receiving a doll with a prosthetic leg just like hers. If you have a child going through chemo American girl will make a doll without hair and send you a wig. I have to give it to them they have gone above and beyond to make little girls feel like they can have something or someone to relate to. I think the cancel culture is damaging. I feel like them offering dolls with hearing aids is something more worth talking about then a doll that looks too much like Taylor Swift. I'm not excusing the things that they've done that aren't perfect but I will say that it's only reasonable and a company that's been around that long is bound to make a few mistakes. I loved my American girl doll when I was a kid and I will probably end up buying one for my daughter when she is old enough to take interest.

When I went through my American Girl phase, I was a blonde haired white girl and saw literally rows of dolls that looked exactly like me, but also dolls that looked like my friends at school. I remember picking up books about little girls who lived centuries away from me and looked nothing like me yet I felt like they were also just like me and had similar thoughts and feelings. My older sister passed down her books on Kaya and I eventually became obsessed with Rebecca Rubin and eventually started calling my grandma "bubby" like she called hers. I liked that I was able to learn about these different cultures and time periods and demographics as a kid and tried my best to describe what a Menorah was as a 9 year old to my mom because I had just learned what it was from the book I read. Of course I'm not saying there isn't more room for diversity, however I appreciated being able to have that exposure and it be in an easy to digest way.

I went through a whole AG phase as a preteen. I ultimately accumulated 4 dolls, Rebecca, Lanie (the Girl of the Year 2010), Marie-Grace (a historical character they don't have anymore), and a Just Like You doll I named Peyton. I'm happy to have them, but looking back I do feel bad for forcing my parents to get me overpriced dolls for Christmas 😅

I am pissed to this day that Courtney is another blue eyed and blonde eyed girl. She looks like MarryEllen and she is also looks like Kirsten. They could easily make Courtney black. The 80s were HUGE for black culture. They also got rid of Cecile and you can't buy any of Addys collection anymore. The only black historical doll you can buy with accessories is Meolody.

I miss American Girl from like 2016 and before then. The furniture was good quality, the clothes and accessories were more historically accurate, and the dolls had their original books. I hated when beforever came out and they changed all the historical characters.

As a poor kid, I had this reaction of “That’s dumb why would you spend that much money on a doll Barbies are better anyways” But looking back I feel like it was an instinctual way to protect myself from the FOMO. I developed a reverse-elitist attitude where fancy expensive things were a scam and it’s dumb to waste your money on that stuff. People who bought designer clothes were bad at shopping, and uncreative. Only people who are out of touch feel compelled to buy organic. The rest of us know it’s a waste of money. Why would a person buy that when they could have DIY’d it, they must lack skills. It’s obviously judgmental and Lacks nuance but I find my childhood mentality sorta funny. Like I wasn’t about to feel ashamed so I made my own type of ideals.

The historical dolls, I was obsessed with 3: Josefina, Addy, and Kit. Josefina was my all time favorite though. She was Mexican and all that stuff. I was young and was like only living in the US for a few years. As a Latina Immigrant with fairly dark ish skin experiencing so much racism at the time, it was comforting. Edit: I did not have any of these dolls. It was just a sign of hope for me

on Maryellen, while her disability isn't brought up a bunch, one of her stories revolves around her raising money for polio vaccines, so her having polio does impact her stories.

I do feel the need to point out that getting two books was typical of the Girl of the Year dolls so Gabriella getting a third book at all was unusual. I remember I was surprised when the GotY dolls started getting three books. In contrast the historical dolls have six books each so Tenny being released with 4 while Gabriella had 2 would be what I would expect for a new line doll vs. a GotY doll.

My favorite character by far was Molly. My mom tried getting me into Julie since Julie was the same age as her at the time, but Molly was my favorite. Little white girl with brown hair, glasses, and came from the same nationality that I was?? She was my favorite. I’m just happy now that they are trying to give more diversity. Claudie, Kava, Joss, and Corrine are both really big steps for the company. For those who don’t know, Claudie is the 1920 historical doll, and she is a black girl, Kava is the 2023 Girl of the Year who is southern Asian and has ADHD with a focus on Musical Theater, Corrine is the 2022 girl of the year who likes skiing and is Asian, and Joss is the 2020 girl of the year who has an interest in surfing and is deaf.

I worked at an AG store during all these controversies. Oh the stories! Trying to draw any attention to Gabi from Tenney was impossible.

i love serious AG analyses like this, as an avid AG fan for 14 years (got my first doll at 5). so glad you covered this!! important to note the controversies with logan specifically as well--using the kaya mold for another doll, especially a white boy doll at that.

I am all here for American girl doll lore. There's so many controversies but I remember thinking they were so cool as a kid

i remember saving up my allowances for a year to buy an american girl doll. i ended up getting the 'just like me' doll (which is what i think it was called at the time) instead of the historical dolls, which i kind of regret in retrospect.

It's ALL ALLEGED but I'm not surprised. My brother and I made it a game when watching ads on tv to look out for the "token" dolls. They'd always be at the back of the display, or only in the last wide shot at the end to show the line-up. And they'd always seem to be lower stock in the shops compared to the others like Taylor vs Sharpay or Gabriella from HSM GRANTED THERE HAS BEEN progressing, Back in my day all the dolls had caucasian hair.

I remember my mom giving me her old Molly for Christmas when I was about 8, and I got Grace a year or two after. I wanted that big-ass bistro thing so bad but it was like $300 or something... I remember reading a lot of the books for girls I didn't have, and browsing the catalog each month when it came in the mail.

Tenny is also Caroline, an old historical girl that was discontinued. The exact same mold. Caroline was my favorite and I was sad when she got discontinued and even more so when they used her exact same design to market 2 new dolls.

Gabriela’s meet outfit was actually offered for free to anyone who had bought 46 within the past two years of Gabby’s release. I was able to get the meet outfit for free. Z was actually closer to Truly Me 30. The original Z used in the AG stop motion videos was a TM 30. I have Jess and my mom has TM 30.

Z and Jess actually have very different wigs. Z’s is long black and straight, while Jess’s is medium length, wavy, and has red tones. They share a mold because that is the face mold American girl uses most often for Asian characters.

This is interesting, I had no idea there'd been so much controversy over the GotY dolls. I was a history nerd kid, so I really loved (most of) the old books and dolls when I was a kid in the early 2000s; I even read all the nonfiction "World" books. It upset me when they were bought by Mattel, since Mattel started getting rid of the historical dolls, and their books became less serious, so I ended up drifting away from AG. Recently though, I've been cleaning up my old Felicity and thinking about rereading the old books and seeing if they're as good as I remember (when I was 7 or 8) or not...

It took wayyyy too long for them to make the boy version of the dolls. I remember growing up and always wanting my girls to have guy friends so I used stuffed animals as back ups.

Honestly, the whole doll industry is so messy, especially when it comes to stealing people's likenesses. The LOL OMG doll line has taken this to a WHOLE new level. Almost all of those dolls are clearly based on a celebrity, but without permission.

Gotta say, I am fucking LOVING this surge in American Girl Doll memes, as someone who read the books, watched the movies, and had both the dolls a monthly subscription to the magazine, this is the funniest fucking thing ever

I’m this early on accident but this channel has the best topics

When I was a young girl I loved American Girl dolls and I still do now. I never cared for having a doll that looked like me, because I was a chubby kid with blonde/brown hair and blue eyes. I thought those features were boring and I always wanted to diversify my dolls to have each of them to look completely different from each other.

I had a Nellie doll that my mom got used off eBay and like one official AG outfit, all the rest was the Target off brand- I forgot about all the lore until this video and it think it was exactly what I needed to watch

why do these dolls need boyfriends aren’t they like 11 years old

Love this vid, as someone who quit the ag collecting community in 2017 it was because of the Gabby and Tenny dolls. I got my first ag doll, just like me #46 in 2012 after Gabby Douglas won all around that Olympics. I named her Gabby, she was my most favorite ag doll and the only one I kept. I knew lots of girls who named their dolls after gymnasts because the girl of the year for 2012 was a gymnast named McKenna. Every year I would watch the today show reveal of the girl of the year and in 2017 I was appalled. The dolls name mold and features were all the same.😳 if 8 year old could come up with the same gabby American girl, then same on the designers at ag.😬

I hated plastic dolls and always preferred stuffed animas when I was a wee child. By default I didn't care for the American Girl Dolls or get the hype. However, I understand the appeal now watching this video. Interesting analysis! Also I appreciate the rainbow makeup 😍.

I never know how much I wanted to know about the topics you cover until I watch your videos. I love your channel!

I remember I didn’t like Molly and I forgot why until now… I’m Jewish. Even as a kid I was very frustrated that she got the perspective on that. My grandfather was born in Canada before the Holocaust and even then, his entire village back in Europe was destroyed by the Nazis. But the company wanted to highlight the experiences of someone like Molly? It’s great that they’re taking steps but like… even kids can tell when they aren’t being represented properly. I’m deaf and when they announced they’d be selling hearing aids for the dolls that felt a bit hollow to me too (although I think I was a teenager at the time) because selling an item isn’t the same thing as sharing peoples stories or wanting to support girls who ARE part of these marginalized groups. I loved this video, thank you! 💗 also that doll is definitely Taylor Swift, so embarrassing for them (I love Taylor but… WOW). I don’t remember her name but my favourite girl of the year was the one who was from Belize because I had a friend from Costa Rica and I like learning about different countries,

I really enjoy hearing you talk about scandals. I think you have a nice mix of being great at researching for, writing, and presenting video essays along with your law student knowledge that really draws me in to videos like this. I'd love to see more videos about scandals/scams because of this!

I had 4 dolls as a child, Kit and Ruthie, Ivy Ling & Kanani. I now have 45 dolls. I loved your video! Don’t see a lot of American girl topics here on the platform.

Also congrats on being Tiffany Ferg’s small channel shoutout!

whoa I'm catching this video hot off the presses! excited to watch!

I’m SO fascinated by this! My mom’s love for the Little House series influenced me towards Kirsten lol. Love your videos 💕

This is the exact kind of niche content I am here for, thank you

omg you truly are hitting the greatest hits of my childhood

Omg I had one of the “custom” ones to look like you or whatever and I never tossed her Bc she wasn’t cheap 😅 NOW SHE IS MISSING so either my mom cleaned out the one important thing stores in her closet or we are about to have a whole Annabelle situation and I don’t wanna deal with all that.

I came across your video randomly and hadn’t thought about AG or AGD in two decades. I’m a black woman and had all of the Addy books, as well as all the historical collections stories available at time (circa mid-90s). You are absolutely right about being a black child and having confusing feelings about Addy/the Addy doll. I remember feeling elated to see a girl who looked like me on the cover of a book, given her own story and doll. But I also distinctly remember feeling cheated. I didn’t understand why Samantha got to wear pretty ribbons and dresses or why Molly got to be sporty, fun and adventurous while Addy was an enslaved/previously enslaved person. I think the lack of representation was why my interest in AGD was short lived as a kid. Great video btw! Thanks for the stroll down memory lane.

American Girl has been a lifelong obsession for me too, glad to see others enjoying it the way I do 🥰

I had a ton of hand me down AG books and they are really what got me into reading and history! I also had a just like me doll, tho what i really wanted was a historical doll that was also mixed with multiple nonwhite ethnicities

I notice Tenney's blue-ish guitar has that cyan-and-white color scheme I strongly associate with Debut (that is, _Taylor Swift_ the album, her first album, peak country). I also notice that in the set of earrings you show, the ones you claim look more like they're designed for Tenney than for Gabriella, have strong debut era vibes, especially the cyan flowers.

Apparently that doctor tried to gatekeep holographic and galaxy clothing? I remember hearing it somewhere

As a rising 2L that just finished spring finals but hasnt taken evidence or negotiation All i can say is this video is so interesting for law nerds hahaha good luck on the bar!!!

i totally forgot about Makennas story. i was tryna figure out why i loved her story/movie so much when i was younger and now looking back it was definitely cus she had a learning disability and i didn’t know i had one too

This has been the most random, informative & entertaining video I have ever watched stoned

And in addition to the Gabriella debacle, her meet outfit isn't even unique..... they reuse the black made to move barbies outfit. The ones that does yoga poses. There is a black made to move barbie that came out around Gabriellas time and they litterally used the same design down to the color, added "dream" on her shirt and called it good.

Ohh, excited for this video, Don't know much about American Girl in the UK but I did love driving my Bratz and HSM dolls in my toy Ferraris

I’m a 23 year old man, but I’m entirely invested in this story

I remember literally all of this. I got all the catalogs, and that was how I entertained myself as a kid. I never even asked my parents to buy most of the stuff I liked, I just enjoyed looking at the pictures

I’m black and I grew up doing dance right for my birthday I got addy, loved her cause she black right and our names are similar, my names Adia then like the month later I got Isabel for Christmas loved her cause she does dance fast forward 3 years I’ve already moved passed my American girl doll phase but garbriella comes out and I’m obsessed, my family goes to New York for some reason and I was like omg I was waiting for this moment and we go to the American girl store and I get Gabriella I’m obsessed with her story more then I ever was with Isabel, and addy’s story made me sad and I like cried every time I read it, and I literally didn’t remember the fact that Gabriella had a stutter and went to spearhead therapy but I literally did too and was insecure about for the longest time, Gabriella’s amazing

Air force barbie is iconic

im screaming over this channel i discovered the clique video first and now AG!? 😭😭 my inner child is LIVING

Did I own American Girl dolls growing up? No. Have I ever read an American Girl book or seen a movie? No. Have I so much as spent more than 30 seconds thinking about American Girl dolls in the last 20 years since I was 10? No. Did I watch this entire video utterly fascinated? YES.

This video is truly fascinating. Being german I had just a vague idea about American girl dolls. Basically what I had seen on tv or American RU-vidrs. So it’s interesting to find out more about the whole topic.

The Jake Gyllenhaal joke caught me so off guard I spit out my water💀💀

This is all very interesting! I grew up in the 90s and had Molly, a lookalike doll, and a Bitty Baby doll. I didn’t know about the “girl of the year” stuff!

I went to space camp in Huntsville when Luciana Vega came out and it was WILD. They promoted that shit so much there was a specific group in space camp dedicated to the American girl dolls. There was a whole display with all the stuff you can buy. I just got back a week ago and they STILL have a display with her decorations, just not for sale.

Historical dolls got me into history. Everyone tell AG to bring back the historical girls

omg the taylor, and justin bieber books… i used to get those at the scholastic book fair

I remember getting the AG magazine catalogs as a kid and pouring over all the dolls I couldn't have, lol. I saved up enough to get one, and I picked Molly. Mainly because she looked more like my kid self than the "just like me" dolls of the time. Were there more interesting characters I could have picked? Maybe. Probably. But I enjoyed her books and the character all the same. Although my grandmother ended up liking Molly the doll waaaay more than I did, and for the last few years of her life, I just... left the doll with her. These days I still have Molly somewhere, and thanks to my grandma, she still looks pristine. Her hair is in a different style than intended, but... I can't bring myself to change it.

I love your videos so much. I didn’t know I wanted to hear you talk about American Girl but of course I do

I remember seeing Marisol in this American girl history book or something when I was like 8, and I was so excited that there was a doll that looked like me, with my interests, and with a similar style to me. by then she was discontinued so I couldn't get her but she was the one doll in my childhood that I would've done anything to get.

I remember my American Girl doll, Caroline Abbott (war of 1812 doll) because my mom liked the way she looked. I wanted Kaya, but she said I couldn’t have her because I didn’t look like her. I didn’t look like Caroline either but i think the blonde hair and blue eyes is what made her pick her for me. I remember (despite not liking her much) how upset I was when she was retired and replaced with Maryellen. They looked nearly identical but just wore different outfits (besides the hair texture) and then was when I realized that American girl absolutely sucks at diversity. Currently working on getting a kaya doll so screw you mom 🥰

Shout out to everyone whose parents couldn't afford an American Girl doll for them.

i love the way you talk about how similar the doll models were. Its like we're at a crime scene or sumn i luv it

13:50 it was stated in McKenna's story she did have a learning disability - it was a major part of her story

I could truly watch you talk about ANYTHING …. Can’t wait for the next h20 viddy!

new ashley lets fucking go

"Samantha was my girl" YES! I LOVE Samantha! I finally got her as a birthday present last year and it was AWESOME! *ehem* sorry you were saying?

omg yes i can’t wait for h2o season 2 vid!! also this was a great video and its really making me want to get back into american girl dolls

i was So obsessed with american girl as a kid which is kind of insane seeing i never lived in the us but I DID manage to get my hands on a handful of catalogues and they were my most prized possession

Tbh I don't think American Girl is the company we should be going after as racist. They have made strides in filling in racial gaps in our history that no other company has. Let alone a toy company. To try and tactfully explain racial and cultural issues in a way that is sensitive to their younger audience, is admirable. I really liked addy's story as a kid. It didn't scare me like you suggested. Seeing a lot of the comments from black women here has only cemented that feeling for me tbh. I think what happened was probably closer to the second option. Something happened that made it so that they needed to release the country star doll later, so they thought "hey now might be a good time to release a black doll!" Kill 2 birds with one stone and all that. It just didn't go as well as they hoped.

i loved addy as a doll growing up (mostly because i was just thankful to have an american girl doll) but i do remember having a sense of embarrassment or shame playing with my white friends and their dolls who would look just like them or have backstories that didn’t relate to something so traumatic

that video clip of all the dolls moving scary as hell

Great vid, I know less being in the UK but very well researched

I remember looking through an American Girl catalogue once as a kid and I always thought the historical dolls were so cool! Hell, I remember wanting the long overcoat that Samantha wears along with the hat because they did sell wearable life sized versions of that back in the early 2000s. I also briefly saw her movie but I only vaguely remember it. I should watch it again some time. Looking at the customization options for the current dolls, the hairstyles to choose from are pretty limited, particularly hair (though I guess you could modify it later to give the doll short bangs if you wanted). There seem to be a couple natural hair options that would fit a girl of color which makes me wonder if anyone's even pulled off coily hair in dolls yet, like teeny tiny curls (I can't remember what texture label it has though, it's been a while since I read about hair texture in poc).