Revisiting American Girl's 'AWFUL' Rebrand 

The reason everyone hates it is because they threw away all the details and accuracy of the historical dolls to cut costs and ‘sell better’

"Don't rebrand your doll line or else some twink on RU-vid with a Costuming degree might show up 8 years later to call you a flop" 😂 lmao I always appreciate how you slip in the snark like this

As a Chinese American, the loss of Ivy Ling was heartbreaking for me. There were very few characters who looked like me in mainstream media, so I grew attached to her so quickly. I'm extremely disappointed that Mattel has yet to be bothered to put out another historical Asian doll.

Theres nothing wrong with girly stuff and pink but i really feel like mattel even to this day just sees little girls as a monolith-like they cant like something if its not decked in pink and glitter

Some of my major nitpicks as someone who's a huge history nerd: - Samantha's Beforever meet outfit looks NOTHING like what a girl in 1904 would wear. It looks almost like a modern-day outfit, except for the frills. - Kit's Beforever meet dress, once again, looks nothing like a 1930's dress. The belt actyally makes it look like a dress from the 60's. - Julie's Beforever meet outfit is so stereotypical, it hurts my eyes. - All we need for Felicity to become a full-on Tudor doll is a ruff and a cap.

i cracked up when felicity's be forever dress came on screen at 13:02 😭 it looks like if someone tried to make fiona from shrek's dress out of a couch

It feels like the rebrand no longer took into consideration that these are historical figures meant to live in that time period and instead treated them as cute aesthetic dolls. Their original outfits were so much nicer and cuter and had no need to be changed and finally, they were accurate to those time periods though they aren’t anymore.

Oh my god when you showed felicity's rebrand outfit I had to do a double take. It's such a downgrade from all her earlier outfits it hurts 💀

I think a huge issue with the modern collection is the difference in materials! The original historical dolls had clothing made out of cotton or linen, etc. so they laid/draped correctly and felt authentic. The Beforever outfits were just polyester, polyester, and more plastic which makes them feel cheap and anachronistic. Kit’s original meet outfit was a knitted sweater set, but her new outfit was polyester with a huge, gaudy plastic belt loop! It makes the work feel careless.

As someone who studies historical fashion, is getting a degree in historical methods, and works at a museum making recreation dresses, I can tell you this makes me real sad. I gre up with these dolls as a kid and as adult loved the old designs that had so many details and nods to historical clothing

Unlike the actual outfit itself, that OshKosh B'gosh read of Kit Kittredge's BeForever outfit was INCREDIBLY accurate. Look at how they massacred my girl!

im not a doll collector at all. but as a kid i was obsessed with their native american doll (forgot her name) because im canadian indigenous so i felt kinda validated. but, us natives cant afford that shit.

2014 is also the year Mattel rebooted Monster High. The faces were made more round, the characters given brighter colors (and way more pink across lines instead of reserving it for Draculaura), and the overall clothing/design quality went down. Interesting that this happened to American Girl the same year.

My mum was a kid/teenager in the 70s and I swear there are old photos of her dressed in outfits EXACTLY like Julie in her original line- that accuracy is amazing!

It's heatbreaking that now that im an adult who could buy herself a historical doll or two, they've changed what made them historical! I used to love the american girl doll catalogue and the clothes and accessories were very cool.

I don't understand why they picked such an unflattering photo for Felicity's redesign dress too, like what were they thinking, it makes her dress look box-shaped???

I mean, this might be looking too deeply into this, but it does seem kind of messed up to save pink, the most girlish and desirable color (by modern girl standards) for the more marketable white characters, and take it away from Addy, just to leave her with blue.

growing up in the 2000s, the historical "best friends" were some of my favourite dolls, and I think it was so sad to see them just disappear. I know they might not have had the same historical accuracy as some of the older doll outfits, but they were CUTE. Emily, Elizabeth, Ruthie, NELLIE had some of my favourite outfits of all time.

As a non-American I didn't know American Girl was even real and not invented by The Simpsons until much later and yet here I am scandalized Mattel would butcher these poor girls like that smh

I remember being so (briefly) excited Samantha was being unretired because of my deep childhood love for her- and then immediately HORRIFIED at what they did to her. look how they massacred my girl >.> she looks like she's dressed in the Target junior's section from 2014. just horrible

As a kid, Kit used to have the best outfits. Felicity, Elizabeth, Julie, and Ivys clothes were so adorable! Then they threw it all away with Beforever. I'm still mad about the Ivy thing too. They didn't have to get rid of her like that, especially because she's the only Asian doll they had. She had a really interesting backstory too, and her Chinese New Years dress was my favorite and pretty well designed. I'm just glad they didn't get rid of Kaya or Addy. Them "archiving" their characters was the worst decision imo. The original Samantha was so important and Kirsten was an very similar in culture, time period, and location to my ancestors that came here.

11:33 stooooop that original bicycling outfit was so cute. They absolutely massacred the girlies 😭

justice for Kaya. I love her sm. it hurts my heart they used her face mold for the AG boys

I hate that they don't publish American Girl Magazine anymore. I know no one reads magazines anymore, but I think they could've made it work for kids. Plenty of people want non technology forms of entertainment for kids. And they could've turned it into a successful social media empire too. It's so needed, because so much of the content that's made for kids today is such crap. They had a website back in the day, but they never seemed to realize its potential.

"Some twink on RU-vid with a costuming degree will call you a flop" 💀💀💀 your sense of humor is so good

The Addy doll was the first big purchase i ever made. It took all my Christmas and birthday money lol. I loved her books, and It makes me sad that anyone thought they were too disturbing. The fact that Addy and her family had traveled the underground railroad and struggled once they came north made her feel real to me.

In regards to colors, pink was a color associated with manliness and soldiers until sometime after the 1910s. Pink was associated with blood. Girls wore light blues, which were delicate like eggshells. Alice Blue, the color favored by Teddy Roosevelt's daughter was the last gasp for blue before the mysterious color change occurred.

The re-design of Felicity's meet dress made me say "no" out loud

I don't even like American Girl Dolls (never got into them even as I kid and I say the books at Barns and Noble school trips) and the change looks honestly heart wrenching. They used to be to well constructed and accurate which as someone into historical fashion now makes me sad that girls are getting a complete downgrade. That's not talking about the books that went into themes of poverty and hardship that kids do actually go through whether people want to admit it or not

Does anyone else remember when they made the mini American Girl Dolls so your American Girl Doll could have its own American Girl Doll-? That was weird

I wonder why Kirsten was dropped. I am fully biased as Kirsten was the only doll I had as a kid. But even if they made her wear purple or neon green… I would have wanted more outfits 😭

I seem to have completely missed the Beforever era, so I have never actually seen these outfits....I am shocked lol. Some of them looked so so bad, I can't believe they actually were approved and produced. I'm guessing there were some higher-ups that insisted on making the historical dolls more modern. At least it seems they learned their lesson!

I feel like they would have been better off making the Beforever line a series of extra outfits that could be what the characters would wear in different decades or modern day, rather than completely ditching the original outfits and replacing them with . . . Whatever this is.

I feel like BeForever was like, the gen 2 Monster High had. Awful research, made for toddlers, poor quality, etc. When I look at all the brands Mattel owns, around 2015-ish, you can really see how hard Mattel had fallen financially when you see the downgrade in all their brands, including American Girl. I'm just glad they're at least trying to fix what they broke with the American Girl brand. I feel like Claudie is actually a really good example of what American Girl should try to do going forward, keeping the historically accurate clothing but also having a separate contemporary-based collection. Just wish they would do another 1800's-based doll instead of focusing so much on 20th century characters, at least bring back Kirsten like they did Molly :(

About Julie: I was in high school in the 70's and Julie's original collection is so accurate. All of Julie's Beforever is not a dud, but that meet outfit is absolutely a hippy Halloween costume. I like the newer face molds. I really like the shorter hair on the newer Kit. I sew a lot of my doll clothes because historical fashion interests me.

I was their target demographic (9 year old girl) at the time of the rebrand and incredibly disappointed. One of the reasons I had loved AG so much was the quality and accuracy of the dolls, and how the books and the outfits worked with each other. I hated the pinkification of characters such as Samantha and Kit, and also did not appreciate the change in the books. I always loved colonial fashion, so Felicity’s new meet outfit hurt the most. I ended up saving up and buying an original Felicity on eBay when I was 11.

Why would they change the color of Addy's dress??? They want to color code these girls so much, her color was right there! I wonder what about her made them think she wouldn't wear pink 🧐 Edit: Taking the color of Addy's cover dress to give it to another white doll feels like some unintentionally racial stereotyping. Addy is as much of a feminine little girl as any of them.

I adore your insight and humor. I'm not a huge American Girl fan, but I always loved looking through their catalogs back in the 90s as a kid. Mattel in general has scaled back so much. I didn't know much about this brand before and I have a better appreciation for it now. Thank you for your time and research on this. Amazing videos as always.

One reason I think Rebecca’s 1910 collection was so accurate was the popularity of Downton Abbey at the time 😂 👍🏻

I got into the original series as a kid back in the 90s, and the Felicity doll and her clothes are what I attribute my love of historical costuming now, and there's a huge following still of adults who love them and make the outfits for themselves. It was around 2004 I remember noticing the changes, like Elizabeth being blonde when she'd always been a brunette, and all her clothes just being a color-swapped copy of Felicity's clothes, and Felicity herself getting a purple gown from a side story turned into her main gown and young me *hated* the lavender with her red hair.

Fyi if you are ever thinking about doing videos on historical fashion, I would absolutely watch them. Dolls are such a fun and interesting way to look at fashion and they seem like little time capsules about what was trendy and what influences (good or bad) we were trying to push on to kids at the time. The topic doesn't even have to be doll related tho, I gobble up Karolina Żebrowska and Bernadette Banner's videos regularly and my hunger cannot be satisfied. Ugh fashion is such a special interest of mine bc my ADHD hamster brain has so much fun connecting all the influences that history & society have on fashion and vice versa

I'll explain the rest of my feelings but first: Felicity's beforever dress looks like Margaret Wells from Harlots. I don't know if it was the exact same colors or silhouette but every time i see it i hear "My mother is the exemplar bawd in all of London!" and that's such a weird association to make with an American Girl doll, but it's what i got. More generally: i was really disappointed when i heard of the rebranding. A lot of kids' toys are sold in bright colors and there was something so alluring about the muted color schemes of collections like Kitt's and Felicity's and Kirsten's from the pictures i saw in the catalogues. My family was broke so there's no way i could have gotten them, but it was a joy to just look at what was available. Those more muted color schemes made them look like heirlooms and ancient photo albums, legitimately like history come to life, even if i wasn't always a fan of the historical silhouettes. The beforever redesigns just looked so cheap and flat in comparison. If felt like watching well-meaning amateurs botch historical art restorations or like if someone painted over the birth of venus to make her look like taylor swift

So happy to get a costume design prospective on it! One thing I want to mention is that the research that you showed us was mostly women while the AG characters were girls. Historical children’s fashion, particularly girls fashion, was meant to distinguish them from adults. Girls often had shorter skirts and wore their hair down. The 35th anniversary girls sold very well! I hope that sent a message to the company. Molly is my favorite :)

My biggest gripe with the non historical series is that nearly all the girls are "preformers".

I absolutely HATED beforever and still do. At the time frame it was released my dad was going through cancer and that’s what I started calling the line and my catch frase being “beforever is worse than cancer” I was a young teen and it was dramatic but I can see where I was coming from 😅🥴

the historical american girl books truly set the groundwork for me to be interested in politics and made me more empathetic, not only Addy but Samantha's friend Nelly, Kit's friend Will, etc. They changed my life! I had no idea about the rebrand because I've never been into modern company's dolls that much as an adult, so thank you for making this video!!

I wasn’t really into American Girl dolls, but I am a huge fan of history and thought the historical dolls diving into historical events to be interesting. It seems like a lot of doll companies are rebranding rather then putting resources into up keeping the product.

When I was a kid, I wasn't big on large child/baby dolls (I preferred fashion dolls and plushies of any size) but I loved the American Girls collection for having interesting books, distinctive outfits, and awesome accessories and play sets. They were super expensive though so I only ever had the paper dolls which were equally amazing since the artwork resembled the actual girls a lot more! My main complaint then and now is always how close a toy matches the original source... lol plus how much space it takes up. Samantha was also my favorite of the original girls; I think she was the fave for a lot of people because yeah her waistline was weird but she was rich so she had the coolest outfits out of everyone! Plus it helped she was a brunette... Barbie becoming a constant blonde is something I'll never forgive Mattel for. I didn't even realize back in the beginning that she came in so many hair colors and while I'm glad they kind of got back to their roots with way more additional diversity, as a kiddo I was left hoping and praying any new Barbie line had some of Barbie's friends that I'd like. I was just a pasty girl with stringy brown hair but it was still so validating to find a doll closer to me (one of the reasons Belle used to be my fave Disney Princess growing up... well that and monster f'ccing lol so you can safely guess I loved the original Monster High line, only thing iffy was the skelly bods. Some day soon I'm gonna get one of the new Gen dolls, though I'm kinda disappointed Clawdeen is no longer a brunette for obvious reasons.) I get why so many people are excited by the expansion of the Barbie Fashionistas and other lines like Extra and Signature Look, plus it just gives you so much options if you're like "eh that brunette isn't doing it for me.... oooh I like that red head... aww the freckles... ohhh the makeup and skin tone are actually matched well on her!" (Edit: I like dolls that don't resemble me as well, including different ethnic traits and cultural backgrounds, I'm just saying it's always nice seeing a little element of yourself and in general Barbie in the 80's/90's is the one that made me haaate blonde dolls for so long... I don't hate blonde people or Barbies and many blonde dolls are beautiful but Barbie is to blame for my automatic aversion to blonde, hot/pastel pink, and boring purple forced into every blessed thing marketed to girls/women.) And Made to Move is also what I always dreamed of because I loved action figures for their articulation but I loved dolls for my ability to change up their looks. 😊 Anyway, I'm so grateful the Pleasant Company focused on teaching children, especially girls, about different time periods and I loved seeing this video breaking down the outfit inspirations and why the Beforever redesign just didn't work. I'm betting the issue is indeed that Mattel didn't have access to the Pleasant Company's research: they probably trashed it after they were done because they never thought they'd need it again or else didn't document it very well and never presumed Mattel would want it, so it's good to hear with later entries that Mattel tried harder. I also hate how they insist on color coding and just vibrant pinks in every doll line... I mean I love those shades of blue but paired with the more Halloween costume efforts it's kinda meh. And yeah for some reason I always had the least interest in Kirsten and Felicity I think... lol I guess just their aesthetic made me shrug then and now. They're not bad but not impressive by any means. Even Kit is definitely more interesting in her sack dress and that's such a cool detail to learn about. And whoa yes they did Julie so dirty augh! 😅

Kit’s era was when my mom and her sister grew up, and honestly it makes my heart sink, how it went downhill in the rebranding. I’m glad that Mother and Auntie aren’t able to see it.

Excellent analysis. I agree.. the rebranding bothers me, from a historical POV. That isn't to say AG has ever been perfectly historically accurate by any means but.. it bothers me as they already have many modern lines. I don't see the need for this. There are adult collectors that I'd hope would still allow them to sell- and who is to say younger fans wouldn't still like accurate pieces? It makes them stand out, and the colors chosen at times make me question the thought process too

it would be a dream if they brought back the original clothes and their collections like they did with Molly, I hate the beforever line, Samantha and Kit had such beautiful clothes 😭

I grew up in the 60s and some of Melody's accessories reminded me of things we had in our house

i was having a very angry conversation about this rebrand the other day!! so excited to hear your thoughts on it

As someone who bought every, and I mean EVERY doll for her kids, even her two boys - yeah, I’m that mom… We fortunately missed the BeForever phase of American Girl and didn’t go back until after they dropped it. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. The way they just casually threw away all the history as if us ‘little girls’ lacked the capacity to understand it, and those hideous new outfits were so bad. Your video was great, thank you! And the way you referred to yourself at the end, I spit out the water in my mouth, I laughed so hard. That’s exactly how we speak in our house - high five!

i was so devastated when beforever came out because i had been saving for a julie doll and suddenly her super cute outfit was non-existent

It was not just Cécile it was Marie-Grace too as neither was the best friend, but rather equals. Even the books are split evenly. Neither is considered the best friend when one retired both did. Until recently Marie-Grace was the only doll available with her face mold and Cécile is just beautiful. Their story is one of my favorites and both dolls are just gorgeous and unique.

Again, consistently the most creative, interesting and well delivered doll subject matter on social media. ❤

Kaya was my favorite (and I still have her!), I'm glad that they didn't change her design at all. I was definitely drawn to her for her horse and dog accessories, but she gave me a life-long appreciation for indigenous cultures. I enjoyed learning about history a lot more thanks to her, and branched out into the other characters' books. The only other doll I got was a girl of the year doll because she happened to look like me.

Just gotta say your content is fun, interesting and educational...really opened my eyes to the deep and vast history the subject of dolls has..your channel is super cool in my book...

I grew up as a huge American Girl fan, with the books being my favorite part! I loved all the historical details and learning about what life was like back then, and how their collections fit into that really well. My biggest gripe with Beforever is that the books are now abridged (this is a rather recent change), which is really infuriating. Why was that a needed change?

i definitely mirror your opinions almost exactly! i’m a huge history fan and it broke my heart to see what had happened to some of my favorite dolls. thank you for a great video

I'm old, so the original line of books is what made me a history buff as a kid. And it was SUCH a great Christmas when my family splurged to get me a Molly doll, and I saved up my allowance to buy her outfits & books after that (she's still safely stashed away in a vintage 40s traveling trunk in my house). Seeing her dressed in a kind of pseudo-retro style instead of something that was actually close to what my grandma actually saw/wore in the 40s is just... dispiriting. I'm so glad that mine pre-date the Mattel buyout, because not only are the outfits pretty damn ahistorical (except for the 70s), they're also very chintzy looking. I can understand why more serious collectors were upset. Also, why is Molly considered a "divisive" character? Is it to do with dolls, stories, or something else?

Samantha’s BeForever collection is just so inaccurate but I can’t help it I love it sooo much 😭 it’s so cute! However the original Samantha will always be better imo!

I also just recently got into AG and I’ve watched it change and change again within the last few years. I think Claudie is wonderful but I can’t get over my disappointment that she doesn’t write. Poetry from the Harlem renaissance is some of my favorite and when I didn’t see much mention of poetry in her collection my heart kind of sank. Great video as always though ☺️ Hoping the historical girls get the attention they deserve from Mattel again.

I’m a 90s kid. When I was in elementary school I thought American Girl Dolls were really unique. Ironically my family couldn’t afford to get me one. But many of my classmates had them, and the point about not underestimating and insulting your audience is really true- I was just a kid, but the authentic construction and silhouettes of the characters stood out to me, and helped me get a basic grasp on historical fashion even at such a young age.

The fact that they scrapped the name “American girl” is so ridiculous because I feel it was great for girls of all races to see themselves as Americans. It’s the unifying factor that ties all the girls together.

I was a die-hard Kit Kittredge fan as a kid, in fact, I still own all of the original books and outfits. I remember hearing about the redesign and being so pissed off because I thought they took away all of her personality.

I'm so glad I have my Julie I got as a kid when she was the newest character. I just wish I had more of her other outfits from her old collection- all I have besides her Meet outfit is her pajamas. I want that floral jumpsuit SO bad!

I totally remember this happening as I was a young teen at the time. I remember initially thinking the marketing was pretty and actually liked the color cohesion, but compared to the older outfits, (especially with Julie and Kit🤢) they really lost something from the original vision.

American Girl was literally my childhood(I still have a bunch of the dolls, including Elizabeth and Kirsten!), and seeing those awful changes in the Beforever line is just heart-wrenching!

did anyone else notice they lightened Addy's skin in the redesign??

Growing up I had a giant book which had all of Julie’s stories and I read them over and over again. I eventually also got Ivy’s book as well. I never had the dolls but the books had illustrations so I knew what the characters looked like. So seeing Julie in the redesigned outfits is like a slap in the face to the illustrations of her I grew up with. Plus poor Ivy…

I remember seeing the drop waist silhouette in Oz book illustrations, except for The Wizard of Oz, the first one, which had a different illustrator. The drawings of Dorothy and Ozma fascinated me as a kid.

Loved this video! I’m old enough that my kids grew up with the original AG dolls, and I’ve been disappointed ever since Mattel took over. But it was fascinating to follow the progression of the brand, and your insights are dead on. Especially about the drop-waist dresses! Such subtleties are the things that make the difference between impressive historical accuracy and band mediocrity. Thanks for the fun retrospective. New subscriber!

I wasn't able to have an American Girl doll as a kid, but I always looked at them when we went to the store because I thought they were so beautiful! I was already 20 or so by the time the rebrand came out and not involved in doll world just yet, but I saw them in the store and was shocked! Julie specifically. I thought there was no way anyone would spend so much on a doll that looked like a clearance, Spirit Halloween 70's costume, and I still feel that way!

The only good thing about the rebrand is that the dolls became more readily available for Canada. Before that there was no shipping to Canada, I had to cross the border to get Saige from the Mall of America (God bless their soul) but to get Isabelle I just had to order her off the Indigo website

Oh my goodness, I’d forgotten how much I loved the original American Girls dolls and books! They were always so charming and the books were so informative and fun and interesting-Josefina is my all time favourite! No wonder I dropped the franchise after the Beforever rebrand, they lack literally everything I liked about the franchise XD

I remember finding it hiiiideous. Like wanting to burn the AG catalog. I also will never forgive them for getting rid of Ivy and Cecile. Samantha was always a favorite and I always felt like I wanted one like her that looked like me (so addy wasn’t..quite what I was looking for)

I had the Kirsten doll as a kid, my sis had felicity My dad does woodworking and he made me all of the furniture- a table & chairs, bench, bed, bureau w cabinet & drawer and a few other things (and he made some for others, too) He looked at the ones they sold for Kirsten and made them in the correct style This is my first time seeing their new designs, I loved the old clothes they were great quality fabric, too I bought a lot of fancy doll dresses from a local older lady who sewed & sold them at craft fairs

I love your longer videos, Especially when they're honed in on one specific topic. I didn't know anything about any of this but now I feel very informed.

I love your videos discussing doll lines in depth, and how much research and insight you put into them. I would love to see you actually pursue your idea of tracing each historical garment's inspiration pieces like the Simplicity pattern you found that was nearly identical to Melody's outfit. I'd totally watch that video!!

My daughter is so upset the Mattel AG is pulling away from the historical line and the books. She is not happy with the focus on the Truly Me line. She has Kit in the teal dress and just bought Rebecca because they discontinued her too. She wishes she had been a kid when AG was better.

This was such a helpful video! And so interesting! As I am rediscovering my love for American girl dolls, I have been so confused about what the beforever line was even about. Your video was so helpful and so informative about it. Thank you!

omg please do more ag videos!! i grew up loving the historicals and have always been super into historical fashion, so i was devastated when i found out about beforever. like those outfits are literally heartbreaking

I'm not a doll person, but I had an early Addy, and I was gotten into American Girl Dolls, because like I moved in to a neighborhood where that I made friends with all the girls and they all had American Girl Dolls (and the rich girl had all of them). So I saved up for and bought Addy (and I still love her, I hope to pass her on to a niece of nephew), but at one point I know I had an American Girl Doll cookbook, and like I know my original copy is gone, one of my neighborhood friends must have taken it, but like it taught me how to make butter in a way I still have taught people how to do, and I know it had a good pancake recipie and I want that back, and I've never seen this book in any used bookstores.

Something to note about all the historical characters before Courtney and Claudie is that all of their years have a 4 at the same end which is just pretty interesting overall

I loved this deep dive! It was super fun and I totally agree with most of what you said. It was pretty unnecessary, and pretty insulting .. Replacing years of research and historical accuracy with bright, frilly, historically inaccurate dresses is just stupid, to put it bluntly. On another note, I’d love if you made more AG videos like this!

I have a lot of feelings about the new American Girl dolls. All of them boil down to "its garbage". Most historical fashion aspects are just gone; I even had to go on ebay to find an original felicity dress when I bought her doll years ago. I grew up with this series and I've always loved it. Funny story; when I was little, my mother was dating and we were living with this creepy 45 year old man who let's just say wasn't legally allowed to be around his 5 year old niece. I never liked him because he was creepy and I actually thought it would be funny to steal his checkbook when I was 8ish years old (maybe younger) and start attempting to order things from this company. I had no idea what I was going to say when/if products started showing up, and idk if I actually thought it would have worked; but a couple months in, plesant company sent all the checks they had collected back to the creepy guy we were living with and my mom and him found out. I got into the worst trouble I think I had ever been in up to that time. But I mean, the guy was a creep, so 🤷‍♂️ I never had any of the dolls until I was an adult and could buy them myself. Anyways, basically, I very strongly dislike the fact that the original historic dolls were kind of pushed aside for the contemporary ones. I also really dislike the fact that there's now a character based on the 80s, which was when I was born 😬

the beforever line came out when i was 16 aka american girl was off my radar at that point. so as someone who grew up w/ the pre-beforever reboot, i’m so glad it was a flop. the main reason i really liked american girl was bcuz of how historically accurate their dolls were; i just thought they were so cool & interesting, & it was fun learning about each time period through the clothing. so hearing & seeing how bad some of those changes were felt like mattel’s way of belittling their target demographic. like u said, if it’s not broken, don’t bother fixing it (btw i love ur more rant-y vids

They've brought the earliest dolls back out of retirement and I really appreciate that.

Great video!! I grew up on American girl and stopped probably right before Beforever and I was gobsmacked!! I didnt even know that came out! The Beforever outfits are honestly atrocious and it’s just such a slap in the face to young girls and education. I hate how much good quality fabric and toy production has gone down.

as someone who grew up OBSESSED with the contemporary American girl dolls (specifically goty) and wrote their college admissions essay about i clicked so fast on this video because the mere mention of beforever still makes my gut churn and lip curl, so thank you for this, i love this video.

I HATED this rebrand. I remember being aware of AG few years prior to this and just being in love with the books and history, then finding out there were dolls!? I was hooked! I got My first two dolls Molly and Samantha then literally a year after getting them the rebrand happened and all the stuff I pined over was all retired and me being only 12 I had no phone and was horrified when I got the catalog. also being a male fan it was such a disappointment to see mattel do what they do best and make everything pink. In their collections lots of characters lost their personalities like kit and Julie with the party cityness of it all. It was so disheartening to finally get into the brand and have everything that made me love it change immediately. Such unfair timing! I know this is a ramble but this vid finally gave me a place to let out this childhood trauma I’ve been keeping 😂

The way I recoiled at Felicity’s BeForever dress!!! Also, as a kid, I thought Addie and Felicity’s Christmas outfits were STRIKING.

Bought one of these or I should say a Wellie Wisher because they are cute. Also bought a dress I don't think I'm going to buy more I don't see what the fuss is about. I got her used she's standing by my mom's Toni doll now. Just wanted to try out a non fashion doll and the brand and the 18 in. one's are way to big.

I was 9 when the Beforever rebranding happened and for the most part I was pretty upset. Julie was my favorite and I loved her but I didn’t have her yet and I was so sad when they changed her Meet outfit bc I thought it looked really stupid now. Her older collection was just as colorful but it was more funky and I’m still kinda upset about it. I also really didn’t like what they did with Kit either (those were my 2 favorite dolls I kept my eye on) bc she’s not feminine, she wouldn’t go around wearing dresses like that. I do remember I did like one thing and I really thought Rebecca improved. I liked her purple color scheme and I thought it was prettier. Also something that wasn’t mentioned is that when they changed to Beforever, they changed their mini dolls. Initially they were mini American Girl dolls with the cloth body and the vinyl limbs but with Beforever they became full plastic and I stopped collecting them bc without the cloth body they’re not mini American Girl Dolls. Anyway overall, I was pretty devastated when the rebrand happened but I’m mostly over it at this point. I hope you thought this was interesting as I was their target audience at the time and I was unhappy

Schools have been dumbing down forever. It’s a real shame. History - the people - have so much to tell. My children had Kierston, Samantha, and Molly. Samantha’s meet dress is 1950’s little girl dresses. Her new look is not at all correct. Kierston’s dress is hideous. I prefer the older looks for all of those dolls. In addition to making clothes out of feed sacks, people would take old clothes apart and remake them. The fabric would have been faded from repeated washing and being hung on clotheslines and sometimes, the fabric would be turned inside out and reworked. I had a jumpsuit that I made for 4-H exactly like Julie’s.

I’ve never really been into the American Dolls, but I do like the idea of Historical dolls more than the modern dolls.

You’re now one of my favorite RU-vidrs. I am a pretty new subscriber but I think I’ve watched 95% of your videos already! Love what you do, love the way you think. Keep it up!

Was just rewatching your ranking video on the historical dolls the other night, super psyched to see this!! I grew up obsessed with American Girl dolls and completely missed out on the Beforever rebrand so this was really fun and informative, thank you for making it! Dunno what the designers were thinking when they made Felicity's outfit though :|