47 Fun Facts About American Girl Doll

How were American Girl dolls first sold?

By catalogue: Pleasant Rowland kept the dolls out of toy shops and sold them only by mail order until the first store opened in 1998.

How tall are the classic American Girl dolls?

18 inches tall, the dolls portray girls of about eight and older rather than babies or adults, the gap Pleasant Rowland had spotted on the toy shelves.

Which company bought Pleasant Company in 1998 for $700 million?

Mattel, the maker of Barbie, paid about $700 million in 1998 for the doll line that Pleasant Rowland had created as an alternative to Barbie.

In which Wisconsin city was Pleasant Company founded?

Madison housed the company's first warehouse, and the company's sale later helped Rowland's husband, Jerry Frautschi, fund the city's Overture Center for the Arts.

Which three characters were the original American Girl dolls at launch?

Kirsten, Samantha and Molly launched together in 1986 on the same face mould; all three were later retired, then returned as limited editions for the brand's 35th anniversary in 2021.

A trip to which living-history destination inspired Pleasant Rowland to create the dolls?

A mid-1980s visit to Colonial Williamsburg, the restored 18th-century Virginia capital, gave Pleasant Rowland the idea of teaching history through dolls and stories.

Pleasant Rowland funded her doll company with more than $1 million she had earned from what?

Children's textbook royalties: Rowland, a former teacher, had written reading programmes for schools and sank nearly everything they had earned her into the 1986 launch.

Kirsten Larson is an immigrant from which country?

Sweden is where Kirsten's journey begins; her family settles on the Minnesota frontier in 1854, where she has to learn English at a one-room schoolhouse.

What does Samantha Parkington call the grandmother who raises her?

Grandmary brings Samantha up in Mount Bedford, New York, in 1904 and expects her to be a proper young lady, until Samantha moves to the city to live with her uncle and aunt.

What is the name of Samantha's best friend, a servant girl in the house next door?

Nellie O'Malley is hired as a maid by the family next door; when she finally gets the chance to go to school, Samantha tutors her so that she can catch up.

Molly McIntire's father is away during the Second World War serving as what?

A doctor in England, Dr. McIntire is away with the Army Medical Corps caring for wounded soldiers, and he is not seen in person until he comes home at the very end of her stories.

Molly's Best Friend doll, Emily Bennett, is a girl from which country sent to America for safety?

Britain is home for Emily, who is sent from London to escape the bombing and lodges with Molly's family in Happy Birthday, Molly!, later starring in her own book, Brave Emily.

Felicity Merriman's stories are set in Virginia on the eve of which conflict?

Felicity's stories begin in 1774 on the eve of the American Revolution, with her Patriot father and Loyalist grandfather on opposite sides of the coming war.

What does Felicity name the mistreated horse she secretly tames?

Felicity names the copper-coloured mare Penny, for her coat and because she is 'inde-Penny-dent'; the horse is mistreated by the tanner Jiggy Nye until Felicity frees her.

Addy Walker, the first Black historical character, escapes slavery in North Carolina and reaches which city?

Addy and her mother flee the plantation in 1864 and reach Philadelphia, where they find work and a free Black community; Connie Porter wrote her stories.

Courtney Moore, the 1980s character released in 2020, is a top scorer on which arcade game?

Pac-Man is Courtney's game at the arcade, and her collection includes a miniature Pac-Man machine; her stories are set in 1986, the year American Girl itself began.

Josefina Montoya lives on her family's ranch near which city in 1824?

Santa Fe lay in Mexico, not the United States, in 1824: Josefina is a Mexican girl growing up on her family's rancho just outside the town.

Kaya, whose stories are set in 1764, belongs to which Native American people?

Nez Perce custom shaped the doll itself: Kaya, whose stories begin in 1764, is the only character made with a closed mouth, because her people did not bare their teeth.

What is the name of Kaya's beloved Appaloosa mare?

Steps High is the horse Kaya fears for when enemy raiders strike in Kaya's Escape!, the second book, in which Kaya and her sister Speaking Rain are taken captive.

Kit Kittredge lives through the Great Depression in which city?

Cincinnati is where Kit's father loses his car dealership in the Depression, so her mother turns the family home into a boarding house and Kit is landed with the chores.

What is Kit's full first name?

Margaret Mildred Kittredge shares her first name with her mother; 'Kit' comes from her surname and from 'Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag', the song she begged her father to sing.

Which actress played Kit in the 2008 film Kit Kittredge: An American Girl?

Abigail Breslin, an Oscar nominee for Little Miss Sunshine, plays Kit as a would-be reporter investigating robberies blamed on hobos, in the first American Girl film made for cinemas rather than television.

Julie Albright, the 1970s character released in 2007, grows up in which California city?

San Francisco is where Julie moves into a new flat with her mother after her parents' divorce, and where she fights for a place on her school's all-boy basketball team.

Julie Albright's best friend Ivy is a girl of which heritage?

Chinese American Ivy Ling is torn between her love of gymnastics and her family's traditions; her doll was retired in 2014, when American Girl dropped its Best Friends line.

Rebecca, the American Girl historical character released in 2009, is the first of which faith?

Jewish traditions matter to Rebecca, a daughter of Russian immigrants in the New York of 1914, but she dreams of acting in the new film business against her family's wishes.

Nanea Mitchell's story is set in Honolulu around which event?

The attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 turns Nanea's Honolulu into a war zone, and her stories follow Hawaii's part in the war that the attack brought America into.

Melody Ellison lives in which city during the civil rights movement of the early 1960s?

Detroit is where Melody sings in her church choir while her older brother Dwayne dreams of becoming a Motown singer, as the civil rights movement reaches the city.

Maryellen Larkin, the 1950s character, comes from which Florida city?

Maryellen Larkin grows up in Daytona Beach in 1954 as the middle child of a crowded household, dreaming of standing out after a bout of polio; she was released in 2015.

Claudie Wells grows up in 1922 in which New York neighbourhood?

Harlem in 1922 puts Claudie in the middle of the Harlem Renaissance, growing up among musicians, painters and performers; her doll arrived in 2022, a century after her story is set.

Caroline Abbott lives through which war at Sackets Harbor, New York?

The War of 1812 breaks out while Caroline is sailing on Lake Ontario with her father, a shipbuilder, who is taken prisoner; her doll came out in 2012, two hundred years on.

Cécile Rey and Marie-Grace Gardner, released together in 2011, are best friends in which 1850s city?

Cécile and Marie-Grace live in New Orleans in 1853, one a free girl of colour and the other a doctor's daughter, as a yellow fever epidemic sweeps the city; both dolls were archived in 2014.

What name did American Girl give its rebranded historical line in 2014?

BeForever arrived in August 2014 with new outfits and each character's six books repackaged as two volumes, and it brought Samantha back out of retirement.

The doll line launched in 1995 as American Girl of Today was renamed what in 2015?

The contemporary line became Truly Me in 2015, after earlier stints as Just Like You and My American Girl; its dolls are sold by number so a child can pick one that resembles her.

Which Girl of the Year for 2008 was an ice skater?

Mia St. Clair, the Girl of the Year for 2008, is a figure skater from a family of hockey players; the 2009 doll Chrissa got the first Girl of the Year movie, Chrissa Stands Strong.

Which soft toy long came with each Bitty Baby doll?

A bear called Bitty Bear came with each doll until 2013; the line grew out of Our New Baby, dolls meant to help children get used to a new baby in the family.

American Girl's WellieWishers play together in which setting?

A backyard garden, kept by Willa's Aunt Miranda, is where the friends pull on the rain boots, or wellies, that give the line its name.

Which 2017 doll was American Girl's first boy character?

Logan Everett arrived as a drummer and bandmate in the collection of the Nashville singer Tenney Grant, not as the star of a line of his own, and was retired at the end of 2018.

In which city did the first American Girl Place store open in 1998?

Chicago's American Girl Place opened in 1998 with a theatre of its own, where the store staged a live musical show, The American Girls Revue.

Which movie star's production company made the first American Girl film, Samantha: An American Girl Holiday?

Julia Roberts's company, Red Om Films, made the 2004 television film, in which Samantha helps her friend and the friend's two sisters escape a New York orphanage.

Which actress played Felicity in the 2005 TV film Felicity: An American Girl Adventure?

Shailene Woodley's Felicity defies her parents to tame a horse that its owner, a tanner, mistreats.

In the Molly TV movie, Molly wants to be the school's "Miss Victory", the lead in what kind of performance?

A tap dance is the centrepiece of the school's Christmas pageant, and Molly has to struggle with her steps to win the lead in the 2006 Disney Channel film, which cast Molly Ringwald as her mother.

Which American Girl guide to puberty, first published in 1998, became a multi-million seller?

The Care and Keeping of You, by Valorie Schaefer, has sold millions of copies; a later revision split it in two, saving the pages on eating disorders for a second volume for older girls.

Which book ends Kirsten's six-book series?

Changes for Kirsten is the winter story that closes her set; every classic character's six books ran in the same order, through school, Christmas, a spring birthday and summer.

The first American Girl dolls of 1986 were manufactured in which country?

West Germany: Pleasant Rowland found a doll she liked, read the Götz label sewn into its underclothes and flew to Europe to arrange production.

Which crystal maker partnered with American Girl on its first Collector Dolls?

Swarovski crystals covered American Girl's first collector doll in 2019; a year later, three one-of-a-kind crystal-gowned dolls were auctioned to benefit the children of first responders.

What was the name of the online virtual world American Girl launched in 2010 for its contemporary dolls?

Innerstar University was a virtual campus that a girl could enter only with the codes that came with a My American Girl doll; it opened in 2010 and closed in November 2015.

Which organization ran an earlier magazine called The American Girl?

The Girl Scouts ran a magazine called The American Girl until 1979; the doll company's unrelated magazine took up the name in 1992 and printed its last issue in early 2019.