American Girl Doll Trivia
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47 free American Girl Doll trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
45 free American Girl doll trivia questions with answers. American Girl dolls arrived in 1986 with three characters and a catalogue, and grew into a brand with flagship stores, movies, a magazine and a place in the National Toy Hall of Fame. This American Girl doll trivia quiz covers all of it: which year and city each historical character lives in, the six-book pattern the stories follow, the friends who were retired, the Girl of the Year line, Bitty Baby and WellieWishers, and the four American Girl films. It also covers the company: founder Pleasant Rowland's trip to Colonial Williamsburg, the textbook royalties she spent on the idea, and the sale to Mattel. Questions run from easy ones for a slumber party to hard ones for adult collectors who remember the original Pleasant Company boxes. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia and cited on the question, so you can see the source for yourself.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How were American Girl dolls first sold?
By catalogue
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.
Q 02How tall are the classic American Girl dolls?
18 inches
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.
Q 03Which company bought Pleasant Company in 1998 for $700 million?
Mattel
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.
Q 04In which Wisconsin city was Pleasant Company founded?
Madison
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.
Q 05Which three characters were the original American Girl dolls at launch?
Kirsten, Samantha and Molly
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.
Q 06A trip to which living-history destination inspired Pleasant Rowland to create the dolls?
Colonial Williamsburg
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.
Q 07Pleasant Rowland funded her doll company with more than $1 million she had earned from what?
Children's textbook royalties
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.
Q 08Kirsten Larson is an immigrant from which country?
Sweden
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.
Q 09What does Samantha Parkington call the grandmother who raises her?
Grandmary
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.
Q 10What is the name of Samantha's best friend, a servant girl in the house next door?
Nellie O'Malley
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.
Q 11Molly McIntire's father is away during the Second World War serving as what?
A doctor in England
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.
Q 12Molly's Best Friend doll, Emily Bennett, is a girl from which country sent to America for safety?
Britain
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.
Q 13Felicity Merriman's stories are set in Virginia on the eve of which conflict?
The American Revolution
Q 21What is Kit's full first name?
Margaret
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.
Q 22Which actress played Kit in the 2008 film Kit Kittredge: An American Girl?
Abigail Breslin
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.
Q 23Julie Albright, the 1970s character released in 2007, grows up in which California city?
San Francisco
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.
Q 14What does Felicity name the mistreated horse she secretly tames?
Penny
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.
Q 15Addy Walker, the first Black historical character, escapes slavery in North Carolina and reaches which city?
Philadelphia
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.
Q 16Courtney Moore, the 1980s character released in 2020, is a top scorer on which arcade game?
Pac-Man
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.
Q 17Josefina Montoya lives on her family's ranch near which city in 1824?
Santa Fe
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.
Q 18Kaya, whose stories are set in 1764, belongs to which Native American people?
Nez Perce
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.
Q 19What is the name of Kaya's beloved Appaloosa mare?
Steps High
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.
Q 20Kit Kittredge lives through the Great Depression in which city?
Cincinnati
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.
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.
Q 24Julie Albright's best friend Ivy is a girl of which heritage?
Chinese American
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.
Q 25Rebecca, the American Girl historical character released in 2009, is the first of which faith?
Jewish
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.
Q 26Nanea Mitchell's story is set in Honolulu around which event?
The attack on Pearl Harbor
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.
Q 27Melody Ellison lives in which city during the civil rights movement of the early 1960s?
Detroit
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.
Q 28Maryellen Larkin, the 1950s character, comes from which Florida city?
Daytona Beach
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.
Q 29Claudie Wells grows up in 1922 in which New York neighbourhood?
Harlem
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.
Q 30Caroline Abbott lives through which war at Sackets Harbor, New York?
The War of 1812
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.