Forever the American Girl Doll of the Year

I had my eighth birthday at the American Girl Doll Café and my seventeenth birthday at the American Girl Doll Café. 

Both of these birthdays rank very high on the best birthdays list.

When I was six years old, my parents took me to American Girl Doll for my birthday to get my very first American Girl Doll. I left the store with a doll who looked nothing like me. She had straight black hair, beady eyes, and pale skin — but I loved her. I named her Emily after my uncle’s girlfriend, who I thought was the coolest person then, and decided that Emily was from Singapore, which I had recently discovered in a fact book was the cleanest country in the world! 

My American Girl Doll obsession quickly picked up speed from there, and for any birthday, Christmas, or Kwanzaa list, American Girl Doll items dotted the list.

I was infatuated with the world of these dolls. I have never been much of a caregiver, so it wasn’t the mothering aspect of having dolls that I was attracted to. Instead of pretending these dolls were my babies and I was their mama. Instead, I played teacher with my dolls, which were my students. Looking back at it now, I can laugh at the fact that my first instinct to connect with my dolls was through education. After being in elementary school from 8 am to 2:30 pm, I would rush home with my babysitter Lori to play school again! I had a whiteboard and dry-erase markers, and I would neatly line up all my dolls in a row before I began my lesson. I taught them the fifty state capitals, the national birds of each state, and how to do addition and subtraction, and I would even hold read-aloud sessions with very detailed discussion sessions afterward. 

All I needed was me and my girls.

Emily. Cecilia. Gwen. McKenna. Josefina. Kaya. Sage. At my peak, I had over twenty American Girl Dolls to my name, and I loved every single one of them as if they all reflected a different part of me.

I was apt at creating backstories for all my dolls to give them more personality. However, if you are familiar with the American Girl Doll brand, you know that the company already does a fantastic job of building the world of the doll. There are the Girls of the Year, limited-edition dolls released only for the year, which are meant to represent the stories of young girls living at the time. Then there are Historical Characters, dolls that represent the strife of girls during a specific decade or period in history, such as the Antebellum period or the aftermath of World War 2. Finally, there is the Truly Me bunch, where girls can pick from an array of dolls to find their perfect American Girl Doll twin. These dolls are like blank canvases for girls to embark upon since they don’t come with accessories or a book detailing their life like Girls of the Year or Historical Characters. They go in their stationary American Girl Doll outfits with pretty ballerina flats; the rest is up to you.

Emily is an example of a Truly Me doll. Aside from me deciding that she was from Singapore, she was also a track star since one of the first outfits I bought for her was a yellow track jersey and a mini skirt. Her parents were divorced because it was a word I kept hearing on t.v. Shows, and anytime my parents even slightly raised their voices, I was deathly afraid they would get a divorce and my life would be over (they are still happily married). 

I had so much fun using my imagination to bring these dolls to life. I had many other Truly Me dolls, like Crystal from New Jersey and Gwen, who loved wearing blueberry clogs. However, even with the Girl of the Year and Historical Character dolls I had in my collection, I built upon the stories American Girl had provided to create new realities for these girls. 

For example, one of my Historical dolls, Cécile, was from the 1850s and was “from a well-to-do and highly regarded family in the New Orleans free people of color community.” I loved her ringlet curls, a satin turquoise dress that puffed ever so slightly, and her complexion like mine. I pictured her bringing her well-to-do attitude to the New York City streets — she was a star wherever she was. I wanted to feel as regal as she looked all the time. 

Similarly, my Historical doll, Addy, strengthened me during elementary school. Addy Walker of North Carolina begins her story with the American Girl enslaved on a plantation with her family during the last years of the American Civil War. 1864 Addy and her mother ran from their plantation to Philadelphia on the East Coast. Addy gains her freedom, learning how to read and write with every passing day while desperately hoping to reunite with the rest of the family so they can enjoy this new life of freedom with each other. Every Historical Character comes with a seven-set box series where each book details a small chapter of their life. There were no characters book series I read faster than Addy’s. I anxiously clutched each page, desperately hoping that Addy’s family would reunite. I would stay up so late reading that when my mom would tell me to go to bed, I would carefully place the book back into the peach pink box it came in with Addy in her iconic red dress on the cover and tie a white ribbon around the box to keep it extra secure as I slid it underneath my bed.

Even though all of the hardships Addy went through, she still found a way to preserve and care for others outside of herself. I admired her strength as she reminded me of my ancestors, who were once little girls trying to survive as Black girls in America.

Last summer, American Girl hosted a book signing event at their store in honor of their new Historical Character, Claudie Wells, a Black girl from 1920s Harlem with a passion for the stage. I went with my mom and little sister, Nailah, and felt as if I was passing the torch as Nailah had stars dotted her eyes when we bought her the Claudie doll and a sparkly outfit. Those same stars dotted my eyes each time I looked at Addy.

All three of us waited in line to get Claudie’s book signed by the author, Brit Bennet, a Black woman and New York Times best-selling author who also wrote one of my favorite books that I read in high school, The Mothers. It was so amazing to see a writer I looked up to now writing children’s books for the brand that supplied many of my first reads as a child, crafting stories for an entirely new generation of young girls, young Black girls, just like my sister. 

After we got our books signed, we heard whispers that the author of the Addy books, Connie Porter, was downstairs giving autographs to people. My heart skipped a beat. Could I meet one of my favorite childhood authors?! 

I walked downstairs, and there she was — Ms. Connie Porter. After waiting in line behind another American Girl fanatic, a man in his twenties who even ran an American Girl Doll Instagram page, it was my time to introduce myself. Ms. Porter immediately hugged me, and it felt like we had known each other in some past life. I told her how I was a writer and how much those Addy books meant to me back then. She smiled and looked proud of me with her round cheeks and glistening eyes. Here was a young Black girl who had read her books as a child, now making her own stories. She told me never to stop writing, and I never will.

So if you see my name as the author of an American Girl Doll book in a few decades, buy it! Every child should feel like they have a story of their own, and American Girl Dolls made me feel like the main character of my own story all those sweet years ago.