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GENUINE AMERICAN GIRL "KIRSTON" DRESS

NEVER WORN

SERIOUS OFFERS ONLY.

For real though, I found this in my local thrift store, and once I finished wheezing I snapped it up. Now to figure out which doll should be the "genuine" Kirsten. The temptation to make a fake ebay post is quite strong.

It's for sure made with the AG patterns based on the construction. There's a business tag in the seams that says made by Fran. I hope Fran has a great day, wherever they are.

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July 09: Happy Birthday Saila Qilavvaq (Maplelea)!!!!

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Emily is all set to help Mrs. Gilford out with the victory garden in her new playsuit! It’s based on a playsuit sold by Sears in the 1940s. The pattern came with printables for seed packets, so Emily has plenty of seeds to sow!

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I made Remy a ton of buttons today! Queer buttons thanks to Lesbian Herstory Archives

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this might just look like a “look she’s wearing a cowboy outfit, jack kelly!” post to some but real ones know she LOVES tv and davy crockett and the lone ranger and playing pretend and is a ‘tomboy’ according to her family and 50s society in general — so i think she would LOVE newsies and jack kelly if it was out then. i don’t think it’s a stretch!!

also i think she would be thrilled that newsies has a character who has polio (canonical or implied i can’t remember) even if they play him off as goofy. (can you tell maryellen is one of my favourite dolls)

also her best friend’s name is davy but he’s kind of a dick if i remember correctly

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the fact that so many people in the fandom treat samantha as Not Tomboy and treat felicity as Peak Tomboy even though they have a fairly comparable relationship with femininity will never not drive me bonkers

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Might line and color this, but I drew a super speedy sketch of Nellie in her spring dress

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while i wait for the mythical day that i can get my hands on a copy of light! camera! samantha!, i just scanned my personal copy of lights! camera! kit!

if you want to read it. the pdf can be found here. it's a really quick read, but there's a bunch of cool facts and pictures! it was one of my favorite ag books as a kid, so i hope everyone else enjoys:)

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new ag historical releases, let's go!!!!

nanea

nanea's volunteer outfit is $36 and her care kit accessories are $40.

nanea got an outfit that is both cute and story-relevant (according to some other folks, i haven't gotten to her books yet)! that's pretty hype, man! this is a pretty cute fit - it comes in multiple parts (shirt, skirt with suspenders, and tie), which is a bonus, too. it's not 100% my style, but i'll definitely be picking it up at some point (i'll likely wait for a sale, though). the only thing i actively dislike is her bow barette. it's not that i think it's historically inaccurate or anything (i don't think it's inaccurate, but idk), i just am personally not a fan of plastic bows. that's fine though, i'll just replace it with a ribbon.

now, nanea's accessories on the other hand are OUTSTANDING. all the little items are so incredibly cute. my only wish would be for less plastic, and real leather instead of faux leather, but that ain't happening in this era of ag. i love all the little items, and i love that the flashlight really works! i'll definitely be picking this up.

maryellen

maryellen's 2-in-1 outfit is $36, her dinner accessories are $36, and her stove is $125.

maryellen received a new playsuit outfit, finally!!! i'm so excited to have more clothes for her that it looks like she can actually play in! it's really cute, too. it's not my favorite color scheme for her, unfortunately, but i can work with it. i still think her originally vacation playsuit and her strawberry outfit are superior (and suit her coloring better), but this is plenty cute.

her accessories and stove are cute enough, but just not for me. i don't really have anything else to say about them.

melody

melody's salon outfit is $36, her salon accessories are $40, and her salon chair set is $150.

melody's got pants! i love a historical outfit with pants, and this is no exception. once again, the color scheme isn't my most favorite, but it's still super cute. i'll definitely be getting it when i have a chance. i'm also just. so relieved that the poor girl isn't getting cubed. i was worried, with the lack of releases, but this makes me very happy to see.

her salon accessories are bit steep for having no complex pieces, imo. i'd be interested in having them for my melody, but if i don't get the chance to pick them up, it'll be fine. i don't do a lot of different haristyles on my dolls, so i'm not really the target audience here. i do love that the instruction booklet for the hairstyles is made to look like it's from the 60's as well. if this set goes on a major sale, i'll pick it up then.

i'm shocked and pleased that our girl melody got a major play set! it's a pretty cool set. those magazines are awesome, though it's a shame they're gated behind such a big ticket item. the hot comb is so fun. idk how this set will do, but i'm glad ag though melody was worth it. (kinda sad when that's surprising to me but. these are the times we live in.)

overall

i am very happy with this release! i think there's a lot here to please both kids and collectors. i can see myself picking up all of the outfits and most of the accessories at some point, given sales, reward points, gift certificates, etc. I'm not interested in the big ticket items or maryellen's cooking accessories, but that's fine. they aren't meant for me.

while i think all of the outfits are cute, they do follow the color scheme of recent ag releases: they all look a bit like they got run through a "pastel-izer" machine. i get that pastels are fun and cute, (and they likely sell well considering ag keeps doing em), but i'd love a bit more variety. i'm hoping it's a "springtime release" thing, and we might get some more saturated/deeper/darker colors on a historical release this fall or winter. honestly, im also just hoping we get ANY historical release this fall or winter.

things had been pretty quiet with historicals for quite some time before this drop, and tariffs are going to start kicking in sometime soon, so i am going to continue to expect the worst while hoping for the best.

in the end, this release is pretty great!

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Today is a beautiful day. Not too hot, not too cold. All you need is a light rebozo.

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It was Renaissance Faire weekend on AGIG last weekend, so I thought I'd share my dolls' take on it! The pics turned out a little bit Middle Earth-like I feel, especially considering that they were taken on a random neighborhood corner - not Shire-like at all, really!

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Raquel Reyes may be a descendant of Samantha for AG's 40th Anniversary

2026 will be American Girl's 40th anniversary, and with it the anniversary of Samantha, Molly and Kirsten. As much as we love all three of the girls, it's undeniable that Samantha was the breakout star of the group, who was literally used as American Girl's icon for ages. Even in semi-retirement, she's still very much the face of the company and everyone remembers and loves her stories of acceptance, family, fistfighting the patriarchy and unionizing.

Recently, 2026's Girl of the Year, Raquel Reyes, and her starter collection (maybe full collection? Looks a bit small tho) has leaked. And it is looking very likely that she is either a Samantha fangirl or a straight-up DESCENDANT of Samantha Mary Parkington.

Leaks and discussion under the cut.

Got these photos from this reddit post from @/Phsyical_Occasion_57, Lord knows if it'll stay up tho so I'm reposting the relevant images below.

Now, at first, just seems like a preppy Girl of the Year. We've had pink and girly GOTYs for the last two years so a little disappointing, but I'm sure our tomboy sports girls will have their day. But no, what attracted people's attention was THIS.

Two black-and-white photos in her trunk, one of Samantha Parkington in a fancy outfit, the other seemingly of Parkington manor.

Now, she could very well just be a fangirl like Z Yang; it would fit with the meta we know she established. BUT. The black-and-white photography implies it may be a historical image rather than a printed photo of a character she likes, and we ALSO know that precedent for AG characters growing up was tested out with Julie in the graphic novel and McKenna in Lila's books (more on that later). There's also been speculation that American Girl in-universe is a company that depicts actual historical figures from their world, as Z makes a reference to "the real Nanea" when she makes her Nanea stopmotion. So this could be confirming that by having a descendant of Samantha in the same universe as Z and the other modern dolls.

But the picture isn't all– her collection is EXTREMELY Samantha-coded. Firstly, the pink-and-white and florals, obviously, but that could be for any girly girl. But let's look at her specifics.

Raquel's outfit, first– it's EXTREMELY evocative of BOTH of Samantha's Meet outfits. The bow is obvious, but the checker pattern on both is highly reminiscent of Samantha's main arrival outfit, with the pink and shorter skirt being very similar to her BeForever design. Both dresses also share the puffy sleeves with her. Raquel's shoes also have red bows like the BeForever outfit and Samantha's belt.

She also has a gold bow bracelet and golden heart necklace beside the Samantha portrait; while neither seem to show the detail on Samantha's brocade, it could be reversed or a different necklace simply meant to match old photos. In any case, it's EXTREMELY similar to her BeForever necklace.

She seems to be interested in Pickleball (basically tennis if y'all don't know), but her pickleball set and dress are labelled as for Piney Point, somewhere Samantha frequented in Samantha Saves the Day at her step-grandfather's house.

Her floral dress is also VERY BeForever Samantha– so while not very historically accurate, VERY accurate for what AG envisions a modern-style Samantha to look like. The hat above the dress as well is definitely something I've seen in Sam's collections before.

Also compare both the floral dress and her meet outfit to Samantha's Harlem Fashion Row outfit from the 35th anniversary.

Her accessory bag also brings to mind Samantha's handbag and floral handkerchief accessories.

But that's just aesthetics– let's also take a look at that photo of Samantha. What's right next to it?

it's a recipe for Peppermint Ice Cream.

So at the VERY VERY least, Raquel is a Samantha fan. But the black-and-white photo and seemingly """handwritten""" recipe imply that she may be straight-up related to our very own Samantha Parkington. This, along with the fact that 2026 will be the 40th anniversary of American Girl, highly implicates a more-than-baseline connection between them.

And it's not just that; I think American Girl has been lowkey testing the waters for this since 2020. [Maybe even before, but Z was a bit of a rush-job I don't think they thought through.]

Back in Covid days, when Courtney dropped, there was a lot of disappointment around her design, including from me. Mostly the fact she was another blonde-haired blue-eyed white girl, but not even an interesting-looking one; she was nearly identical to Maryellen. When she first was leaked, people started rumors that she may be related to Maryellen as copium, maybe even her daughter. [photo from @/BookJockey1979 on reddit]

Obviously this wasn't what happened, but I think American Girl noticed the interest around such a thing. The next tested the waters of family dolls with Corinne and Gwynn being sisters– and that seemed to work out for them fine. Then, it was Lila Monetti being the student of McKenna, the 2012 Girl of the Year. Not only was that something fans loved, they LATCHED onto that so excitedly. And while it's definitely not the reason Lila is such a bestseller– her cute design and adorable collection is probably to blame for that– it probably helped the older market that wouldn't otherwise look her way and got Lila basically free social media publicity from fans. And AG is very social media-present.

I think the final test was 2024's Julie and the Blue Guitar. The graphic novel details a girl in modern times trying to track down an adult Julie, and eventually succeeding and meeting her. This was the first time we'd seen an adult historical character (unless you follow the Caroline or GrandMarie theories, which are faaar from confirmed), with the oldest anyone had ever gotten being Samantha's 16 in the Titanic book. And reception to this book was very positive. At the very least, nobody threw a fit; while it's only got 4 reviews on the official site, all are 5-star, with the same level of it's 5 amazon reviews. The most reviews I could find were on Goodreads, which has a 4/5 from 65 reviews right now. So if that speaks to anything? It was probably AG's last test before they gave the go-ahead for Raquel Parkington-Reyes.

Having Raquel as Samantha's descendant is also a genius marketing strategy; JUST from the initial reddit leaks, I've seen comments on both reddit and instagram saying they already are planning to buy Raquel based on the Samantha connection alone. Not only is she pandering to the nostalgia market, not only is she pink and frilly like Mattel loves (and what sold well with Lila), but she's also finally a non-white Girl of the Year, so the "AG So White" demographic isn't pissed. The name "Raquel Reyes" is very hispanic, she has the same face-mold as Maritza, and she has a medium skintone. Right now the name is very popular in Brazil and the United States, and MyNameStats.com says that 63% of people named Raquel that they've gathered are of Hispanic or Latine origin. All of this heavily implies that Raquel will be latine, which is great since the last latine doll of the year we had was Luciana (and Maritza as our last modern, who barely had advertisement).

So Raquel is nostalgia-bait for the collectors, extremely girly and frilly for the child doll-collecting market (or at least what Mattel thinks it is) and isn't a third white GOTY in a row, so it mitigates our frustration at AG's lack of diversity. Pretty much, everyone wins, and Raquel is gonna be their major cash cow for their anniversary year.

And I can't wait.

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Caroline loves to sew and embroider, and she’s just made this lovely sampler herself! It shows off her needlework, spelling, and decorative skills. Of course, it wouldn’t be Caroline’s work without a nod to her favorite pastime!

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I took this pic of Claudie back in October after seeing Howl's Moving Castle in theaters, and today I finally edited Calcifer in. It was a bit difficult to try to recreate this scene because Claudie's arms don't bend but I think it turned out pretty cute :) After I saw the movie in theaters (it was like the 4th time I had seen it?), I decided to listen to the audiobooks for the series and they were SO GOOD!

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someone might've already made this comparison, but i feel like this photo of ava alice muriel astor from 1912 must've been one of the inspos for sam's beforever travel coat and hat

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My extremely talented coworker Amanda photoshopped our children’s librarians to look like American Girl dolls and I have been laughing about it ever since.