#sorelline d'italia

[kirstenlarsons]

Gonna make the early 2000 sorelline d'Italia characters into 90s characters just because. I can have my Marie Grace be one of them and maybe break on my buying ban to get a blonde doll to play the other.

[kirstenlarsons]

In case you missed my first post about this idea of an Italian line of historical dolls you can find it here

I played around with the American Girl CYO to just have an idea of what I'd like the Sorelline D'Italia (if they existed) to look like, and also gave them some names.

Under the cut since there's a lot of them

This would be the Ancient Rome doll. Since in a line based on a country like Italy diversity can be kind of hard to find, I wanted to make sure to get when possible. So this is Cotia Tertia (pronounced Coh-tzeeah Tehr-tzeeah, Tertia means she was the third daughter) whose family is originally from North Africa (still in the Roman Empire) but moved to peninsular Italy. I'm not sure about the exact period of the Empire yet.

Matilde (Mah-teel-deh) lives in Florence during the Renaissance. I wanted her to have something unique about her appearance that would make her stand out, so that's why I thought of heterocromia. I'm not exactly sure what her story would be, but I would definitely love for her to be into courtly literature.

Simona (See-mom-nah) lives in Milan during the Bread revolt of 1628. This revolt is described in the classic book The Betrothed. Milan is under Spanish rule during this time, and bread is pretty scarce, hence the revolt.

Ofelia (Oh-pheh-ljah) lives in Piedmont during the first Italian War of Independence. The war was fought mainly by the Sardinian arm (the Piedmontese) so I was thinking she might be the daughter of an official. This war was lost.

You'll notice later that both my Southern Italian character ideas have curlier hair and darker colours that the others. While olive skinned Italians exist all throughout the peninsula, it makes more sense to give this colouring to them. Francesca (Frahn-cheh-skah) lives in the countryside in Calabria during the Second Italian War of Independence (1860/61). The people around her are torn, while the current king is bad, will things change if Italy became a united country? The answer is no, but this war was won.

Loretta (Loh-reht-tah) lives in Veneto at the beginning of the 20th century, and this happens to be the poorest region of Italy during this time. Her father decides to try and leave for America in a chance of a better life, leaving her and her family behind of their farm.

Maria Elisabetta (Mah-reea Eh-lee-sah-beht-tah) lives in Rome at the beginning of the 1920s, which means she'll get to witness the start of fascism and Mussolini's coup.

This is the other south Italian characters, now you see what I'm referring to. Nina (Nee-nah, short for Giovanna) lives in Naples during WW2. After they got rid of Mussolini, Germany invaded, but while other cities and town in Italy needed help for Americans and Russians, Neapolitan people freed themselves.

Layla (Leh-ee-lah) is not Italian, she's the daughter of a Korean linguist from Britain. However, since his job is studying the different regional variants of Italian, they had to move there when Layla was very little. Right now (1978) they're living in Rome because he's helping the police with the kidnapping of a very famous politician.

Avrora, although her friends call her Aurora since it's easier, is the daughter Ukrainian immigrants, and she lives in a small town in Calabria during the early 2000s. Nothing big happened, it was just a period of technological boom. Ideally the story would also cover sexual harassment, as many of the easter European looking friends of mine had their first kiss stolen around this age.

[kirstenlarsons]

Layla Kye has moved towns several times because of her father's job. Starting over isn't easy, so when she moves to Rome in December of 1977, she's scared. She's not Italian, although she's lived there her whole life: she and her dad were born in London, UK, but her grandparents were born near Seoul, in South Korea. Who knows what her classmates will say? And if it's not something about her eyes, surely they'll say something about her name. It isn't her fault that that year a pretty popular movie named its protagonist Princess Leila, pronounce the same.

And then, when all the new girl in town drama passes, her dad starts working later and later and he can't say anything about it. Her nanny is sure it has something to do with that politician that was kidnapped, Aldo Moro. Layla can't even invite her friends over to her house anymore. Should she be worried about her dad's safety? And what about her little sister, or her own?

[kirstenlarsons]

I have decided which three "collections" would be first in the Sorelline D'Italia story and I'll be introducing them all through today. Here's Loretta!

Loretta lives in rural Veneto in 1912. Italy is experiencing the kind of industrial boom that swept the continent at the end of the century before, but Veneto is still behind and struggling.

Her story is going to cover emigration, unions, voting and what it means to be Catholic, education and illiteracy.

[kirstenlarsons]

Le Sorelline D'Italia sibling status

Cotia Tertia is fifth of seven. She's the third girl as her name suggest, and her other siblings are all boys. Her oldest brother Lucius is married.

Matilde is an only child. However, her father just remarried with a widow who has a kid, a younger boy.

Simona is the youngest of three. All of her siblings are girls.

Ofelia is a twin. Fraternal given that her twin's a boy, Lorenzo.

Francesca has 4 older siblings. Three boys and a girl.

Loretta is the eldest of four. They're two twin boys and a girl.

Maria Elisabetta is an only child.

Nina is second of three. They're an older boy and a younger girl.

Layla is the oldest of two. Her little sister is named Nìcola.

Avrora is an only child.

[kirstenlarsons]

Yesterday I figured out what dolls could be similar to the Sorelline D'Italia. They're not perfect matches and some need modifications. I tried to only look at AG dolls but it was impossible for some

Cotia Tertia: jly 50

Matilde: jly 22 + change one eye so she has heterochromia + add freckles

Simona: Jamie from our generation

Ofelia: jly 16 + add freckles

Loretta: jly 21

Maria Elisabetta: Taryn from Maplelea + cut hair

Layla: jly 64

Aurora jly 51

Francesca and Nina I can't find good dolls, it looks like hair this curly is not sold often, and definitely not with a more Mediterranean face mold (I looked for the Josefina Mold since it's been used to signify more latine/jewish features which are also Mediterranean features) and definitely not in the right skin colour. It's a shame.

[kirstenlarsons]

That post made me think about what if there were a company like American Girl but in Italy?

First of all, I think the name should be something like "Sorelline D'Italia" (Little Sisters of Italy, like the first line of the Italian national anthem that says brothers of Italy), and have a modern line of 20 dolls, one living in each region.

As for the historical line, some ideas would be:

a girl living in Ancient Rome (you really can't start anywhere else);

a girl living in Florence during the Renaissance;

a girl from Milan during the 1628 bread revolt (we have to honour the classics);

a Piedmontese girl during the First Independence war (1848);

a girl from the South during the Second Independence war (1861);

a girl from the region of Veneto whose father moves to America (early 1900s)

a girl from Rome in the 20s during the rise of fascism;

a girl from Naples during the last bout of WW2 (Naples freed itself, with no help from the Americans or the Russians);

a British girl that moves to Rome because her father is helping with the Moro investigation (1978);

an East European immigrant to a small town during the technology boom of the early 2000s.

[kirstenlarsons]

My doll-related 2022 To-Do/Make list:

Start writing Layla's story (from my Sorelline d'Italia post)

Make at least the other 5 starting outfits for Lilyann's collection, maybe even get her some glasses

Get Stephanie (a Maplelea Leonie) and the Maplelea Canadian sweater

Make socks for all my dolls

Get at least one AG brand doll (be it Joss, Marie-Grace, or some other doll I could turn into a Sorelline D'Italia character)

[kirstenlarsons]

The first 5 dolls on my want list

Given that it won't be possible for me to purchase any doll until this September, this is more of an all time want list than a to buy in 2022 list. (I have a longer one that goes to 25, but didn't want to bother everyone with photos)

A Maplelea Leonie to transform into a character from my favourite show (Stephanie from Degrassi Junior High)

A Just Like You 64 to transform into Layla from my Sorelline D'Italia headcanon

Joss Kendrick

Marie-Grace Gardner

Kristen Larson

[kirstenlarsons]

I fleshed out a bit more the story of one of my ocs form the Sorelline D'Italia post, but since it'd touch so heavily on a topic that many might consider too much for children idk if I want to post a little explanation. It is based in reality, and the incident in and of itself would be taken basically word from word from something taht really happened to me, but I'm not sure how people would take it

[kirstenlarsons]

I was looking at dolls that might fit the Sorelline D'Italia characters (given where I live I can't order from the coo without one of those fake address companies and I don't particularly trust them, so I have to rely on existing dolls as far as I can) and I just fell in love with jly #64. She is so pretty