2026 marks the 40th anniversary of American Girl. Launched as the Pleasant Company in 1986, American Girl features beautifully intricate dolls from various times in history. There were originally three dolls - Kirsten Larson, a Swedish immigrant from 1854; Samantha Parkington, an upper-class orphan from 1904; and Molly McIntire, a girl on the homefront in 1944.
The collection expanded to other historical dolls through the 1990s – Felicity Merriman, who lives in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1774, and Addie Walker, an enslaved girl who escapes to freedom in 1864. Josefina Montoya, a girl living on a New Mexico rancho in 1824 under Spanish colonial rule, was the last historical character released by Pleasant Company. Several more followed after Mattel’s 1998 acquisition including the inimitable Kit Kittredge, a go-getter facing the struggles of the Great Depression in 1934.
The dolls and their stories were revolutionary. They didn’t shy away from tough topics like poverty, racism, child labor, slavery, death, and war. The stories were faithfully grounded in historical research, and I credit American Girl as one of the main reasons I grew up to become an archivist.
I came of age alongside American Girl. I received Kirsten for my 8th birthday because her name and looks so closely matched my own. Molly, with whom I identified more in personality and temperament (I was often described as loquacious – not a compliment) came later.
My childhood best friends had their own dolls as well. Lauren’s Samantha was perfectly matched to her “that girl” vibe that, even from a young age, knew how to navigate the world with an effortless poise I could never attain. Hayley’s Kirsten was both more polite and polished than mine, attesting an approach to life that followed us into adulthood. I took Kirsten’s braids out to let them fly free and Hayley kept hers immaculate. While my Kirsten spent time in the doll hospital to get her hair fixed, Hayley’s was duly passed on to the next generation at her daughter’s last birthday, looking as new as she did in 1995. Mine now resides in an air-tight container in my garage, having never fully recovered from her convalescence.
We loved them well, played with them often, and took them everywhere, including up to a cabin my family owned in Wrightwood, California. It was there, with my dolls, that my mom taught me how to cook.
American Girl released an extensive library of books to complement the dolls, including cookbooks for each of the historic characters. My mom would check the cookbooks out from the library and tell me to pick any recipe for us to make together. I loved poring over the pages to find the perfect recipe, carefully making the grocery list with my mom, then walking up and down the aisles of our local market to locate all of the supplies. Using the American Girl cookbooks, my mom taught me how to measure wet ingredients versus dry ingredients, how to slice, dice, and cube, and how to use a toothpick to test a cake for doneness. The cookbooks became such a go-to that we eventually acquired each of them and they are now marked with years of use.
My grandmother was a dollmaker and we bonded over a shared love of American Girl’s intricacy. I couldn’t believe the calculator and pencil actually worked or the math textbook in the 1999 school gear collection matched the same one I was using so closely that one time I was able to do my homework from the doll version. Grandma Goodness Sake made countless outfits for my dolls, including Halloween costumes to match my own.
American Girl was more than a toy. At the root of nostalgia is the realization that there are unassuming experiences from our youth that have an indelible impact on our lives, and we may not discover them until years later when we look back to see what shaped who we became. There, in my fondest memories with my friends, my mom, my grandma, is American Girl. My mom kept boxes of American Girl items hidden in her closet (not well, sorry mom!) that she would pull out for occasions both big and random – a perfect score on a tough test at school, a piano recital, a birthday, a hard day. I planned to do the same with my kids and carried my collection from home to home as I grew up, moved out, went to college, started my career, and settled down. I bought new items over the years – Joss’s wetsuit, Luciana’s spacesuit, Kira’s wildlife care outfit, Isabel and Nicki’s Y2K kit – and carefully put them aside for the day I could share this with my own children and watch it shape who they become.
40 years is a milestone worth celebrating. American Girl has evolved over that time, in many ways for the better by becoming more inclusive with greater diversity in its dolls and stories. I’ve evolved as well. I’m still loquacious, hopefully to a less annoying degree. I still love to cook from my American Girl cookbooks. And I’m still waiting with boxes tucked away for kids that likely are not coming.
I struggle sometimes with what it means to be a children’s writer who doesn’t have kids. While I have worked with kids throughout my career in elementary schools and public libraries, there is a unique perspective I sometimes worry that I lack. It isn’t even necessarily the parental perspective, but rather the loss of being tuned in to what modern kids are like. What they care about, what they worry about, what they long for. But then I think about some of my favorite authors like Ann M. Martin, author of The Baby-sitters Club, and Meg Cabot of The Princess Diaries who also do not have children. Their stories are no less impactful for their childfree perspective. And I think about the fact that all of us were children once, and while time and technologies may change, the general experience of childhood does not. That’s why kids are just as enamored of American Girl today as I was 30 years ago.
I may not have children to pass my collection down to, but American Girl’s influence on me is woven throughout the way I write and the stories I’m creating. In that way, I feel like I still get to share it with new generations, and I think that that’s enough for me. I am proud to be an American Girl, even if I am officially old enough for my era to have its own historical characters.
Did you play with American Girl dolls or read the books growing up? Send me a message and share one of your favorite memories!
The collection expanded to other historical dolls through the 1990s – Felicity Merriman, who lives in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1774, and Addie Walker, an enslaved girl who escapes to freedom in 1864. Josefina Montoya, a girl living on a New Mexico rancho in 1824 under Spanish colonial rule, was the last historical character released by Pleasant Company. Several more followed after Mattel’s 1998 acquisition including the inimitable Kit Kittredge, a go-getter facing the struggles of the Great Depression in 1934.
The dolls and their stories were revolutionary. They didn’t shy away from tough topics like poverty, racism, child labor, slavery, death, and war. The stories were faithfully grounded in historical research, and I credit American Girl as one of the main reasons I grew up to become an archivist.
I came of age alongside American Girl. I received Kirsten for my 8th birthday because her name and looks so closely matched my own. Molly, with whom I identified more in personality and temperament (I was often described as loquacious – not a compliment) came later.
My childhood best friends had their own dolls as well. Lauren’s Samantha was perfectly matched to her “that girl” vibe that, even from a young age, knew how to navigate the world with an effortless poise I could never attain. Hayley’s Kirsten was both more polite and polished than mine, attesting an approach to life that followed us into adulthood. I took Kirsten’s braids out to let them fly free and Hayley kept hers immaculate. While my Kirsten spent time in the doll hospital to get her hair fixed, Hayley’s was duly passed on to the next generation at her daughter’s last birthday, looking as new as she did in 1995. Mine now resides in an air-tight container in my garage, having never fully recovered from her convalescence.
We loved them well, played with them often, and took them everywhere, including up to a cabin my family owned in Wrightwood, California. It was there, with my dolls, that my mom taught me how to cook.
American Girl released an extensive library of books to complement the dolls, including cookbooks for each of the historic characters. My mom would check the cookbooks out from the library and tell me to pick any recipe for us to make together. I loved poring over the pages to find the perfect recipe, carefully making the grocery list with my mom, then walking up and down the aisles of our local market to locate all of the supplies. Using the American Girl cookbooks, my mom taught me how to measure wet ingredients versus dry ingredients, how to slice, dice, and cube, and how to use a toothpick to test a cake for doneness. The cookbooks became such a go-to that we eventually acquired each of them and they are now marked with years of use.
My original Molly cookbook with her Volcano Potatoes recipe. Click here to download the recipe and try making the it for yourself!
My grandmother was a dollmaker and we bonded over a shared love of American Girl’s intricacy. I couldn’t believe the calculator and pencil actually worked or the math textbook in the 1999 school gear collection matched the same one I was using so closely that one time I was able to do my homework from the doll version. Grandma Goodness Sake made countless outfits for my dolls, including Halloween costumes to match my own.
American Girl was more than a toy. At the root of nostalgia is the realization that there are unassuming experiences from our youth that have an indelible impact on our lives, and we may not discover them until years later when we look back to see what shaped who we became. There, in my fondest memories with my friends, my mom, my grandma, is American Girl. My mom kept boxes of American Girl items hidden in her closet (not well, sorry mom!) that she would pull out for occasions both big and random – a perfect score on a tough test at school, a piano recital, a birthday, a hard day. I planned to do the same with my kids and carried my collection from home to home as I grew up, moved out, went to college, started my career, and settled down. I bought new items over the years – Joss’s wetsuit, Luciana’s spacesuit, Kira’s wildlife care outfit, Isabel and Nicki’s Y2K kit – and carefully put them aside for the day I could share this with my own children and watch it shape who they become.
40 years is a milestone worth celebrating. American Girl has evolved over that time, in many ways for the better by becoming more inclusive with greater diversity in its dolls and stories. I’ve evolved as well. I’m still loquacious, hopefully to a less annoying degree. I still love to cook from my American Girl cookbooks. And I’m still waiting with boxes tucked away for kids that likely are not coming.
I struggle sometimes with what it means to be a children’s writer who doesn’t have kids. While I have worked with kids throughout my career in elementary schools and public libraries, there is a unique perspective I sometimes worry that I lack. It isn’t even necessarily the parental perspective, but rather the loss of being tuned in to what modern kids are like. What they care about, what they worry about, what they long for. But then I think about some of my favorite authors like Ann M. Martin, author of The Baby-sitters Club, and Meg Cabot of The Princess Diaries who also do not have children. Their stories are no less impactful for their childfree perspective. And I think about the fact that all of us were children once, and while time and technologies may change, the general experience of childhood does not. That’s why kids are just as enamored of American Girl today as I was 30 years ago.
I may not have children to pass my collection down to, but American Girl’s influence on me is woven throughout the way I write and the stories I’m creating. In that way, I feel like I still get to share it with new generations, and I think that that’s enough for me. I am proud to be an American Girl, even if I am officially old enough for my era to have its own historical characters.
Did you play with American Girl dolls or read the books growing up? Send me a message and share one of your favorite memories!
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