This month, American Girl announced that they were going to be releasing their first-ever boy doll. Known for their 18-inch girl dolls, many people were surprised to hear AG was going to now have a boy doll for sale. The doll is named Logan Everett and is connected to another new doll about to be released named Tenney Grant. She is a blonde singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. Logan is Tenney’s drummer so he will have a doll-sized drum set available. As of now, there is not much for his collection, but AG has announced more to come, as they usually do to keep people coming back.
Although some AG fans and consumers were surprised by the boy doll, others said “it’s about time.” There is definitely a market for male dolls and AG is getting in on it. Some little boys like to play will dolls despite the stereotype of dolls being “girl toys.” When I worked at AG, we often had jealous little brothers who wanted a doll like their big sister. They thought the dolls were cool (and not to biased, but they are pretty cool from a kid’s perspective). The employees were instructed to never make comments about boys being interested in the dolls because AG (and its parent company, Mattel) are inclusive of all kids.
In addition to AG’s inclusion of boys, they’re finally getting an Asian-American doll back. Some older AG fans may remember Chinese-American doll Ivy who was the companion doll to Julie Albright, the 70s doll. When all of the companion dolls (Emily, Ivy, Ruthie, etc) were removed from stores several years ago, there really weren’t any Asian dolls. There were a few that might have been able to pass in our “Look-Like-Me” collection, but we often got complaints about those few dolls looking too much like one Asian nationality over another. AG will soon introduce Korean-American Z Yang, a doll who loves to make stop-motion films. According to a Facebook live from the official American Girl Facebook page, “Z” is short for “Suzie.” They also announced she will be getting their first-ever Amazon live special sometime this summer.
Some big news also for the older AG fans is that Felicity is coming back! Felicity Merriman was the doll from Colonial Virginia during the Revolutionary War period. She was archived in 2010 and is now being brought back with a new collection. Sadly, Felicity will only be available at the AG flagstaff locations (meaning our biggest stores: LA, Chicago and NYC) and online. I’m not really sure what the idea behind only having her at the flagstaff stores and online is, but it is disappointing. There are about 20 AG stores which means over 85% of the stores will not have Felicity.
The news I’m most personally excited for is the arrival of a new doll, named Nanea (nah-nay-uh) Mitchell, a 1941 Hawaiian doll. This is the first time two dolls will be so close in time period as the now-archived doll Molly McIntire was a 1944 World War II doll. Nanea takes on the perspective of a Hawaiian during WWII. It will be interesting to see how AG writes in the attack at Pearl Harbor or if they somehow downplay it. Fun fact: Nanea is the first historic character doll to come dressed in shorts! I had never noticed that all the historic dolls come in a skirt or a dress so when I heard that, I quickly tried to run through every doll and think about the outfit they come in. She also has a new face mold. Unfortunately, Nanea won’t be coming out until Fall 2017 so we still have a while to wait for her to be available. Although I don’t really need to buy a doll, I can’t wait to see Nanea’s collection because I’m sure it will be super cute with the Hawaiian and 1940s vibes.
2017 is shaping up to be a big year for AG and fans alike.
