I recently had a conversation with a friend about American Girl Dolls, and their stories. It made me think about how much these dolls have impacted mine and many other young children's lives. If you don't know, American Girl Dolls are a 18" dolls which portray 8-11 year old girls of a variety of ethnicities, backgrounds, and historical time periods. Each doll also has a short book series detailing important aspects of their childhood, highlighting many core values, which readers would take away. Starting with the year 1764 and the Native American character Kaya and most recently with a series of contemporary characters, the dolls allow young children to learn about aspects of US history and girlhood through a lens they can relate to.

As a child, I had two dolls which were part of the "American Girls Collection," more commonly known as the "Historical Characters" and more recently re-named the "BeForever Characters." I was very proud of my Molly and Addy dolls; I played with them constantly, read all of their books, and even watched the American Girl movies when they started premiering in 2003. My mom was somehow able to get the first movie (which was about the character Samantha who lived in New York in 1904) early, and I remember watching it with her, so enthralled. Looking back, the reason I loved the stories and the dolls so much was mostly because of the historical aspect--I'm now a history major, and I can't help but wonder if these dolls helped contribute to my love of history.

The American Girl Dolls' stories covered many time periods, events, and backgrounds--Molly McIntire was my first introduction to World War II, Kit Kittridge taught me about the Great Depression, Josephina Montoya and Kirsten Larson allowed me to learn about other cultures. What was also remarkable, looking back, was that the writers behind the characters' books had actually done a fair amount of research into the time periods and cultures. The books weren't there to make America seem great, they were there to allow young readers to better understand what the world used to be like--Samantha and Nellie's story looked at the industrial revolution and child labor and classism. Josephina and Kaya examined colonialism and its flaws. Kirsten and Rebecca were immigrants dealing with poverty and language barriers. These characters went through real hardships that real young girls of their time periods would have gone through. It was not something I'd really understood as a child, but now I appreciate the amount of work that went into making the stories factual and realistic.The dolls and their books made history accessible to my younger self, and gave me the opportunity to explore many different households around the country, throughout history, which in turn started me on my path as a history lover, but also helped me realize that the country still had a lot of progress to make.

I'm honestly very grateful to have been able to play with these dolls and read their stories, because while I learned a great deal about history, the American Girl dolls also taught me a lot about how to be a good person. These ten year old characters faced so many situations with more courage than I thought I would ever have as a child, they made sacrifices for their families or for their townspeople and they always remained true to themselves. Characters dealt with loss, grappled with loyalty, learned how to be good siblings, to be generous and patient, and so much more. I was able to see Kaya become a compassionate leader, and read about Molly redefining what patriotism meant to her. Each story focused on family and friendship and helped teach me that there were different ways to be strong, and that's something I still carry with me today.

The American Girl company wasn't perfect. The dolls were very expensive and not readily available to everyone and their stories, looking back, were not as diverse as they could have been, but I still learned so much from them. The books demonstrated that some hardships of childhood are universal, but also that not all children will experience the same things, especially across difference cultures and races. They taught me about history, and gave me role models, and a doll that I could dress up however I pleased. Honestly, there's something to be said about a good doll, sturdy enough to last through childhood, but even more about what playing with said doll can teach a young child.