Dear American Girl Company, Hi! I want to start out by saying that I love American Girl. I really do. It's been there since I was a kid; I don't remember the dolls, but I did read the books and get the paper dolls (still got them. I do love paper dolls). Now I have my own daughter, and can share it with her. It was her eighth birthday yesterday; we went to the Chicago store and celebrated with a new doll and a fancy lunch. I enjoyed it just as much as she did. By now there are even more characters and merchandise and it's this whole thing and sure, I get swept up in it. It's fun. And it teaches my daughter good things. Like how all American girls are so different, yet we all have something in common. About that. There's one thing that many (no, not all; but many) American Girl characters have in common. Let me assist my presentation with a visual aid: See it? No? Well, I believe those are all Truly Me dolls. You have more kinds than that. How about the character dolls: And I think those are the tiny versions. But you get the idea. No? Okay, then. I'm just going to come out and say it. Those are a LOT of white girls. Now. I can't be the first person to mention this. And, yes, there are girls who aren't white. All three of them. In the characters at least. And the Truly Me dolls do come in assorted skin colors. The picture isn't truly (Truly) representative of the variety. I'll be fair about that. However. The character dolls, as I said, have only three characters of different racial aspect. But, you say, these are historical dolls. It's difficult to have characters of different racial aspect in American history, when you also want to tell American occurrences through the perspective of a girl who would be in a good position to be affected by it. Is it? I highly doubt it. A storyteller with even half-decent imagination would be able to come up with something. It's like teaching our girls that other races didn't have much to do with the forming of our nation: the great Melting Pot. Not much of a melting pot if all the girls have the same European background. Having so few characters of different backgrounds smacks of the token black girl, the token Native American, the token Mexican, tokentokentoken. Is that really what you want people to think of when they think American Girl? That said, the main issue I'm finding is with the Girl of the Year. Every year, there's a new character to spotlight; she gets her own doll, movie, the whole shebang. Let's take a look at those girls: Okay. We have Marisol, who is Hispanic...Jess, who I believe is part Asian? Kind of hard to tell from here? And Kanani, who is Hawaiian. ...And then we have the rest of them.
There's also Saige of 2013. White. Isabelle from 2014. White. And blonde. And blue-eyed. There's a lot of blondes here too. And Grace 2015...you guessed it, white. Now there's Lea of 2016. At least she has a tan. I find it ironic that at least half the staff of your Chicago store is of another race. The stock is most definitely not. Where are the African girls? The Inuit? The lower Pacific? The Indian? The entire continent of South America? These all have immigrants who come here. And not just those of a different color skin; how about the Greek girls? The Russian? Etc. Etc. Etc. The only reason I can think of to give these the shaft, in favor of largely European descent, is the bald fact that your stuff costs money. Big boocoo bucks. And the families in our country that have that kind of money are, sadly, more likely to be white, and of said European descent. Or at least that's what I believe your demographics are telling you. Tell me I'm wrong. Please. Tell me I'm wrong. I want to be wrong. I know you're a company. A large corporation. As such, you have to be concerned about the bottom line. You won't be in business long if you're not. But. I'm not appealing to your ideals, as such. You're a company. Ideals are all very well, but the aforesaid bottom line and all that capitalist stuff, which is part of how our country is and okay. But I will point out that, ostensibly at least, your company's message is that diversity is accepted. That all American girls are amazing, and awesome, and, as aforesaid, have things in common. How much can they have in common if girls of different backgrounds aren't represented in the stores? That sends a message. A message that is becoming more noticeable. As I said, I'm sure I'm not the only one to complain about this. The more you continue on this chosen path, the more noticeable it will get. Soon enough, you'll have more people ranting online; demonstrating; boycotting. How will that affect your bottom line? Sometimes, we have to take into consideration the touchy feely stuff, if we want a company to continue. Particularly if it's what the company's supposed to be all about. I like your product. And, as such, I will continue to hope for the best from you. Thanks for your time. Rebecca
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Rebecca FrohlingWriter, dancer, actress, mother, me. Archives
February 2019
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