American Girl Dolls for Girls of Any Age
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American Girls Collector Dolls: My Personal History
Historical Fiction such as My Brother Sam is Dead, in the 1980s children's reading list, were male protagonists. To read about women heroes I read non-fiction. That's why a Chinese American gal like me went to the Berkeley Public Library to read about African American civil rights. My paternal grandparents lived on Acton Street in Berkeley. My father would take me to visit them on the weekends. Though UC Berkeley was within walking distance, my dad chose to attend Cal Poly because during his youth the Berkeley protests and racial tensions were too hot. This is my experience with American Girls Dolls and growing up in America as a woman.
Photo Credit: Flickr Emily with American Girl Doll
Photo Credit: Flickr Emily with American Girl Doll
American Girls Heritage and Identity
I witnessed a positive change in the way Chinese Americans were perceived by the public from the 1980 to 2011 because of anchor Connie Chung and ice skater Michelle Kwan. It's true that in 2012, not all California Gold Rush-era slurs have disappeared. Take for instance ESPN SportsCenter's poor choice of headlines for Jeremy Lin. However, I am confident that life is better in American for the next generation of Chinese Americans.I remember how hard I cried, after school, when my classmate and elementary school teacher told me to sit down when all Americans were told to stand up in class for an exercise. Racism didn't dampen my patriotism because of how my mom reacted. My mom made me wipe my tears and get dressed in my Girl Scout uniform every afternoon, as usual, after such incidents.
I was born in Tracy, California and have never been to China. My fellow Brownie scouts were Mexican girls and white girls. Tracy was an big HQ for the KKK at the time and my family were the only Asians in town. My Mexican friends nicknamed me "Grenade" for my strong personality.
American Girl Dolls
A Chinese American Girl's Perspective
I was raised by my maternal grandmother. Both my parents worked outside the home. I felt lonely for my mom but my grandma became my mom in many ways. She'd cook me healthy foods, she'd take me on trips to church to meet her choir friends, and she'd tell me stories. Her eyesight was too poor to read me standard-size print English folktales but she would read from a large-print Chinese language bible.As I mentioned before, I did not have American Girls historical fiction to read in the 1980s. I read grown up non-fiction to find Asian women who looked like me. That means that I read about wars between China and Japan, the fights between the Japanese and Koreans, and Americans in Vietnam. That is overly heavy reading for a child, I'd say in retrospect. My grandma lived through two wars including the Japanese occupation of China and the Communist Revolution.
Resources by Amy Tan
Amy Tan studied creative writing at San Jose State University. I am proud to graduate from the same school but different department for my business degree.
Children's Book Publishing
Lighten Up: How I Learned to Play
After I graduated with my English Teaching degree from college, a wonderful thing happened.Amy Tan and others published light-hearted picture books about growing up Chinese in America. Women Hold Up Half the Sky movements began. I began to read about Vietnamese-Americans in the juvenile section and how they celebrated New Years. It was so refreshing to read about celebrations as opposed to the horrors of war. Around this time a Pleasant Company American Girls Doll representative brightened my heart by replying to my letter requesting a Chinese American doll as a new product for the AG series.
I entered into a nine-month children's book publishing internship with Heyday Books of Berkeley. It was a delight to assist in creating classroom teacher supplements for books on Indian games, science books on whales and California nature photography depicting the alphabet.
Ivy and Me
Generations of Women in American Girl Dolls
This is also when I read "Good Luck, Ivy" by Lisa Yee, a writer for American Girl Dolls historical fiction. The fictional character, young gymnast Ivy, had a grandmother that she could confide in and who knew her heart. Now that my grandmother is 85-years-old and suffering from Alzheimers I re-read Lisa Yee's book to remember the giggling, happy times with grandma. Unlike Ivy, my grandparents did not own a Chinese restaurant called the Happy Panda. However, my grandma and her girlfriends took me to Chinese dim sum regularly. I have fond memories of feasting on lion's head meatballs and BBQ pork buns in San Francisco.
Love My Grandma Too
Ivy had a grandmother she could confide in and who knew her heart
Asian American Collector Dolls
How My Sister Plays with American Girls Dolls
My sister chose the Asian American mini doll. It was an infant with straight black hair and almond shaped eyes. Unsmiling. My sister graduated from college with a biology degree and decided to go to Korea for two years to teach English to Asian students. She also runs fun craft and singing camps to get them smiling. Here are my tips how to appreciate American Girls Dolls even when you are no longer a pre-teen.
Ivy American Girl Mini Dolls
Civil Rights
Asian American California History
Squidoo American Girl Dolls
Can Barbie Be Friends With Samantha?
I played with Barbies and G.I. Joe because the AG dolls did not exist when I was a child.
Mattel owns Barbie and American Girl now. Are Barbies good to introduce to girls who love the AG series?
This is the wrong age group for Barbie. Barbie is for girls older than age 8.
egosney78 says:
My mom didn't want me playing with Barbie until I was older, and I hated it because my friends had them. Now that I am a mom, I feel the same way about Barbie as she did! I am glad the AG dolls are out for younger girls.
Barbie is compatible with American Girls Dolls play.
Who is Tweeting about American Girl Dolls?
Addy Mini American Girl Dolls
How a Doctorate Student and Actress Plays
Fortunately, in the 1990s, the Pleasant Company launched American Girls historical fiction books and collector dolls. This influenced my sister and my girlfriends who are younger than I am. My girlfriends, who are doctorate students and actresses in Los Angeles, remember their first Addy doll. They also remember doing house-chores to earn enough allowance money to buy two more American Girls dolls when they loved Addy so much and played with her so often that they brushed the doll bald.
American Girl Collector Dolls Addy
Growing Pains: A Lesson about Phones
Doll Catalogues
The actress admits that her doctorate student sister was the bold one on phones as a child. I repeat this story is not to condone the use of phones by children under 12. These two sisters had a downstairs bedroom they shared. For the convenience of the family, their dad installed a phone also downstairs. In the pre-dawn hours when the parents were asleep, the sisters would call doll companies to order catalogs. They stayed on the phone with customer service reps to ask questions about the dolls, doll furniture and clothing. The parents did not notice that doll catalogs were coming in the mail addressed to the girls because they would grab the mail before anyone else. The grown women reflect now and realize how dangerous it was to give their address to a stranger, even a doll sales rep, over the phone. They shiver at the thought that something bad could happen to them. They do not recommend that children do what they did.
American Girl Dolls Computer Game Resources
American Girls Dolls Premeire
Computer Game
However, they loved the American Girl Dolls books, dolls and computer game. Their dad bought them an American Girls Dolls computer game called Premeire. In this computer game, you could use a microphone to record your voice for Samantha, Molly, Kirsten or other characters. My friends preferred the robot voice that was default. It was far funnier this way. In this game, participants could create plays. One of their plots was Samantha saying something disrespectful to her grandpa and in turn her grandpa correcting her. In robotic voices Samantha would say, "Grandfather, you are stupid." The grandpa would retort in an equally robotic voice, "What kind of child are you? That is disrespectful." Since time outs rather than spankings were the norm, my friends did not have a sounds effects module to include a spanking sequence so they made their own. They created the sound of a door slamming repeatedly as a stand in for spanking. This was the girls' idea not their parents. So much time has passed. These girls grew up to be women and they still remember the joy of playing with American Girls Dolls products.
Long-lasting Affection for the American Girl Dolls Brand
How to Play as a Teen
The current doctorate student and actress, that I mentioned earlier, told me just yesterday that they still admire the American Girls Dolls brand. They are two out of five sisters. They shared two stories of their love for dolls, American Girls Dolls in particular. When the doctorate student was 15, she visited her high school friend. As you know, high school bedrooms are still heavily influenced by moms. This means that one closet was filled with never-removed-from-box American Girls Dolls. This included amoires, canopy beds, pets and the American Girl dollhouse. My friend was bowled over. She confesses, though she was too old to play with dolls of any kinds, she felt a twinge of jealously. She did so many loads of household laundry to earn enough money to buy just one American Girl Doll and here were a closet full of pristine ones. Never been played with. Hair intact from lack of loving and obsessive brushing. The waste!
Kit Kittredge American Girl Movie Trailer
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Recent AG Tweets
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American Girl Doll Samantha
How a Third Grader Plays
My friend's child who is a third grader now, has an American Girl Doll Samantha. She also has five American Girl Doll books. During my last visit with her, she told me she liked American Girl Molly and Kirsten American Girl Doll stories best. She commented that she wondered why her American Girl Doll Samantha's two front teeth stuck out when her lips where closed. Maybe this critical thinker will become a doctor since she is so logical and insistent on accuracy. She has long, dark hair like Samantha and she has her parents' Peruvian-Italian good looks. She seems proud that her teeth do not protrude. American Girl Doll Samantha Resources
Mentoring Girls
Soccer Practice
I do not have children of my own but I like volunteering to babysit my friends' children. One time I got to take the third grader to her soccer practice. I ran with the girls around the dirt track for warm ups. I watched her coach direct her drills. At home she had a rich education provided by her homeschooling mom. She also met with other homeschooling children for special projects. Her science experiment sat in the kitchen window and flourished with peas. Her siblings played with Calico Critters and sat them in G.I. Joe's Jeep. The third-grader performed her original plays after the grown-ups had dinner. She also has an imaginative side. American Girls Doll Soccer Resources
As a parent, what is your opinion of American Girl Dolls?
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WordCustard
Apr 25, 2012 @ 9:56 am | delete
- We don't have them where I live but they look a far better doll than Barbie for little girls. I've seen patterns to make clothes for them and think that would be a fun mother-daughter activity.
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BuckHawk
Mar 2, 2012 @ 6:56 am | delete
- American Girl dolls look like they would be perfect for girls of any age, including grammas like me! It's always fun to read about growing up stories. Thanks for sharing your story.
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ItayasDesigns
Feb 24, 2012 @ 2:09 pm | delete
- My niece loves her American Girl dolls! She saves and saves her money and then purchases the one she dreams about the most. Well done article! :)
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mamabush
Feb 20, 2012 @ 11:56 pm | delete
- I have a Samantha doll and a lot of her clothes and accessories...I remember being obsessed with her and saving all of my money to buy new things for her! I can't wait to pass her down to my daughter when she gets a bit older. I recently saw that Samantha was discontinued...so sad!
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survivoryea
Feb 20, 2012 @ 9:48 pm | delete
- My grandaughter loves American Girl dolls - very nicely done! :>)
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American Girl Doll Substitutes
Do you have an opinion about My Generation Dolls? To me they look very much like Kirsten and Samantha down to the AG protruding front teeth. I saw these lookalikes at Target in Culver City this May.
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