Lia Rebore

Dr. Newcomb

English 170: Writing and Rhetoric

23 Feb. 2024

Childhood is a time to explore the world and all of its wonders and possibilities. One way children do this is through imaginative play and for children of all genders playing with dolls, whether they’re action figures, barbies or baby dolls, lets them process and explore their world in all different ways. One doll, the American Girl Doll, whose name identifies its target, tries to create an inclusive set of dolls whose stories teach girls history, strength and resilience so they can overcome challenges, big and small, that they may encounter growing up in America.

In “American Girl Dolls teach positive lessons in a complex world,” Laura Jones summarizes the origin of the company, which was founded by Pleasant Rowland when she was searching for gifts that would teach her nieces about girls’ experiences in different historical periods and still be fun. When she couldn’t find one, she created her own:  “… – a combination of learning and play that Rowland nicknamed ‘chocolate cake and vitamins’” (Jones). It turned out to be a smart way to provide information about girls’ lives throughout American history and also show girls how issues they face today also existed in the past. Jones uses the example of the Rebecca Rubin doll, “a Jewish character doll released in May 2009…[living]… on the Lower East side of Manhattan at the height of the second wave of immigration, circa 1914… [who] struggles with assimilation, the rise of the movie industry and the labor movement.” Today, these issues still persist. Two of these issues, anti-immigrant and labor are big issues today and the rise of the movie industry is to the rise of social media in girls’ lives. Learning about these issues from over a century ago through the Rebecca doll is like “chocolate cake with vitamins” – the chocolate cake fun of playing with Rebecca along with vitamins of learning the history and lessons from her story and how they connect to the same issues that girls might be dealing with or hearing about today.

The American Girl Doll has other lines that deal with “contemporary problems: bullying, obesity, divorce, even race relations” (Jones). In the same way as with the historical dolls, girls are playing, but also processing how the dolls’ experiences relate to their own, which may help them find strength to cope with them. And according to assistant professor Ellen Samuels, who taught “Body Theory” at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison,”[t]he dolls offer a much more diverse and expansive idea about girlhood than a traditional doll because of the way they are set up to validate girls, their identities, their sense of self, and their cultural and racial background” (Jones). So they serve the dual purpose of being fun for make-believe play, while building up girls’ self esteem and resilience. 

But, based on the product line, it’s arguable that despite the company’s claims of diversity and inclusion to empower all girls, it has been focused on white girls. In “New American Girl Doll Celebrates Black Joy During the Harlem Renaissance,” Mellan Solly discusses how the fourth black American Girl Doll, Claudie, was added to the historical collection more than 25 years after the collection began. For the first time, the focus is on a positive time period in African American history, the Harlem Renaissance. According to Emilie Zaslow, author of Playing With America’s Doll: A Cultural Analysis of the American Girl Collection, “Addy and Melody are both stories of racial struggle, bookended by slavery on the one side and the civil rights movement on the other…. [and until now, there wasn’t] a story that focuses on the African American experience as something just to be celebrated and not something to be thought of as pain and strife” (Solly). This begs the question of whether the company was shaping the minds of all girls, unconsciously or not, to see black girls as having a different and lesser “American” experience that’s not only less carefree but also as limiting in their right to explore the world.

However, despite her late entry, Claudie furthers Rowland’s original purpose of creating a doll that both entertains and empowers girls. And though the company can do more to truly include and empower all girls, Claudie is a step in the right direction. As noted by Jones, “learning is a key element of American Girl play,”  and the dolls are not only fun toys, with tons of accessories, but also tools for building girls’ knowledge and self-esteem. 

 

Works Cited

Jones, Laura. “American Girl Dolls Teach Positive Lessons in a Complex World.” Isthmus, 6 June 2013, isthmus.com/archive/isthmus-parents/american-girl-dolls-teach-positive-lessons-in-a-complex-world/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

Magazine, Smithsonian. “New American Girl Doll Celebrates Black Joy during the Harlem Renaissance.” Smithsonian.Com, Smithsonian Institution, 25 Aug. 2022, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-american-girl-doll-celebrates-black-joy-during-the-harlem-renaissance-180980643/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.