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Revisiting American Girl's 'AWFUL' Rebrand

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  • Опубликовано: 21 янв 2023
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    This video is intended for adult, and young adult, collectors- NOT children!
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Комментарии • 792

  • @Queerlyness
    @Queerlyness Год назад +2767

    The reason everyone hates it is because they threw away all the details and accuracy of the historical dolls to cut costs and ‘sell better’

    • @lisettefrierson3592
      @lisettefrierson3592 Год назад +5

      True!

    • @janetestherina7169
      @janetestherina7169 Год назад +50

      it took away everything that is appealing about the lines

    • @dlclcn5021
      @dlclcn5021 Год назад +6

      Agreed.

    • @Melissa0774
      @Melissa0774 Год назад +46

      Yeah, Pleasant Company totally sold out. What a disappointment. Why does everyone always have to ruin everything good all the time?

    • @Time_Is_Left
      @Time_Is_Left Год назад +20

      @@Melissa0774 Because everything ends up being about capitalism (what didn’t start that way to begin with)

  • @totalcattitude4339
    @totalcattitude4339 Год назад +766

    As a Chinese American, the loss of Ivy Ling was heartbreaking for me. There were very few characters who looked like me in mainstream media, so I grew attached to her so quickly. I'm extremely disappointed that Mattel has yet to be bothered to put out another historical Asian doll.

    • @thisbeem2714
      @thisbeem2714 Год назад +32

      I agree. Shame on you, Mattel. Of course, that is sort of a mantra I have about that company.

    • @miscellaneouslorecollector3675
      @miscellaneouslorecollector3675 Год назад +22

      Dam that must sucks. Not american, but I can see how that kinda stuff is important to people. HAD NO IDEIA they stoped making Ivy, my condolences

    • @eleegee
      @eleegee Год назад +33

      There’s actually a rumoured upcoming Asian American Historical doll! So far it’s just a rumour though, and the trademark is currently dead, but you never know! They may revive her. She’s rumoured to be a Gold Rush-era doll named Ning!

    • @detectivewiggles
      @detectivewiggles Год назад +11

      Asian Americans deserve so much better ❤

    • @kenthuang436
      @kenthuang436 11 месяцев назад +21

      I think that the Millennium twins that represent the Y2K years really should have been an Asian doll instead of some more white blonde hair blue eyes girls again. In fact have the doll be a girl with Middle Eastern heritage and Muslim and her facing ostracism and religious intolerance after the events of 9/11 since that happened to so many people who were Muslims and often profiled unfairly and targeted to full body searches at airports because people thought they would be a threat just because they were of Middle Eastern descent. It’s not like American Girl hasn’t tackled the subjects of racism and oppression before.

  • @ckind2098
    @ckind2098 Год назад +775

    "Don't rebrand your doll line or else some twink on RUclips with a Costuming degree might show up 8 years later to call you a flop" 😂 lmao I always appreciate how you slip in the snark like this

    • @BledaRassmar
      @BledaRassmar Год назад +11

      Best RUclips Comment I have seen this year lol

    • @nhmisnomer
      @nhmisnomer Год назад +24

      Just discovered him and I'm not really his target audience but I do love fashion history and his analysis is so clever and interesting.

    • @sloanissocoolandgreat
      @sloanissocoolandgreat Год назад +14

      @@nhmisnomerreally thought this said "just divorced him"😭

    • @Coolslays
      @Coolslays 6 месяцев назад +1

      @@sloanissocoolandgreat wdym “just divorced him”,did you marry him or something???

  • @velvetiivenus
    @velvetiivenus Год назад +1763

    Some of my major nitpicks as someone who's a huge history nerd:
    - Samantha's Beforever meet outfit looks NOTHING like what a girl in 1904 would wear. It looks almost like a modern-day outfit, except for the frills.
    - Kit's Beforever meet dress, once again, looks nothing like a 1930's dress. The belt actyally makes it look like a dress from the 60's.
    - Julie's Beforever meet outfit is so stereotypical, it hurts my eyes.
    - All we need for Felicity to become a full-on Tudor doll is a ruff and a cap.

    • @KingOfGaymes
      @KingOfGaymes Год назад +92

      The change to Samantha breaks my heart as she was my first AG doll and means a lot to me, I love her original dress and so did many others. It’s an iconic part of AG history..
      Slapping a pink, frilly and historically inaccurate dress on her makes me so angry, it’s like they felt she wasn’t good enough so they had to put her in a cutesy pink dress to make little girls want her more when they didn’t need to.. I remember the absolute devastation of AG fans when they announced Samantha being archived.. So to bring her back like THAT.. So disappointing.. She was perfect as she was, all of the original AG girls were..

    • @phoenixfritzinger9185
      @phoenixfritzinger9185 Год назад +54

      Samantha’s dress looks more like 1990’s if anything
      It’s like something my mom would have made for me to wear to like Easter Sunday church service when I was a toddler or something that Relena Peacecraft would wear

    • @naomistarlight6178
      @naomistarlight6178 Год назад +44

      The Kit one bugs me most. It was the Depression. It was right after WWI. People wore somber colors.

    • @mikeyfrederick1232
      @mikeyfrederick1232 Год назад +8

      Call them out Angelica!!! LoL I dig your energy and knowledge of historical fashion..

    • @velvetiivenus
      @velvetiivenus Год назад +1

      @@mikeyfrederick1232 thank you!! :)

  • @Man-wolf-
    @Man-wolf- Год назад +1464

    Theres nothing wrong with girly stuff and pink but i really feel like mattel even to this day just sees little girls as a monolith-like they cant like something if its not decked in pink and glitter

    • @kerisaltchannel3817
      @kerisaltchannel3817 Год назад +104

      I like pink and girly but not EVERYONE will. Some people like blue or aren’t as girly. And thats okay. I hope they understand soon

    • @RariettyC
      @RariettyC Год назад +135

      As a tomboy during the late-90s/early-2000s who disliked the color pink and who loved learning about history, I don't know if I would have been into American Girl at all if I was growing up during the Be Forever era. I loved those dolls because it felt like the creators of them trusted that their audience wasn't a monolith who would automatically prefer something if it was decked in pink and glitter

    • @clownsabound
      @clownsabound Год назад +6

      off topic but i love your icon it looks sick👍

    • @whatteamwildcats4033
      @whatteamwildcats4033 Год назад +32

      I've been trying to get into doll collecting, so I've been going into my local Walmart toy aisle.
      I looked at rainbow high, monster high, mermaze mermaids, and a whole bunch of brands and found my self mostly impressed. And then I saw barbie and was immediately disappointed at the quality
      It's not just mattel seeing girls as this weird monolith of pink and glitter, it's a giant lack of care when it comes to making what they're selling look good for the people who do like it

    • @Man-wolf-
      @Man-wolf- Год назад +35

      @@kerisaltchannel3817 thats an issue i have with the monster high g3 reboot as every single female doll has pink made into their main color even tho g1 had a decent balance between how many of the girls wore pink n how many didnt

  • @crazypyp5871
    @crazypyp5871 Год назад +480

    It feels like the rebrand no longer took into consideration that these are historical figures meant to live in that time period and instead treated them as cute aesthetic dolls. Their original outfits were so much nicer and cuter and had no need to be changed and finally, they were accurate to those time periods though they aren’t anymore.

    • @FrenkTheJoy
      @FrenkTheJoy Год назад +38

      It also just flatout doesn't make sense - it's not like the dolls didn't sell well with the original, accurate costumes. So why would they feel the need to redesign them to be more Barbie-friendly?

    • @largeautomobile
      @largeautomobile Год назад +17

      They're really cheapening themselves as a brand

    • @Melissa0774
      @Melissa0774 Год назад +14

      @@FrenkTheJoy I feel like as well as the originals did sell, Matell must think the changed ones will sell even better. It's greed.

    • @leifmeadows3782
      @leifmeadows3782 Год назад +2

      @@FrenkTheJoy Well, the original historicals sold well--to a group of children in the 80s, 90s, and a little bit into the 00s.
      Children of today like different things, and tend to be less impressed by historical accuracy. It sucks for the rest of us but I honestly don't think they'd have changed it up otherwise.

    • @teleriferchnyfain
      @teleriferchnyfain Год назад +11

      @@leifmeadows3782 Who do you think buys them? Clue - NOT the kids.

  • @callistephus42
    @callistephus42 Год назад +670

    Oh my god when you showed felicity's rebrand outfit I had to do a double take. It's such a downgrade from all her earlier outfits it hurts 💀

    • @emily-tristancresswell1863
      @emily-tristancresswell1863 Год назад +15

      It also made me physically do a double take.

    • @ollieno971
      @ollieno971 Год назад +15

      Literally awoo jump scare

    • @Paradespc
      @Paradespc Год назад +8

      It’s so painful to see

    • @thisbeem2714
      @thisbeem2714 Год назад +14

      It took away Felicity's personality. She would have hated wearing something like that. I mean, she secretly stole her brother's trousers to ride horses in one of the books. Plus. It was an UGLY dress.

    • @brischarrer
      @brischarrer 3 месяца назад

      ​@ollieno971 What does awoo mean?

  • @bitt3rblu3
    @bitt3rblu3 Год назад +240

    I think a huge issue with the modern collection is the difference in materials! The original historical dolls had clothing made out of cotton or linen, etc. so they laid/draped correctly and felt authentic. The Beforever outfits were just polyester, polyester, and more plastic which makes them feel cheap and anachronistic. Kit’s original meet outfit was a knitted sweater set, but her new outfit was polyester with a huge, gaudy plastic belt loop! It makes the work feel careless.

    • @lajinkccat8995
      @lajinkccat8995 Год назад +7

      Agree, its the same thing they did with the Barbie doll over the years.

    • @keroppi6417
      @keroppi6417 Год назад +15

      For sure. I get that it may be more expensive overall to make dolls nowadays, but AG is such a premium brand. The point is that the dolls are REALLY nice and they last a long time. I was lucky enough to have 3 as a kid, and I treasured them. They shouldn't be held to the same standard as Barbie or a more budget-friendly line like Our Generation (No shade to OG though)

  • @annabefriend
    @annabefriend Год назад +639

    i cracked up when felicity's be forever dress came on screen at 13:02 😭 it looks like if someone tried to make fiona from shrek's dress out of a couch

    • @justbecca2414
      @justbecca2414 Год назад +31

      This has me DYING from laughter it’s SO TRUE 😂🤣

    • @xxratsrcutexx3494
      @xxratsrcutexx3494 Год назад +12

      Lmao that describes my feelings exactly 💀💀

    • @AnActualBatMan
      @AnActualBatMan Год назад +28

      i literally said "what the fuck" outloud when it appeared 🤣 WHAT IS THIS DREEESSSS burn it 🥲
      Poor couch, i feel bad

    • @itsbeyondme5560
      @itsbeyondme5560 Год назад

      @@justbecca2414 lol

    • @ROBYNMARKOW
      @ROBYNMARKOW Год назад +5

      It's hideous..

  • @basementdwellercosplay
    @basementdwellercosplay Год назад +507

    As someone who studies historical fashion, is getting a degree in historical methods, and works at a museum making recreation dresses, I can tell you this makes me real sad. I gre up with these dolls as a kid and as adult loved the old designs that had so many details and nods to historical clothing

    • @lurji
      @lurji Год назад +8

      where can i study this kinda stuff? i love the topic very much and i wanna go into it academically

    • @basementdwellercosplay
      @basementdwellercosplay Год назад +11

      @@lurji I mean my school doesnt specifically do history but I am doing an applied historical methods major which focuses on working in museums and hands on historical research. I'm sure there is a way to look into schools for it

    • @katiecakes10000
      @katiecakes10000 Год назад +5

      Especially since the original Felicity had stays and an embroidered pocket.

    • @gildedpeahen876
      @gildedpeahen876 Год назад +6

      The original dresses were made with so much attention to detail and with beautiful layers and fabrics. The new ones look cheap cheap cheap

    • @xXprettyxkittyXx
      @xXprettyxkittyXx 5 месяцев назад +2

      I hate the idea that they don’t think little girls like history. We LOVED historical fashion with all of the bows and fabrics and colors. AG was one of many book series that got girls interested in history and learning. Hell, I got into crafting and cross-stitching which is technically ultra feminine/traditional interests. So even if you want to make the argument that the encouraged STRONG feminine values, you can. The idea that you could be both girl and adventurous was so awesome for some of us who struggled to fit in with both boys and girls going up.
      The new versions are such an insult to girls.

  • @laurenduncan3084
    @laurenduncan3084 Год назад +487

    Unlike the actual outfit itself, that OshKosh B'gosh read of Kit Kittredge's BeForever outfit was INCREDIBLY accurate. Look at how they massacred my girl!

    • @freakette555
      @freakette555 Год назад +20

      The thing is I think that dress is really cute, its just a Kit Outfit at ALL

  • @starspeculation
    @starspeculation Год назад +916

    I mean, this might be looking too deeply into this, but it does seem kind of messed up to save pink, the most girlish and desirable color (by modern girl standards) for the more marketable white characters, and take it away from Addy, just to leave her with blue.

    • @DarlingDollz
      @DarlingDollz  Год назад +369

      I didn't think about that, but honestly it's a really fair point

    • @bloodmoonbunny6837
      @bloodmoonbunny6837 Год назад +121

      I agree. I assume they expected (or knew to expect) to sell less Addy so the stuck her with the blue and fed into their own cycle of bias. There’s a reason Samantha is covered in baby pink.

    • @samkathryn4825
      @samkathryn4825 Год назад +70

      The funny thing is that Addy’s Beforever meet outfit is the only one I’ve heard frequently spoken of positively. I actually purchased it for Addy as its own outfit because it’s actually cute, unlike the other outfits.

    • @Paradespc
      @Paradespc Год назад +86

      I heard (but not read the books myself) that they rewrote Addys stories to be “less frightening” in beforever. In other words, no portraying the true history and suffering of slaves

    • @DarlingDollz
      @DarlingDollz  Год назад +122

      @Denise Gambino They did redo the illustrations to be more tame, supposedly at Rowland's request. The original illustrator actually said she left the project due to being told to make her illustrations less scary.
      This actually led to some nuances being removed from the later books, like Addy's bully originally being illustrated intentionally with a lighter skintone, but the new illustrator erasing that later on

  • @ryhen7062
    @ryhen7062 Год назад +370

    im not a doll collector at all. but as a kid i was obsessed with their native american doll (forgot her name) because im canadian indigenous so i felt kinda validated. but, us natives cant afford that shit.

    • @Plantlexia
      @Plantlexia Год назад +59

      Kaya! She was my first doll, I was obsessed with native heritage

    • @nadinegriffin5252
      @nadinegriffin5252 Год назад +29

      Check out Maplelea. They have Saila an Inuit doll who has some amazing accessories.

    • @yemyearmii7231
      @yemyearmii7231 Год назад +11

      I was able to save up for a Kaya! Haudenosuanee represent

    • @srg24601
      @srg24601 Год назад +7

      Same! I'm mixed and my dad wanted to get me that doll so bad since there were a million dolls that look like my mom's family, but not his. Unfortunately we never had the funds to justify buying her 😔

    • @CCClarinet12
      @CCClarinet12 Год назад +1

      I had Kaya!!!!!

  • @XaurianQueen
    @XaurianQueen Год назад +248

    It's heatbreaking that now that im an adult who could buy herself a historical doll or two, they've changed what made them historical! I used to love the american girl doll catalogue and the clothes and accessories were very cool.

    • @iwakeupandboomimarat
      @iwakeupandboomimarat Год назад +12

      tbf beforever got scrapped in 2019 so its less shit than this now

    • @charischannah
      @charischannah Год назад +2

      This is what ebay is for. :)

    • @leahdavis9434
      @leahdavis9434 Год назад +8

      @@charischannah haha unfortunately American girl resale markets are competitive. Difficult to find, super expensive, lots of people trying to get them too

    • @leahdavis9434
      @leahdavis9434 Год назад +2

      @@ItBeThatWaySometimes it's all about the original pleasant company molds, which are the hard ones

    • @randomusername429
      @randomusername429 Год назад

      ​​@@leahdavis9434 know, right? I was trying to find some discontinued Caroline stuff online, and someone was selling each fork, plate, spoon, cup, etc from her dining room set INDIVIDUALLY for like $12 each. And that's not even counting the actual table and chairs which they were probably charging much more for. It's insane. I have found some stuff that's actually kinda worth it, like full discontinued sets for various characters with a doll, several outfits, furniture, etc for like $600. But even though it's a reasonable price for what you're getting, it's still so expensive.

  • @Cruznick06
    @Cruznick06 Год назад +121

    2014 is also the year Mattel rebooted Monster High. The faces were made more round, the characters given brighter colors (and way more pink across lines instead of reserving it for Draculaura), and the overall clothing/design quality went down.
    Interesting that this happened to American Girl the same year.

    • @silyknow
      @silyknow Год назад +6

      I looked to see if anything happened within the company that year and all I could find is that they bought another brand

    • @iwakeupandboomimarat
      @iwakeupandboomimarat Год назад +6

      @@silyknow im guessing it was probably an internal push to make their lines more commercialised and stereotypically girly

    • @ButterFlyGardenBlossom
      @ButterFlyGardenBlossom Год назад +2

      Didn’t that happen in 2016 or 2017 though

    • @iwakeupandboomimarat
      @iwakeupandboomimarat Год назад +1

      @@ButterFlyGardenBlossom it kinda started in 2015 with doll changes (dayna treasura jones's only doll looks identical to reboot dolls but is still gen 1) and then was official in 2016 im p sure

    • @HarpsiFizz
      @HarpsiFizz 11 месяцев назад

      I think there must have been a gas leak at the Mattel offices that year. I wonder what went on in that year. Did they hire a bunch of new, stupid people? They must have.

  • @saku577
    @saku577 Год назад +254

    I don't understand why they picked such an unflattering photo for Felicity's redesign dress too, like what were they thinking, it makes her dress look box-shaped???

    • @FrenkTheJoy
      @FrenkTheJoy Год назад +30

      I thought it kind of made her look pregnant, which is not a look you want for a 9 year old character.

    • @keltzy
      @keltzy Год назад +4

      Does it look better in real life? I'd just assumed tried to give her panniers or something, but messed up the scaling and didn't care enough to fix it.

    • @saku577
      @saku577 Год назад

      I'm sure the shape is fine irl, her dresses' forms generally were. It's just such a weird angle on the photo.

    • @jessherselfable
      @jessherselfable Год назад +9

      @@keltzy I have it. It’s awful. It looks like it’s designed to be worn over a bustle but of course they didn’t give her any undergarments so it just hangs like a weird sack. I’ve made my own historically accurate clothes for her because I can’t stand the Beforever meet outfit.

    • @ashcatalina8149
      @ashcatalina8149 Год назад +4

      I HATE Felicitys Beforever dress. It’s so garish and the complete opposite of her original outfits. It also makes me think of Marie Grace & Cecile- they had PETTICOATS they could wear under their dresses to make the skirts flare a little more. And technically back in the 1700s (but mostly earlier if I remember correctly) women wore lots of fabric to make their skirts look poofier to actually pull off the illusion of being pregnant- why? Because that would hide pregnant bellies more! Which were considered unusual or even taboo to show. BUT felicity is a child growing up in the 1700s not a woman so if they were trying to pull off this silloette it is oddly and inaccurately placed. Felicity didn’t have a petticoat for her Beforever dress the whole shape and color is just- AWFUL.

  • @kathylennerds750
    @kathylennerds750 Год назад +100

    As a non-American I didn't know American Girl was even real and not invented by The Simpsons until much later and yet here I am scandalized Mattel would butcher these poor girls like that smh

  • @freydobaggins6252
    @freydobaggins6252 Год назад +199

    My mum was a kid/teenager in the 70s and I swear there are old photos of her dressed in outfits EXACTLY like Julie in her original line- that accuracy is amazing!

    • @Star_sweeper
      @Star_sweeper Год назад +22

      My mom had an outfit exactly like her jumpsuit/turtleneck outfit!

    • @Agforever12
      @Agforever12 Год назад +4

      @@Star_sweeper my mom had a shirt just like her patchwork top

    • @thingtwo3996
      @thingtwo3996 Год назад +4

      My mom loved Julie cause Julie had so many clothes that were almost exactly like what she'd grown up wearing!

  • @SeymourDisapproves
    @SeymourDisapproves Год назад +63

    11:33 stooooop that original bicycling outfit was so cute. They absolutely massacred the girlies 😭

  • @moremercurial
    @moremercurial Год назад +51

    I remember being so (briefly) excited Samantha was being unretired because of my deep childhood love for her- and then immediately HORRIFIED at what they did to her. look how they massacred my girl >.> she looks like she's dressed in the Target junior's section from 2014. just horrible

  • @timbofication9788
    @timbofication9788 Год назад +75

    "Some twink on RUclips with a costuming degree will call you a flop" 💀💀💀 your sense of humor is so good

  • @townfool4682
    @townfool4682 Год назад +155

    growing up in the 2000s, the historical "best friends" were some of my favourite dolls, and I think it was so sad to see them just disappear. I know they might not have had the same historical accuracy as some of the older doll outfits, but they were CUTE. Emily, Elizabeth, Ruthie, NELLIE had some of my favourite outfits of all time.

    • @lilyderooij
      @lilyderooij Год назад +2

      I have ruthie and ivy still

    • @JP2GiannaT
      @JP2GiannaT Год назад +2

      Nellie was one of the best book characters ever.

  • @Melissa0774
    @Melissa0774 Год назад +96

    I hate that they don't publish American Girl Magazine anymore. I know no one reads magazines anymore, but I think they could've made it work for kids. Plenty of people want non technology forms of entertainment for kids. And they could've turned it into a successful social media empire too. It's so needed, because so much of the content that's made for kids today is such crap. They had a website back in the day, but they never seemed to realize its potential.

    • @thingtwo3996
      @thingtwo3996 Год назад +19

      I used to love when the AG magazine would come! It was so much fun to see all the outfits, whether I was able to get them or not.

    • @Melissa0774
      @Melissa0774 Год назад +10

      @@thingtwo3996 I always wondered about the Help column. I'd love to hear from someone who wrote to it back in the day, about what they thought when their letter got published and if they thought the advice was helpful or not. I sent letters in twice, to the general letters from readers section, and to the Heart to Heart feature, but they didn't publish them. I especially wonder what the women who had their Help letters published in the actual books have to say about it now. That would be a great idea for a RUclips video, if any of those people would want to do it now. I always wanted to interview my grandmother who fled the Nazis during WW2, for the paper doll thing, but she wouldn't do it.

    • @CCClarinet12
      @CCClarinet12 Год назад +4

      I USED TO LOVE AG MAGAZINE and I also had 10 dolls (5 were from my grandma cuz my grandma used to buy me an ag doll for my birthday every year until I stopped playing with dolls)

    • @ButterFlyGardenBlossom
      @ButterFlyGardenBlossom Год назад

      They stopped making magazines??? 🥲

    • @Melissa0774
      @Melissa0774 Год назад

      @@ButterFlyGardenBlossom Yeah, years ago. I looked for in a public library and I thought they just didn't have it anymore, but then I found out it's actually not being published anymore. It's such a damn shame because it's something that kids today could really use.

  • @chevvy427
    @chevvy427 Год назад +89

    Why would they change the color of Addy's dress??? They want to color code these girls so much, her color was right there! I wonder what about her made them think she wouldn't wear pink 🧐
    Edit: Taking the color of Addy's cover dress to give it to another white doll feels like some unintentionally racial stereotyping. Addy is as much of a feminine little girl as any of them.

    • @thisbeem2714
      @thisbeem2714 Год назад +5

      I said basically the same thing elsewhere. SMH

    • @sacrilegioussasquatch
      @sacrilegioussasquatch 4 месяца назад

      At least the blue was the feminine colour back then. The pink looked so cute on her though

  • @kattriella1331
    @kattriella1331 Год назад +47

    I feel like they would have been better off making the Beforever line a series of extra outfits that could be what the characters would wear in different decades or modern day, rather than completely ditching the original outfits and replacing them with . . . Whatever this is.

    • @pinkiepielunagirls4541
      @pinkiepielunagirls4541 Год назад +6

      something interesting is that when they did beforever, they released girl-sized clothing "inspired by" the new meet outfits. i wish that had been what it was for the dolls as well

  • @jenniferhanses7064
    @jenniferhanses7064 Год назад +48

    In regards to colors, pink was a color associated with manliness and soldiers until sometime after the 1910s. Pink was associated with blood.
    Girls wore light blues, which were delicate like eggshells. Alice Blue, the color favored by Teddy Roosevelt's daughter was the last gasp for blue before the mysterious color change occurred.

  • @amydaskilewicz9076
    @amydaskilewicz9076 Год назад +66

    The re-design of Felicity's meet dress made me say "no" out loud

  • @IAMCAKEGOD
    @IAMCAKEGOD Год назад +74

    justice for Kaya. I love her sm. it hurts my heart they used her face mold for the AG boys

  • @kayakat1869
    @kayakat1869 Год назад +87

    As a kid, Kit used to have the best outfits. Felicity, Elizabeth, Julie, and Ivys clothes were so adorable! Then they threw it all away with Beforever. I'm still mad about the Ivy thing too. They didn't have to get rid of her like that, especially because she's the only Asian doll they had. She had a really interesting backstory too, and her Chinese New Years dress was my favorite and pretty well designed.
    I'm just glad they didn't get rid of Kaya or Addy. Them "archiving" their characters was the worst decision imo. The original Samantha was so important and Kirsten was an very similar in culture, time period, and location to my ancestors that came here.

    • @leifmeadows3782
      @leifmeadows3782 Год назад +2

      I really think they should have changed Ivy's meet outfit before dumping her like that. That meet outfit was HIDEOUS, and I almost didn't buy the doll because of it. And I'm an adult who saw pictures of her online and knew that I wanted her. I can't imagine an actual child being able to get past the ugly meet outfit.

  • @Sweetie_Belle123
    @Sweetie_Belle123 Год назад +72

    Does anyone else remember when they made the mini American Girl Dolls so your American Girl Doll could have its own American Girl Doll-? That was weird

    • @tiff.sketch
      @tiff.sketch Год назад +32

      I liked them because they were cheaper than the normal-sized dolls, yet had the same clothing and (mini-sized) books

    • @teleriferchnyfain
      @teleriferchnyfain Год назад +7

      I have one

    • @KatieLHall-fy1hw
      @KatieLHall-fy1hw Год назад +6

      I have two 😆 I played with my Samantha way more overall though, small doll was a treat from the store when I went once

    • @deen7530
      @deen7530 Год назад +5

      I had one of those! I generally preferred smaller toys to bigger ones, and my parents were probably just glad I wasn't begging them for a $100 doll I wasn't really gonna play with.

    • @amethyst_cat9532
      @amethyst_cat9532 Год назад +1

      I've been holding onto a mini Elizabeth doll for a while thinking it might be worth a lot of money someday (I liked my other dolls better and she got discontinued not too long after I got her). Still not sure if I'd ever part with her

  • @JustLilKeko
    @JustLilKeko Год назад +170

    I don't even like American Girl Dolls (never got into them even as I kid and I say the books at Barns and Noble school trips) and the change looks honestly heart wrenching. They used to be to well constructed and accurate which as someone into historical fashion now makes me sad that girls are getting a complete downgrade. That's not talking about the books that went into themes of poverty and hardship that kids do actually go through whether people want to admit it or not

    • @lexyshannon9428
      @lexyshannon9428 Год назад +4

      Exactly! Regardless of if you were into the dolls, you could really tell that there was a lot of heart and work put into getting the details right. Now, it's just... :/

    • @hibikuokudan
      @hibikuokudan Год назад +3

      I was someone who grew up with the original American Girl books (the dolls were too expensive), and I loved all the characters.
      These changes are disgusting and don't feel like the girls I learned from.

  • @Cool-eo1oe
    @Cool-eo1oe Год назад +88

    I wonder why Kirsten was dropped. I am fully biased as Kirsten was the only doll I had as a kid. But even if they made her wear purple or neon green… I would have wanted more outfits 😭

    • @theoriginalsache
      @theoriginalsache Год назад +19

      Forced Scarcity, unfortunately. They thought they could drive up the collectors market. It didn't work the way they thought it would. There's some hope, considering they brought back Molly last year, that they might reintroduce Kirsten in the next year or two and/or bring back Samantha's original collection. The 35th anniversary rerelease did really well for the brand

    • @WeabooName
      @WeabooName Год назад +8

      My guess is a couple of reasons, all of them marketing related:
      1: She's a blonde, and unlike Kit, Julie, and Caroline (and later, Maryellen and Courtney) was not a character Mattel created. I imagine they would rather dump a legacy character that they didn't create over one they did. (I imagine Maryellen and Courtney get a pass because of this and they don't have the problems below. But I don't know much about the Mattel era characters, so I could be wrong.)
      2: Her story is mostly about the immigrant experience of the time, and Rebecca, another character from the Mattel era, also covers it while doing it from a modern minority perspective (Jewish). (Except the books really don't cover it well. Her cousin Ana is the actual immigrant. Rebecca is mostly a bystander. IMO, they should have given Ana her own series if they really wanted to cover that. But that's irrelevant to this conversation.) Taking the above into consideration, as far as potential demographics to sell dolls to, Kirsten, as a blonde Christian white girl, is redundant over Rebecca, a brunette Jewish girl with an olive skin tone.
      3: Her story is also touches on how said immigrants and others, with the blessing of the US government, were stealing land from the Native tribes of the area, with the period standard racism that involves. (The nice teacher that teaches Kirsten English chides a boy in her class, saying that they "are not savages like the Indians".).Mattel probably looked at everything involving Singing Bird and didn't want to deal with any potential backlash ruining their marketing of the relaunch. Also, they had their own Native character by then (that coincidentally comes from a time and place where European settlers weren't a problem yet), Kaya. So she covers (part of) that aspect of Kirsten's story from an actual native's perspective.

    • @leifmeadows3782
      @leifmeadows3782 Год назад +4

      My understanding was that Kirsten wasn't selling well, because she sold so well in the 80s/90s and 00s that there were just a whole bunch of Kirstens knocking around on the secondary market. I don't think the idea with her was forced scarcity (though I'd see that argument about, say, Caroline or the NOLA dolls) I just genuinely think that the company had already saturated the market with Kirstens, Samanthas, and to an extent, Mollys. Notice Samantha was the first to be retired. Not sure why it took so long to retire Molly, but, shrug.

    • @radishjuice8662
      @radishjuice8662 Год назад +2

      I wanted her so bad! they discontinued her when I was too little for american girl dolls though

  • @nilimarose
    @nilimarose Год назад +31

    The Addy doll was the first big purchase i ever made. It took all my Christmas and birthday money lol. I loved her books, and It makes me sad that anyone thought they were too disturbing. The fact that Addy and her family had traveled the underground railroad and struggled once they came north made her feel real to me.

    • @KatieLHall-fy1hw
      @KatieLHall-fy1hw Год назад +3

      I remember when Addy was new, and she had that LONG HAIR! It was glorious. And as for her book, it was spectacular! I grew up in Virginia, and my school covered the Civil War in..: 4th grade, 7th grade and 10th grade. Her book is one of the best I’ve read that illustrates the awfulness of slavery and makes it understandable for kids, but also shows how her family rebuilds and worked together for a better life. It is one of the best stories. Heck, all of the books were good

  • @imaginefun13
    @imaginefun13 Год назад +79

    I seem to have completely missed the Beforever era, so I have never actually seen these outfits....I am shocked lol. Some of them looked so so bad, I can't believe they actually were approved and produced. I'm guessing there were some higher-ups that insisted on making the historical dolls more modern. At least it seems they learned their lesson!

  • @unikittyproductions2797
    @unikittyproductions2797 Год назад +36

    I was their target demographic (9 year old girl) at the time of the rebrand and incredibly disappointed. One of the reasons I had loved AG so much was the quality and accuracy of the dolls, and how the books and the outfits worked with each other. I hated the pinkification of characters such as Samantha and Kit, and also did not appreciate the change in the books. I always loved colonial fashion, so Felicity’s new meet outfit hurt the most. I ended up saving up and buying an original Felicity on eBay when I was 11.

  • @lou1817
    @lou1817 Год назад +82

    did anyone else notice they lightened Addy's skin in the redesign??

    • @jjabbott7249
      @jjabbott7249 Год назад +17

      Oh geez, you're right...

    • @coralreef2329
      @coralreef2329 Год назад +37

      Some of her defining facial features, like her nose, were also toned down

    • @NathasyaStellaHermanus
      @NathasyaStellaHermanus Год назад +5

      Jesus Christ, they actually did

    • @_Daemon_Sultan_
      @_Daemon_Sultan_ Год назад +10

      Oh god. They did. I’m horrified at this, poor addy deserves better.

    • @thisbeem2714
      @thisbeem2714 Год назад +12

      I didn't notice....To be fair I am watching on my phone with the brightness turned down. It hurts my heart that they would do that to Addy. What a blatantly racist choice.

  • @nanasewdear
    @nanasewdear Год назад +33

    About Julie: I was in high school in the 70's and Julie's original collection is so accurate. All of Julie's Beforever is not a dud, but that meet outfit is absolutely a hippy Halloween costume. I like the newer face molds. I really like the shorter hair on the newer Kit. I sew a lot of my doll clothes because historical fashion interests me.

  • @WeebaLu
    @WeebaLu Год назад +16

    I feel like BeForever was like, the gen 2 Monster High had. Awful research, made for toddlers, poor quality, etc. When I look at all the brands Mattel owns, around 2015-ish, you can really see how hard Mattel had fallen financially when you see the downgrade in all their brands, including American Girl.
    I'm just glad they're at least trying to fix what they broke with the American Girl brand. I feel like Claudie is actually a really good example of what American Girl should try to do going forward, keeping the historically accurate clothing but also having a separate contemporary-based collection.
    Just wish they would do another 1800's-based doll instead of focusing so much on 20th century characters, at least bring back Kirsten like they did Molly :(

  • @catherinerodeback2494
    @catherinerodeback2494 Год назад +26

    My biggest gripe with the non historical series is that nearly all the girls are "preformers".

  • @hopelessromantic8682
    @hopelessromantic8682 Год назад +20

    One reason I think Rebecca’s 1910 collection was so accurate was the popularity of Downton Abbey at the time 😂 👍🏻

  • @adrianaacosta7293
    @adrianaacosta7293 Год назад +259

    The fact that they scrapped the name “American girl” is so ridiculous because I feel it was great for girls of all races to see themselves as Americans. It’s the unifying factor that ties all the girls together.

    • @charley2475
      @charley2475 Год назад +11

      they haven’t??

    • @NathasyaStellaHermanus
      @NathasyaStellaHermanus Год назад +3

      @@charley2475 Apparently not

    • @x_choppy_x
      @x_choppy_x Год назад +10

      what are you talking about? also thats propaganistic

    • @dghsdjk44
      @dghsdjk44 Год назад

      @@x_choppy_x how the fuck is that propaganda

    • @kttyz313
      @kttyz313 Год назад +25

      They didn’t. They scrapped the name “Historical Characters” to refer to their historical line, and changed it to “Beforever.” The brand is still called American Girl

  • @rogerlloyd1897
    @rogerlloyd1897 Год назад +42

    I adore your insight and humor. I'm not a huge American Girl fan, but I always loved looking through their catalogs back in the 90s as a kid. Mattel in general has scaled back so much. I didn't know much about this brand before and I have a better appreciation for it now. Thank you for your time and research on this. Amazing videos as always.

    • @V1D3OSTAAR
      @V1D3OSTAAR 7 месяцев назад

      Damn no response

  • @seraphinasullivan4849
    @seraphinasullivan4849 Год назад +27

    I'll explain the rest of my feelings but first: Felicity's beforever dress looks like Margaret Wells from Harlots. I don't know if it was the exact same colors or silhouette but every time i see it i hear "My mother is the exemplar bawd in all of London!" and that's such a weird association to make with an American Girl doll, but it's what i got.
    More generally: i was really disappointed when i heard of the rebranding. A lot of kids' toys are sold in bright colors and there was something so alluring about the muted color schemes of collections like Kitt's and Felicity's and Kirsten's from the pictures i saw in the catalogues. My family was broke so there's no way i could have gotten them, but it was a joy to just look at what was available. Those more muted color schemes made them look like heirlooms and ancient photo albums, legitimately like history come to life, even if i wasn't always a fan of the historical silhouettes. The beforever redesigns just looked so cheap and flat in comparison. If felt like watching well-meaning amateurs botch historical art restorations or like if someone painted over the birth of venus to make her look like taylor swift

    • @thisbeem2714
      @thisbeem2714 Год назад

      😂 That comment about the birth of Venus sums it up!

  • @sweethistortea
    @sweethistortea Год назад +33

    I wasn’t really into American Girl dolls, but I am a huge fan of history and thought the historical dolls diving into historical events to be interesting. It seems like a lot of doll companies are rebranding rather then putting resources into up keeping the product.

  • @somelikeitvntg
    @somelikeitvntg Год назад +34

    So happy to get a costume design prospective on it! One thing I want to mention is that the research that you showed us was mostly women while the AG characters were girls. Historical children’s fashion, particularly girls fashion, was meant to distinguish them from adults. Girls often had shorter skirts and wore their hair down.
    The 35th anniversary girls sold very well! I hope that sent a message to the company. Molly is my favorite :)

    • @Youknow107
      @Youknow107 Год назад

      Oh it did haha cause they brought back molly and some of her classic collection. 😊

  • @justbecca2414
    @justbecca2414 Год назад +42

    I absolutely HATED beforever and still do. At the time frame it was released my dad was going through cancer and that’s what I started calling the line and my catch frase being “beforever is worse than cancer” I was a young teen and it was dramatic but I can see where I was coming from 😅🥴

  • @ainerobertson78
    @ainerobertson78 Год назад +25

    Fyi if you are ever thinking about doing videos on historical fashion, I would absolutely watch them. Dolls are such a fun and interesting way to look at fashion and they seem like little time capsules about what was trendy and what influences (good or bad) we were trying to push on to kids at the time.
    The topic doesn't even have to be doll related tho, I gobble up Karolina Żebrowska and Bernadette Banner's videos regularly and my hunger cannot be satisfied. Ugh fashion is such a special interest of mine bc my ADHD hamster brain has so much fun connecting all the influences that history & society have on fashion and vice versa

  • @Madeleinewith3Es
    @Madeleinewith3Es Год назад +23

    I got into the original series as a kid back in the 90s, and the Felicity doll and her clothes are what I attribute my love of historical costuming now, and there's a huge following still of adults who love them and make the outfits for themselves. It was around 2004 I remember noticing the changes, like Elizabeth being blonde when she'd always been a brunette, and all her clothes just being a color-swapped copy of Felicity's clothes, and Felicity herself getting a purple gown from a side story turned into her main gown and young me *hated* the lavender with her red hair.

  • @ilavalolipop
    @ilavalolipop Год назад +5

    I’m a 90s kid. When I was in elementary school I thought American Girl Dolls were really unique. Ironically my family couldn’t afford to get me one. But many of my classmates had them, and the point about not underestimating and insulting your audience is really true- I was just a kid, but the authentic construction and silhouettes of the characters stood out to me, and helped me get a basic grasp on historical fashion even at such a young age.

  • @BriIsTheFinestCheese
    @BriIsTheFinestCheese Год назад +12

    the historical american girl books truly set the groundwork for me to be interested in politics and made me more empathetic, not only Addy but Samantha's friend Nelly, Kit's friend Will, etc. They changed my life! I had no idea about the rebrand because I've never been into modern company's dolls that much as an adult, so thank you for making this video!!

  • @tricorvus2673
    @tricorvus2673 Год назад +8

    Kit’s era was when my mom and her sister grew up, and honestly it makes my heart sink, how it went downhill in the rebranding. I’m glad that Mother and Auntie aren’t able to see it.

  • @DoveJS
    @DoveJS Год назад +16

    When I was a kid, I wasn't big on large child/baby dolls (I preferred fashion dolls and plushies of any size) but I loved the American Girls collection for having interesting books, distinctive outfits, and awesome accessories and play sets. They were super expensive though so I only ever had the paper dolls which were equally amazing since the artwork resembled the actual girls a lot more! My main complaint then and now is always how close a toy matches the original source... lol plus how much space it takes up.
    Samantha was also my favorite of the original girls; I think she was the fave for a lot of people because yeah her waistline was weird but she was rich so she had the coolest outfits out of everyone! Plus it helped she was a brunette... Barbie becoming a constant blonde is something I'll never forgive Mattel for. I didn't even realize back in the beginning that she came in so many hair colors and while I'm glad they kind of got back to their roots with way more additional diversity, as a kiddo I was left hoping and praying any new Barbie line had some of Barbie's friends that I'd like. I was just a pasty girl with stringy brown hair but it was still so validating to find a doll closer to me (one of the reasons Belle used to be my fave Disney Princess growing up... well that and monster f'ccing lol so you can safely guess I loved the original Monster High line, only thing iffy was the skelly bods. Some day soon I'm gonna get one of the new Gen dolls, though I'm kinda disappointed Clawdeen is no longer a brunette for obvious reasons.) I get why so many people are excited by the expansion of the Barbie Fashionistas and other lines like Extra and Signature Look, plus it just gives you so much options if you're like "eh that brunette isn't doing it for me.... oooh I like that red head... aww the freckles... ohhh the makeup and skin tone are actually matched well on her!" (Edit: I like dolls that don't resemble me as well, including different ethnic traits and cultural backgrounds, I'm just saying it's always nice seeing a little element of yourself and in general Barbie in the 80's/90's is the one that made me haaate blonde dolls for so long... I don't hate blonde people or Barbies and many blonde dolls are beautiful but Barbie is to blame for my automatic aversion to blonde, hot/pastel pink, and boring purple forced into every blessed thing marketed to girls/women.) And Made to Move is also what I always dreamed of because I loved action figures for their articulation but I loved dolls for my ability to change up their looks. 😊
    Anyway, I'm so grateful the Pleasant Company focused on teaching children, especially girls, about different time periods and I loved seeing this video breaking down the outfit inspirations and why the Beforever redesign just didn't work. I'm betting the issue is indeed that Mattel didn't have access to the Pleasant Company's research: they probably trashed it after they were done because they never thought they'd need it again or else didn't document it very well and never presumed Mattel would want it, so it's good to hear with later entries that Mattel tried harder. I also hate how they insist on color coding and just vibrant pinks in every doll line... I mean I love those shades of blue but paired with the more Halloween costume efforts it's kinda meh. And yeah for some reason I always had the least interest in Kirsten and Felicity I think... lol I guess just their aesthetic made me shrug then and now. They're not bad but not impressive by any means. Even Kit is definitely more interesting in her sack dress and that's such a cool detail to learn about. And whoa yes they did Julie so dirty augh! 😅

  • @guiguiny
    @guiguiny Год назад +15

    it would be a dream if they brought back the original clothes and their collections like they did with Molly, I hate the beforever line, Samantha and Kit had such beautiful clothes 😭

  • @joannayawn154
    @joannayawn154 Год назад +15

    Samantha’s BeForever collection is just so inaccurate but I can’t help it I love it sooo much 😭 it’s so cute! However the original Samantha will always be better imo!

  • @shootingstarbit
    @shootingstarbit Год назад +4

    13:03 this is perry the platypus’s exact color scheme

  • @krackkokichi
    @krackkokichi Год назад +16

    i was so devastated when beforever came out because i had been saving for a julie doll and suddenly her super cute outfit was non-existent

    • @thisbeem2714
      @thisbeem2714 Год назад +2

      Oh man, that IS heartbreaking.

  • @SimmerErin
    @SimmerErin Год назад +10

    Excellent analysis. I agree.. the rebranding bothers me, from a historical POV. That isn't to say AG has ever been perfectly historically accurate by any means but.. it bothers me as they already have many modern lines. I don't see the need for this. There are adult collectors that I'd hope would still allow them to sell- and who is to say younger fans wouldn't still like accurate pieces? It makes them stand out, and the colors chosen at times make me question the thought process too

  • @Engineersdayoff
    @Engineersdayoff Год назад +7

    It was not just Cécile it was Marie-Grace too as neither was the best friend, but rather equals. Even the books are split evenly. Neither is considered the best friend when one retired both did. Until recently Marie-Grace was the only doll available with her face mold and Cécile is just beautiful. Their story is one of my favorites and both dolls are just gorgeous and unique.

  • @michelleburchfield1420
    @michelleburchfield1420 Год назад +7

    As someone who bought every, and I mean EVERY doll for her kids, even her two boys - yeah, I’m that mom…
    We fortunately missed the BeForever phase of American Girl and didn’t go back until after they dropped it. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. The way they just casually threw away all the history as if us ‘little girls’ lacked the capacity to understand it, and those hideous new outfits were so bad. Your video was great, thank you! And the way you referred to yourself at the end, I spit out the water in my mouth, I laughed so hard. That’s exactly how we speak in our house - high five!

  • @jewisley
    @jewisley Год назад +4

    Schools have been dumbing down forever. It’s a real shame. History - the people - have so much to tell. My children had Kierston, Samantha, and Molly.
    Samantha’s meet dress is 1950’s little girl dresses. Her new look is not at all correct. Kierston’s dress is hideous. I prefer the older looks for all of those dolls.
    In addition to making clothes out of feed sacks, people would take old clothes apart and remake them. The fabric would have been faded from repeated washing and being hung on clotheslines and sometimes, the fabric would be turned inside out and reworked.
    I had a jumpsuit that I made for 4-H exactly like Julie’s.

  • @blackquills27
    @blackquills27 Год назад +24

    i was having a very angry conversation about this rebrand the other day!! so excited to hear your thoughts on it

  • @wafflefries174
    @wafflefries174 Год назад +8

    I was a die-hard Kit Kittredge fan as a kid, in fact, I still own all of the original books and outfits. I remember hearing about the redesign and being so pissed off because I thought they took away all of her personality.

  • @anname7373
    @anname7373 Год назад +13

    One thing I as a jewish person hate about rebecca is how her books tried to push christianity as an american thing and about how they painted rebecca's cousin until she accepted xmas and how they painted her parent's refusal to accept xmas. They were soooo culturally insensitive. also her light blue (both of them) dress is a joke, almost no religious 1910s jewish woman would be caught dead in a dress like that. Also, rebecca's parents would've been dressing her as a woman at her age, the age of majority is 12-13 in judaism. (this is different from the age of consent, that is 18.)

    • @leifmeadows3782
      @leifmeadows3782 Год назад

      Wasn't Rebecca supposed to be 9-10?

    • @anname7373
      @anname7373 Год назад +2

      @@leifmeadows3782 idk, it's been years since i read it, but she would've been treated like a mini-adult regardless. I was given adult tasks at that age. Only thing we didn't do was mess with really hot things.

  • @krisrhood2127
    @krisrhood2127 Год назад +8

    I grew up in the 60s and some of Melody's accessories reminded me of things we had in our house

  • @maxaroni39
    @maxaroni39 Год назад +19

    I grew up as a huge American Girl fan, with the books being my favorite part! I loved all the historical details and learning about what life was like back then, and how their collections fit into that really well. My biggest gripe with Beforever is that the books are now abridged (this is a rather recent change), which is really infuriating. Why was that a needed change?

    • @mastersnet18
      @mastersnet18 Год назад

      Yea that’s ridiculous. The original books said 7+ on the back. Then in the 2000s it changed to 8+ and now they’re abridged? Do they expect 5 years olds to read it?

  • @melasnexperience
    @melasnexperience Год назад +16

    I'm old, so the original line of books is what made me a history buff as a kid. And it was SUCH a great Christmas when my family splurged to get me a Molly doll, and I saved up my allowance to buy her outfits & books after that (she's still safely stashed away in a vintage 40s traveling trunk in my house). Seeing her dressed in a kind of pseudo-retro style instead of something that was actually close to what my grandma actually saw/wore in the 40s is just... dispiriting. I'm so glad that mine pre-date the Mattel buyout, because not only are the outfits pretty damn ahistorical (except for the 70s), they're also very chintzy looking. I can understand why more serious collectors were upset.
    Also, why is Molly considered a "divisive" character? Is it to do with dolls, stories, or something else?

    • @cougellie
      @cougellie Год назад +1

      I’m wondering why she’s divisive too.

    • @ginnynoel
      @ginnynoel Год назад +2

      I believe it's mostly due to her personality being seen as whiny, and most controversially a big plot point being her hula girl costume. AG tried to correct this with Nanea from 1941

    • @ajallen9674
      @ajallen9674 Год назад +3

      @@ginnynoel basically. In the first book she complains about having to eat turnips and demands peas, mashed potatoes, and carrots. Which is normal for a child, but in the 1940's when resources were scarce, it comes off as bratty. Her mother finally comes home from work (she took a job in a factory to pay bills after her father left to be an army medic) and uses up their butter and sugar rations. In the 40's it would be akin to throwing a tantrum because you didn't get the toy you wanted.

  • @merefinl6914
    @merefinl6914 Год назад +7

    Kaya was my favorite (and I still have her!), I'm glad that they didn't change her design at all. I was definitely drawn to her for her horse and dog accessories, but she gave me a life-long appreciation for indigenous cultures. I enjoyed learning about history a lot more thanks to her, and branched out into the other characters' books. The only other doll I got was a girl of the year doll because she happened to look like me.

  • @dorkinwithdolls1425
    @dorkinwithdolls1425 Год назад +18

    I also just recently got into AG and I’ve watched it change and change again within the last few years. I think Claudie is wonderful but I can’t get over my disappointment that she doesn’t write. Poetry from the Harlem renaissance is some of my favorite and when I didn’t see much mention of poetry in her collection my heart kind of sank. Great video as always though ☺️ Hoping the historical girls get the attention they deserve from Mattel again.

    • @royami8627
      @royami8627 Год назад +1

      have you read her book? her collection doesn't reflect her whole story, it's her about her trying to find what she's passionate about, and a lot of the people she knows are artists and writers and musicians. Writing is something that she is actually sort of drawn to.

    • @dorkinwithdolls1425
      @dorkinwithdolls1425 Год назад

      @@royami8627 ohhh!! I had no idea!! I saw others complaining about the lack of writing focus and assumed it was missing. Thanks for letting me know!

  • @nadinegriffin5252
    @nadinegriffin5252 Год назад +4

    My daughter is so upset the Mattel AG is pulling away from the historical line and the books. She is not happy with the focus on the Truly Me line. She has Kit in the teal dress and just bought Rebecca because they discontinued her too.
    She wishes she had been a kid when AG was better.

  • @zwilliams331
    @zwilliams331 Год назад +16

    Again, consistently the most creative, interesting and well delivered doll subject matter on social media. ❤

  • @anthonycrowley2264
    @anthonycrowley2264 Год назад +5

    American Girl was literally my childhood(I still have a bunch of the dolls, including Elizabeth and Kirsten!), and seeing those awful changes in the Beforever line is just heart-wrenching!

  • @delaneyrosies
    @delaneyrosies Год назад +7

    I totally remember this happening as I was a young teen at the time. I remember initially thinking the marketing was pretty and actually liked the color cohesion, but compared to the older outfits, (especially with Julie and Kit🤢) they really lost something from the original vision.

  • @mikeyfrederick1232
    @mikeyfrederick1232 Год назад +8

    Just gotta say your content is fun, interesting and educational...really opened my eyes to the deep and vast history the subject of dolls has..your channel is super cool in my book...

  • @soap_soap
    @soap_soap Год назад +14

    Something to note about all the historical characters before Courtney and Claudie is that all of their years have a 4 at the same end which is just pretty interesting overall

    • @pinkiepielunagirls4541
      @pinkiepielunagirls4541 Год назад +6

      not all of them! the two pre-beforever releases he skipped over - caroline and marie-grace & cecile - are 1812 and 1853 respectively. also iirc some of the earlier dolls also have stories that take place in other years but ag marketed the years as ending in 4 for consistency, i guess

    • @soap_soap
      @soap_soap Год назад

      @@pinkiepielunagirls4541 Thanks for the info! :D

    • @ginnynoel
      @ginnynoel Год назад +1

      @@pinkiepielunagirls4541 yeah Julie's story takes place in 1975 and 1976 for the bicentennial!

    • @Youknow107
      @Youknow107 Год назад +1

      @@pinkiepielunagirls4541 kit was actually truly the first to start this. Yes she has the year 1934 on her covers but her story starts in 1931-32 and goes to the beginning of 1934. So thanks to kit we have the rest except for Kaya and the ones that the other person said to have stopped the 4 at the end.

    • @pinkiepielunagirls4541
      @pinkiepielunagirls4541 Год назад +2

      @@Youknow107 i think molly's story actually begins in 1943

  • @Kittychanwilleatyou
    @Kittychanwilleatyou Год назад +8

    i definitely mirror your opinions almost exactly! i’m a huge history fan and it broke my heart to see what had happened to some of my favorite dolls. thank you for a great video

  • @darrellwallace4182
    @darrellwallace4182 Год назад +7

    This was not boring. To the contrary; it was very interesting, extremely informative, (especially to someone who has always admired the American Girl doll line but never owned or collected them) and humorous and thoughtful.
    It's not surprising that something that started as a pure and intelligent idea and concept gets corrupted by a billion dollar toy company and comprised for, what else the bottom line, which is of course, profit!
    You did an excellent job and I'm a new subscriber to your channel.
    I'm mostly a fashion doll collector, but this was so intriguing I had to see it to the end.
    Please keep up the great work!

  • @chronoxxe
    @chronoxxe Год назад +6

    Growing up I had a giant book which had all of Julie’s stories and I read them over and over again. I eventually also got Ivy’s book as well. I never had the dolls but the books had illustrations so I knew what the characters looked like. So seeing Julie in the redesigned outfits is like a slap in the face to the illustrations of her I grew up with. Plus poor Ivy…

  • @marymurphy1429
    @marymurphy1429 Год назад +5

    Honestly I don't understand why they did it either. If you want modern dress up dolls Barbie is already owned by Mattel. If you want a doll that's for fun you get Barbie, of you want a doll that's fashionable and educational you get American girl. I'm not even particularly invested in this because while I loved the books I checked out of the library I never had any of the dolls because they were expensive, but these still kind of make me mad. You can't make the dolls that expensive and then not deliver on historical accuracy.

  • @Peyz1824
    @Peyz1824 Год назад +7

    The only good thing about the rebrand is that the dolls became more readily available for Canada. Before that there was no shipping to Canada, I had to cross the border to get Saige from the Mall of America (God bless their soul) but to get Isabelle I just had to order her off the Indigo website

  • @hexgirlsgroupie
    @hexgirlsgroupie Год назад +3

    the beforever line came out when i was 16 aka american girl was off my radar at that point. so as someone who grew up w/ the pre-beforever reboot, i’m so glad it was a flop. the main reason i really liked american girl was bcuz of how historically accurate their dolls were; i just thought they were so cool & interesting, & it was fun learning about each time period through the clothing. so hearing & seeing how bad some of those changes were felt like mattel’s way of belittling their target demographic. like u said, if it’s not broken, don’t bother fixing it (btw i love ur more rant-y vids

  • @andelbee
    @andelbee Год назад +5

    Loved this video! I’m old enough that my kids grew up with the original AG dolls, and I’ve been disappointed ever since Mattel took over. But it was fascinating to follow the progression of the brand, and your insights are dead on. Especially about the drop-waist dresses! Such subtleties are the things that make the difference between impressive historical accuracy and band mediocrity. Thanks for the fun retrospective. New subscriber!

  • @annamelanie6494
    @annamelanie6494 Год назад +2

    Oh as a huge collector of AG *and* a giant history buff I have soooo much beef with the beforever branding. I literally hate it. I paid $230 for an original Julie doll with her intended historical outfit just because I literally refused to spend money on a stupid looking costume doll.

  • @LakeGael
    @LakeGael Год назад +15

    I have a lot of feelings about the new American Girl dolls. All of them boil down to "its garbage". Most historical fashion aspects are just gone; I even had to go on ebay to find an original felicity dress when I bought her doll years ago. I grew up with this series and I've always loved it.
    Funny story; when I was little, my mother was dating and we were living with this creepy 45 year old man who let's just say wasn't legally allowed to be around his 5 year old niece. I never liked him because he was creepy and I actually thought it would be funny to steal his checkbook when I was 8ish years old (maybe younger) and start attempting to order things from this company. I had no idea what I was going to say when/if products started showing up, and idk if I actually thought it would have worked; but a couple months in, plesant company sent all the checks they had collected back to the creepy guy we were living with and my mom and him found out. I got into the worst trouble I think I had ever been in up to that time. But I mean, the guy was a creep, so 🤷‍♂️ I never had any of the dolls until I was an adult and could buy them myself.
    Anyways, basically, I very strongly dislike the fact that the original historic dolls were kind of pushed aside for the contemporary ones. I also really dislike the fact that there's now a character based on the 80s, which was when I was born 😬

  • @Emmuzka
    @Emmuzka Год назад +3

    The American Girls being preteens in the stories and 3-5 year olds as dolls is just too jarring for me. I don't mind stylistic choices in doll proportions, but the doll is just too realistic baby for me to see anything other than a toddler dressed as a lot older child.

  • @bloodmoonbunny6837
    @bloodmoonbunny6837 Год назад +6

    I remember finding it hiiiideous. Like wanting to burn the AG catalog. I also will never forgive them for getting rid of Ivy and Cecile. Samantha was always a favorite and I always felt like I wanted one like her that looked like me (so addy wasn’t..quite what I was looking for)

  • @goatcat2
    @goatcat2 Год назад +3

    Great video!! I grew up on American girl and stopped probably right before Beforever and I was gobsmacked!! I didnt even know that came out! The Beforever outfits are honestly atrocious and it’s just such a slap in the face to young girls and education. I hate how much good quality fabric and toy production has gone down.

  • @moirad3504
    @moirad3504 Год назад +2

    I'm not a doll person, but I had an early Addy, and I was gotten into American Girl Dolls, because like I moved in to a neighborhood where that I made friends with all the girls and they all had American Girl Dolls (and the rich girl had all of them). So I saved up for and bought Addy (and I still love her, I hope to pass her on to a niece of nephew), but at one point I know I had an American Girl Doll cookbook, and like I know my original copy is gone, one of my neighborhood friends must have taken it, but like it taught me how to make butter in a way I still have taught people how to do, and I know it had a good pancake recipie and I want that back, and I've never seen this book in any used bookstores.

  • @mk-aka-morgan8386
    @mk-aka-morgan8386 Год назад +5

    I’ve never really been into the American Dolls, but I do like the idea of Historical dolls more than the modern dolls.

  • @_kingdisney_
    @_kingdisney_ Год назад +6

    I HATED this rebrand. I remember being aware of AG few years prior to this and just being in love with the books and history, then finding out there were dolls!? I was hooked! I got My first two dolls Molly and Samantha then literally a year after getting them the rebrand happened and all the stuff I pined over was all retired and me being only 12 I had no phone and was horrified when I got the catalog. also being a male fan it was such a disappointment to see mattel do what they do best and make everything pink. In their collections lots of characters lost their personalities like kit and Julie with the party cityness of it all. It was so disheartening to finally get into the brand and have everything that made me love it change immediately. Such unfair timing! I know this is a ramble but this vid finally gave me a place to let out this childhood trauma I’ve been keeping 😂

  • @linphillips8331
    @linphillips8331 Год назад +4

    I remember seeing the drop waist silhouette in Oz book illustrations, except for The Wizard of Oz, the first one, which had a different illustrator. The drawings of Dorothy and Ozma fascinated me as a kid.

  • @myownbravado
    @myownbravado Год назад +4

    I wasn't able to have an American Girl doll as a kid, but I always looked at them when we went to the store because I thought they were so beautiful! I was already 20 or so by the time the rebrand came out and not involved in doll world just yet, but I saw them in the store and was shocked! Julie specifically. I thought there was no way anyone would spend so much on a doll that looked like a clearance, Spirit Halloween 70's costume, and I still feel that way!

  • @zackbarker2922
    @zackbarker2922 Год назад +6

    I was 9 when the Beforever rebranding happened and for the most part I was pretty upset. Julie was my favorite and I loved her but I didn’t have her yet and I was so sad when they changed her Meet outfit bc I thought it looked really stupid now. Her older collection was just as colorful but it was more funky and I’m still kinda upset about it. I also really didn’t like what they did with Kit either (those were my 2 favorite dolls I kept my eye on) bc she’s not feminine, she wouldn’t go around wearing dresses like that. I do remember I did like one thing and I really thought Rebecca improved. I liked her purple color scheme and I thought it was prettier. Also something that wasn’t mentioned is that when they changed to Beforever, they changed their mini dolls. Initially they were mini American Girl dolls with the cloth body and the vinyl limbs but with Beforever they became full plastic and I stopped collecting them bc without the cloth body they’re not mini American Girl Dolls. Anyway overall, I was pretty devastated when the rebrand happened but I’m mostly over it at this point. I hope you thought this was interesting as I was their target audience at the time and I was unhappy

  • @eleegee
    @eleegee Год назад +3

    I loved this deep dive! It was super fun and I totally agree with most of what you said. It was pretty unnecessary, and pretty insulting .. Replacing years of research and historical accuracy with bright, frilly, historically inaccurate dresses is just stupid, to put it bluntly. On another note, I’d love if you made more AG videos like this!

  • @colourfulsouls
    @colourfulsouls Год назад +1

    I had the Kirsten doll as a kid, my sis had felicity
    My dad does woodworking and he made me all of the furniture- a table & chairs, bench, bed, bureau w cabinet & drawer and a few other things (and he made some for others, too)
    He looked at the ones they sold for Kirsten and made them in the correct style
    This is my first time seeing their new designs, I loved the old clothes they were great quality fabric, too
    I bought a lot of fancy doll dresses from a local older lady who sewed & sold them at craft fairs

  • @XuiLeeEv
    @XuiLeeEv Год назад +5

    (A lot of) the new outfits look cheap, which is crazy for a doll line that is so prohibitively expensive.

  • @SilknSass76
    @SilknSass76 Год назад +2

    They did Samantha dirty with Be Forever! Edwardian children’s clothing is so pretty

  • @julieblair7472
    @julieblair7472 Год назад +10

    I've never quite understood why the dolls are toddlers when the characters seem to be preteens / tweens.

  • @tristynlinde
    @tristynlinde 11 месяцев назад +2

    I had Kaya, Kirsten, and Ivy (Julia's best friend) and growing up with all the stories was like a huge part of my childhood and taught me a lot of context around history that I didn't get in school. Plus the darker aspects of the stories were part of what interested me in them, I was tired of just reading traditional kids books with no real substance

  • @positivesiennergy
    @positivesiennergy Год назад +5

    you have very kind eyes

  • @spellinwaiting5290
    @spellinwaiting5290 Год назад +7

    I'm so glad I have my Julie I got as a kid when she was the newest character. I just wish I had more of her other outfits from her old collection- all I have besides her Meet outfit is her pajamas. I want that floral jumpsuit SO bad!

    • @jofosho2
      @jofosho2 Год назад

      Ah yes the jumpsuit was one of my favorites, I still want it too! And her calico dress 🤩