Yes, they frequently rewrite history to match their own worldview. And also there have been many times that I remember a book/tv show/movie from my childhood and then gone back and it’s actually not at all like I remember.
Most conservatives are media illterate (at least to some degree). I believe it's one of the core requirements to be conservative, honestly-- how else can you be in a world constantly bombarding you with opposite messaging?
My thought as well. It’s not necessarily misremembering a knockoff, it’s misremembering how far down a conservative hole they’ve gone. “I loved these stories as a kid, and obviously my values have not changed at all, I always have believed these things, so the stories I remember loving must also have had my current values because to suggest I have changed is horrifying and to suggest I would have liked something then that I hate now is laughable”
I would disagree... at least partially. While many girls who owned AG dolls probably did grow up in conservative homes, that would assume that all of them did and that they then all grew up to speak about the conservativeness of the dolls. What is more likely happening, is a simple leap in logic. Historical = old fashioned = conservative. The contents of the historical line's books, which is the most beloved AG line, contain many instances of what, at the time of the setting, were very hot-button issues. However, nobody in modern day thinks that slavery or child labor were good things, or that the US should have remained under British rule. They're non-arguments - no brainers for the audience, who identify/sympathize with the protagonist. The books weren't made to start arguments, they were made to showcase a past setting and uphold the morals (ex: slavery is wrong) that the reader already has.
I am so tired of conservatives bitching about products not being made in America. I'm sorry, who's historically supported deregulation that caused the shift to overseas production??
And actually there's a lot of countries where certain industries have brilliant worker protections. Clothes production in China, for example (idk about other industries)
If I had a nickel everytime a Christian American-Girl-knock-off business made a point of discussing the importance of being American made while not actually being American made, I would have two nickels...
Late to answer the question, but my theory is: These conservative AG attackers' thought process was "The oldest AG books and characters took place in the past. The past was traditional. Therefore, the values the books and toyline preached were traditional." No need to actually read them.
100 percent this is what happens. The girls read the books and the parents don't. I told my mom some things that happened in some of the books when I was a kid, but I never mentioned anything that she would have been concerned about I guess...My mom is against child labor, in Samantha's time least. My grandma was the one who bought my American girl stuff and she liked the stories that reminded her of her childhood around the Great Depression. She didn't think of it as political I guess.
@@SAVYWRITESBOOKSmake full stop motions please if you can I would shit my pants because they would be so fucking funny with that bitch ass goat and Molly being high
I know a couple of women my age who had American Girl dolls, but were specifically FORBIDDEN by their parents from having the non-white dolls like Addy or Kaya (one friend was only allowed a Felicity doll. Molly was off the table because the siblings argued in that book, which was blamed on the mom working). Maybe the conservative or evangelical commenters who have such a problem with AG now because they had similar limited experiences?
They were allowed the white dolls but not the non-white ones...but their parents were SO not racist, right? Of course not. The people draw the line at siblings arguing but a little girl's dad's best friend lusting over her and being a total creeper (Elsie Dinsmore) is good, appropriate literature? Sometimes I wonder what the actual hell is going on in these people's heads.
I want to know what exactly the reasoning behind that was BESIDES the obvious racism? Did the fundies worry that a black or Native American doll would expose the kid to a different belief system as well?
Emily totally saw Girls of Faith and ripped off their idea. That's most likely where she got the idea for Faith Friends, she just knows it will look worse if she says she plagiarized another Christian doll than if she says she plagiarized American Girl.
My theory is that this is the same situation as how people remember Mr.Rogers(name might be wrong) as being apolitical. Politics have just moved towards progressivism to a point that what was considered a progressive stance when the dolls came out is now consiered politically neutral. This has resulted in people wondering why the politics of the American Girl dolls changed when all they did was stay on the same side but moved as everything moved with the times. This is just the observation of an outsider who isn't deeply ingrained in America.
Mr. Rogers actually got backlash back when his show was originally airing! He tackled things like racism and divorce and that was too much for some people
Speaking as someone who is Christian this is mostly right. Another addition in this like while Mr Rogers was always political, we agree with those politics now. The state of politics of Mr Rogers’ and now is different. The values of progressivism of the 80s and 90s was versus now is different. Conservatism changes. Like progressivism. Surprise surprise we’re not the racist, sexist, etc you all think we all. Conservatism has changed too. What was “conservative” in the 90s isn’t conservative today. They are misremembering how progressive AG was because they weren’t progressive as they are now. It’s not the same progressive values. They were progressive for the time but it’s not 2024 politics. Get a clue. They’re not mistaking AG for some other company. They’re misremembering the 90s in general. On top of that you don’t know anything about real Christian conservatism. Get offline. Touch grass.
That last doll collection really brought some childhood trauma back to the surface. When I was little, somebody had donated a few of these Life of Faith dolls to our school. To whoever was in charge's credit: they didn't give us any of the related books so, we just played with the dolls like any normal kid would...which meant that Violet, Millie & Laylie were working to overthrow Elsie, who was sacrificing other girls at their boarding school in order to control the world somehow. The donor of the dolls was not pleased.
I'm Jewish, and one year for Hanukkah, my parents got me the mini Rebecca doll. I loved her so much (still do!), and it makes me so happy that there's an American Girl doll who's the same religion I am. But now as an adult, I'm also grateful to see so many other types of people represented, with a Jewish doll mixed in as part of the group rather than just being exclusively dolls of one faith or another.
Josefina punching Florecita made me laugh for like 2 minutes. But also adding: the Little House books and Kirsten's books both take place in Minnesota. Little House specifically takes place in SW Minnesota and Kirsten's location is not specified I imagine she also more than likely lives in southern Minnesota even if not specifically the south west because the Northern 2/3 of the state are less Prairie and more wooded and hilly.
yes -- i remember reading at one point that Kirsten's series was in part inspired by how well the Little House books sold. Meanwhile, Samantha's series was inspired by how much kids loved reading about rich orphans LOL
Little House on the Prairie was the second book in the series, with it set in Kansas as the family moves from Wisconsin to Kansas to Minnesota to Dakota territory in the book series. The TV series loosely based on the series stuck to the Walnut Grove, Minnesota setting, only the pilot TV movie was actually set on "the prarie." Blame Michael Landon and not Laura Ingalls Wilder there.
not entirely related but as a fun fact i recently learned that the same illustrator that did kirsten's books also illustrated the children's "my first little house" books!
To weigh in, I was raised in the Evangelical circle, and growing up American Girl dolls were hugely popular with them. I believe that they saw the traditionally dressed dolls in their historical fashions which do look very similar to what many in the super conservative circles wear now, or at least idealize, and it made AG seem a comparatively wholesome and Christian value friendly option over fashion dolls. At least, that is my theory.
I think a lot of people might equate old AG to Christian conservatism *because* they’re historical. Conservatives associate our modern day with being “completely woke” or whatever garbage they like to repeat over and over, so a historical doll would be the complete opposite of that to them- old ideologies and religion. The people complaining about AG now have obviously, like you pointed out, not sat down and gotten to know the stories they’ve been publishing since the company began, probably because they don’t really care about young girls’ wellbeing, much less young girls’ literature.
When the Faith people said "we wanted to have our dolls made in the US" I really thought it would end up as prison labour. Majority of things that say "made in the USA" is prison labour cuz they can get paid the same wages as what they'd be paying in a sweatshop but without the shipping costs
That last book series from the 1960s is absolutely horrifying. Pro-slavery and supportive of grooming I’m sorry for any young girl who read that. Part of the reason why women juries are even more likely to not convict sex offenders is because they have internalized victim blaming and sometimes even been assaulted themselves but see what happened as “normal.” Why would they convict a man for doing something that their husbands or boyfriends have done to them? They can’t, they won’t because it would take years of deep therapy work to accept that what happened was wrong and their view of the world is wrong.
That woman claiming her daughters loved the Little House books rubbed me the wrong way.... Homeschooling moms always love the Little House books, and they always assume that their children share their feelings. I HATED the Little House books growing up, I thought they were so boring, but to this day my mom claims I loved listening to her read them out loud.
hahahaha that's a good point! i remember liking the little house books, but the only thing i can remember liking about them was reading the name "laura" so much because i liked how "au" looked next to each other in text. somehow it took me til age 30 to start suspecting im autistic LOL
The first Little House installment was the only book I was read as a kid that I hated so much I demanded my mother stop reading, even though I sat through other things that were kind of excruciating 😂
Wait, I actually didn't mind those books (only the first few books). But my parents also let me read whatever I wanted, and I started reading very early, so I was like 5 or 6. Looking back, those books were pretty yikes though.
@amywilson7540 I remember enjoying the little house books as a kid, and after my 2nd son was born, I tried to find a copy _anywhere_ .They weren't widely available on ebook yet at the time I don't think. I eventually check a very old library copy of _Little House on the Prairie_ . I had a 2 1/2 year old and an infant, and I'm watching these parents just wander their kids into dangerous situations and bringing them to places so isolated the family had no one to talk to each other... I admired the parents' energy, ambition, and bravery, but when a side of their log cabin started to capsize and nearly crushed Ma, I remember looking up from my book where I sat nursing the baby while my partner read in bed beside me and exclaiming with exasperated, bad taste hyperbole, "This is insane! These kids would be safer if their parents had been opium addicts!" Sorry to anyone raised by a parent w addiction, but the amount of danger that family are for so much of all 9 or 10 books! It blows my comfortable, technologically advanced, 21st century mind!
Also, these fundy kids are usually raised in a way that doesn't actually allow them to express their feelings and preferences. So when the choice is between "joyfully listening" or expressing your dislike and getting your ass beat, what's a kid gonna do?
In my experience, American Girl is remembered as 'conservative' because most of the stories of change in the historical books were just how life was expected to be by the time we got to read them. And politics, while still somewhat polarizing, were not as polarized in the 80s and 90s as they are now.
Loved this video!! Always enjoy hearing your input about all kinds of topics. Isn’t it ironic that conservatives are OBSESSED with children being “groomed” by reading diverse stories told in respectful voices, and yet, it’s the “Christian” books that have the creepy male characters? 😬
Case in point _Sound of Freedom_ where they tout themselves as "anti-pedophile activists" yet at least some of the key people behind the film and its supporters have done the very same deeds they were supposed to destroy.
I was homeschooled from 2008-2018 in Tennessee, and while I was only vaguely aware of the A Life of Faith dolls, the A Life of Faith editions of the Elsie books were very familiar. The books would circulate the local homeschool textbook sales and, though my mom was fairly liberal for the community, I got my hands on an omnibus of the Elsie books at one of these. I don't think I read enough to get to the worst of the slavery, or if I did I was too young to understand what was actually happening in the books. But yes, these were mostly marketed to homeschooled communities.
I have an extremely old copy of Elsie Dinsmore! It was my grandmother’s and I took it when she died in 1998. I’ve never read it. It’s been sitting on my bookshelf all these years. I had NO idea! I just checked: almost 400 pages of tiny type. A quick scan shows the stereotypical pidgin English and there are full page color illustrations of blonde haired, blue eyed Elsie having her hair brushed by a “mammy”type woman. I just thought it was great to have my grandmother’s “favorite childhood book.” I’m feeling a little icky right now.
Holy crap, I had no idea about any of that from the Elsie Dinsmore books! I received the first two books as a gift from fundamentalist family members when I was a kid, and I remember even then being frustrated by the books seemingly glorifying enduring abuse without complaint as the only moral courage of action, so I had a pretty negative opinion of them and never looked into the series any further. I had no idea they had such an entirely gross history 😬
I picked one of those up in my school library as a kid, and ALL I remembered about it was Elsie embroidering a little beaded purse for someone and a step sister or something coming and demanding it. I promptly forgot about it for a decade until I thought about The Little Princess and similar, and asked a group of librarians to help me figure out what the book was. They told me Elsie Dinsmore and the minute I tried to read it again, I realized why I put it down almost immediately as a kid. What crazy religious hogwash it was
"there are no problems with limbs detaching" is delightful with no context. Idk if those content scraping bots follow youtube comments, but I'd like that on a shirt.
HOLY CRAP! As soon as I saw the Girls of Faith new face molds I knew exactly where I had seen them before! These faces are stolen from the Etsy shop Dollofakind! The manufacturer gave the faces to this Girls of Faith brand while already making those faces, who were created by the previously mentioned Etsy shop! WTH! Why are they stealing this face sculpt from another brand????
Omg are you serious?? I was trying to figure out where they stole them from. I searched all through Alibaba and Temu and found nothing. I love that Etsy shop! Would you be down to email me with more info? savywritesbooksofficial@gmail.com I can do a follow up
As a Masshole, I am baffled by that one doll from Mass living on a dairy farm. It's not like those didn't exist but MA at the time was far more well known for its factories. It's like... they manatee'd it
as a christian mom (who is actually an atheist cis dude) im so disappointed that they didnt even try hard enough to get some good old american prison slave labor to make their dolls😤😤😤
I grew up homeschooled in the vision forum movement (cult). They had their own brand of dolls called “beautiful girlhood” and were AG knockoffs! Here is a quote about them: “Amid a culture brimming with mixed messages, shallow and self-serving ideals, and depraved ‘role models,’ we seek to offer a refreshing and edifying alternative through our distinct line of dolls and accessories,” noted Doug Phillips, President of Vision Forum and founder of the Beautiful Girlhood Collection. “Toward this end, we are pleased to now offer Abigail and Fidelia as part of the Beautiful Girlhood Collection. Abigail means ‘A Father’s Joy,’ and Fidelia means ‘Faithful One’ -- two traits we hope girls will consider as they play with these beautiful 18 inch dolls.”
Omg that Elsie segment made me nauseous 🤮 Can’t imagine the children who grow up on these doing now and how they’ll raise their children! Scary and creepy!
As someone who is catholic, I found that loving American girl when I was young exposed me cultures and traditions I never would have known of. For example I learned about Judaism through Rebecca and addy’s hardship. American girl offers kids the opportunity to learn about history and diversity through the a lens that is targeted to children.
I'd love to see you talk about the Magic Attic dolls--I would get the catalogue sometimes in the mail and I love some of the outfits and accessories, but I remember the dolls were a little smaller than AG dolls and the quality didn't look as good. The books were fun--I was able to get some of them at the library. Oh, or the Baby-Sitters Club dolls--I had Mallory and I can't remember if I got rid of her or my mom did. For a while there, it seemed like every other major girls' book series had an accompanying doll set.
i never had any magic attic dolls, so they weren't on my mind, but i've had them mentioned to me before. i loooooved the babysitters club books - i didn't even know about the dolls!!! time to look that up
That’s the one I was thinking of! All through this video I was like “I know there was definitely a knockoff line I was aware of, but what was it?” - Magic Attic!
I actually have two of those dolls(the Elsie Dinsmore line). I got them as an adult. My brother got them from work and gave them to me with a bunch of accessories. He didn't work for the company or anything, I think he worked for a warehouse or shipment type place of some sort. They are gorgeous, and they are really good quality, I'm not gonna lie! I read Elsie Dinsmore after I got them, and just NO. I could actually relate to her a lot though, poor little thing. Her childhood reminded me of mine, and her insane desire to put aside her own needs to do what was expected of her by her overbearing family. Ouch.
I appreciate how one of the company reviews had its strongest ire not for the grift, but the audacity of claiming the company was founded out of a sincere love and interest in dolls and sharing that with children instead of just owning the grift of selling dolls to outraged parents that do not know anything about dolls but want to make their child's playthings a statement of the grownups' values.
reading that paragraph was tough. finding words to use in your sentence is tough. creating a variety of sentences that sound different from one another is tough.
I'm writing some children's fantasy books and I'll include a pattern to make dolls of the characters! My stories include heavy emphasis of DIY culture and mutual aid. One's an urban fantasy in a walled city, where a halfling learns about magic and unconditional love, an autistic vampire who LOVES to infodump, and a mage who might be haunted. The other's kind of an isekai with the whole waking-up-as-a-royal plot and the prince leanring how to be a proper leader of his kingdom. Balls and galas, lofty plans, and so many DIY projects to recreate in the real world.
As a former church kid, everyone who was anyone in the youth group had an American girl doll or wanted one. Some weren’t allowed to play with them, as in they had to sit on a shelf. As a status symbol. Their books were just looked as accessories, they sat with the dolls. My doll however was played with and her book was read lol So maybe the conservative people who have issue with them now are remembering them like that. And since their parents purchased them for them as kids they think that it was more conservative than american girl today. When in all honestly AG today is more mild as a whole compared to pleasant company dolls.lol I think they’re misremembering the dolls with the same ignorance they use to dictate other peoples life so passionately like they have a god given right. The people who think that way are honestly sick in the heart, not even in the head. And can’t fully grasp gods love, as they don’t love and accept who they really are. Their parents taught them conditional love, not compassionate love. And it shows.
I had all the books that were out as of 99 ( I think, give or take a year) ... I read them a lot... Unfortunately spilled a drink on a bunch of them (the books were in a set next to my bed) ... Lol cleaned them up as best I could and my nieces have them now. Those books got me into binge reading.
Pleasant Company started because Pleasant Rowland wanted to fight the Barbification of the girls' toy market. In the late 70s through the 1980s, Mattel was putting out several Barbies per year, each with their own specific clothing and gimmick. Today, there's only a few different Barbie lines on the shelves, and more outfits, in comparison. So American Girl did fill a vacuum in the toy market that existed. I was in my teens when they came out, but I got Samantha and later Felicity as collector pieces. I also have NO problem saying I'm a 50 year old woman that still plays with dolls...LOL though mostly I sew for them. But, just like Barbie, American Girl soon attracted knockoffs and not just the hyper Christian ones. It's a fairly common occurrence when a specific toy line get popular. You don't want to produce a doll that cannot share the more popular doll's items, you'd simply be shooting yourself in the foot. And let's face it, any time Evangelicals decide to "Christianize" something, the result is almost always cringeworthy.
I think it's funny how parents never seem satisfied for toys for their daughters; not Christian enough, not realistic enough, not body positive enough, not human enough (dolls that are animals or mythical creatures), not feminist enough, But all boys need is a Nerf gun and a ninja army, and that's all ok! 👍🏼
My weird fundie neighbors gave me the first Elsie book when I was like 8. I remember reading it and thinking “wow, this is weird”. I found a copy at the thrift store last year and bought it just to read it again for laughs… it’s a FUCKED UP story!
I do legitimately enjoy Dolls From Heaven, which are dolls of saints. I think of them as doll versions of people, since saints did exist as real people. I'm not Catholic anymore so the divinity part doesn't gel with me, but I do own their Jeanne d'Arc/Joan of Arc doll (she WAS my patron saint when I was Catholic) since I do admire the stories of the real girl, AND she came with little armor. The lady who runs it is also really nice, and when I emailed to purchase a second set of my Jeanne's armor, when it was falling apart, she sent it to me free of charge. There are a few other saints who had interesting lives that I would purchase if they made them, especially a Saint Francis of Assisi, who had a really interesting life, going from nobleman to poor monk. Since they're basically dolls of real people, they feel more like specialized historical characters to me. I also totally have a pilgrim dress from Vision Forum because I'm really interested in that history, but if I had known then about the company's policies, I wouldn't have done it. I also used to have a Violet from Life of Faith, but her odd face size and molding meant I wound up selling her later on. I DID prefer her in modern clothes though!
I'm glad someone mentioned that line! I've been looking at the saint doll line for a nun outfit for awhile as I grew up with my mother working in a Catholic nun run nursing home and have fond memories of visiting.
Thank you for sharing this!!!! I never heard of this line and just looked them up. Now I'm about to lose more of my money and add to my collection! 😂 I am a non-denominational Christian who has always been fascinated by the saints! I have only one AG doll--Rebecca--who I chose because she was an actress like I am. 😁 That really was the only selling point for me because I always thought AG dolls were facially unattractive and I still do! 😂 Plus I'm not a fan of the dolls whose eyes close when you lay them flat; made playtime annoying. What if my dolly wanted to lay on her back and read books like I did! Nope, eyes are closed, she's asleep now!
I grew up Seventh-Day Adventist and I remember they had Adventist Girl Dolls. I don't think they took off very well as they weren't around long, but they had paper dolls and the books and print materials were branded to look JUST like American Girl dolls.
I was raised liberal protestant in a small conservative town... I had so many run-ins w cringey and exclusive to the point of hateful evangelicalism (for example, Catholics not being "real" christians because they "worship statues," or "if you don't speak in tongues you're not really saved," hell, the concept of needing to be "saved" at all after baptism struck me as alienating and strange)! Growing up in the 90's - early aughts covered a peak in the popularity of this patriarchal protestant Christian Dominionism crap, and I found it all so off-putting, I evenually decided to investigate my paternal grandmother's faith. I entered into full communion w the Roman Catholic church the year I was pregnant w my first son at age 28... it's not that I mistook most Catholics for "liberals," it's that I could find liberal Catholics anywhere at all in the real world. If I went to a protest, there might be like, 3 nuns, but there were nuns. There were no mega church pastors or even members that I ever met. If I went to eat or work at the local soup kitchen, half the staff and poverty advocates were Catholics, and the other half had lapsed in some faith or other, or were secularly committed to some kind of liberal social values. The fact that the soup kitchen was operating out of a Methodist Church's kitchen and dining space didn't seem to make much difference about who was staffing the place! Elsie Dinsmore and absurd Christian branded copies of stuff that already existed in the mainstream was not part of my upbringing, except to the extent that I would run across it every once in a while and get very upset and confused! I ended up learning a lot about those movements as an adult to make sense of these strange brushes with that world during my childhood... I had no idea there had been so many attempts to "improve" American Girl, but it's not surprising to me, in that world, anything not endorsed by your own pastor was not endorsed by G-d, pretty much! I want to add Savy, that I love the doll and play-oriented turn your content has taken! It coincided with an awesome couple afternoons spent w my sons building and decorating a house for some miniature cats my younger son loved. Then, because we're a family w a pet bunny who love rabbits, my son asked if I could find some mini rabbits to make houses for. I can't tell you how my heart swelled at this, because that was how I'd played when I was a kid! I found some 3" bunny dolls, but I could only get 20 of them at a time... so I told my son I was going to take 4 of them (one in each color) and make a house to indulge my inner child, and we could collaborate on the rest... that was 2 years ago, and I have _way_ more than four 3" bunnies, and discovered I love working with wood to build them houses and furniture... I made them their own Instagram page, and I'm practicing Spanish by texting my tutor little stories about the characters, how I sewed their clothes, or how I made their accessories... I can't quite bring myself to "play" at dialog the way I did as a kid (I love the little videos you do w the dolls talking these days!) but the stories and names and connections of these characters are almost more elaborate than they were when I was 11! I have had many more "grownup" hobbies than this, but I've learned more and more varied skills with this one than any other! Anyway, if anyone reads all this, thanks. I don't update the miniatures' Insta page as much as I'd like, but you can find them by searching "commune on the moon," ours is the pic w the rabbit dudes dancing together in a gazebo... and I very much look forward to the next doll-introduced/narrated Savy vid!!
I grew up Catholic, and even though I would consider myself an antitheist now, I still feel like Catholicism did a lot of things right. One thing it seems to always promote is education and knowledge--I know a lot of protestantism seems to avoid knowledge because it can "corrupt", while Catholicism seems to have more of a "knowledge is virtuous" approach. That said, I think more knowledge/education does also seem to lead people out of the faith, if the statistics are to be believed... Anyways I'm just glad someone else understands ❤ I am beyond interested in your bunnies' instagram btw!!! I've always wanted to something similar for myself, I just don't have the resources right now
Yeah Protestants can say Catholics aren’t “real” Christians all they want. We find Protestants rather embarrassing anyway, despite the fact we do actually have to claim them, since “catholic” means “universal” - but there’s some in every family, right? And after what our own priests have been in the news for - repeatedly - people really have to work for me to find them more embarrassing than that. It’s a real talent certain groups have.
I've never heard of any of these doll brands. I got into AG when they debuted in the 80s via the books that the library had, and the catalog that came in the mail every season. I wanted a Samantha doll so badly when I was a kid! My mom finally bought her for me for my birthday in 8th grade - 1993. I graduated high school the year the Elsie doll came out, so I think that's why I missed her. My sister, who based on what you've said is about your age, was into the Dear America books and the Girls of the World books, neither of which had dolls attached. My wife has a bunch of AG dolls and accessories, and we're waiting for our niblings to get a little older to see if they have interest in them, and if so, we're going to pass them down to them slowly. I love your AG content, and love whenever you bring the dolls into your videos. Learning about the history of the dolls and the controversies - real and imagined - is fascinating. And I love that you are unapologetic in your love of toys - more of us need to be open about the fact that adults can and do play with toys. My high-schoolers think it's weird that I collect and unbox to play with fashion dolls. And my response is always, "I like it, I can afford it, so I do it." Usually followed by my favorite Doctor Who quote: "There's no point in being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes."
I think it would be cool to create an online community kinda like ravalry for those of us who love 18 inch dolls and want to get creative with it. Like you can make a post that has a photo gallery and text underneath with the dolls story. Or you can make a video post for stop animation. Or you can go to the seller side and list your creations (patterns, guides, books, modified dolls, collectors items, accessories) for sale. It would definitely help small businesses all over.
Love the video, Savy! It astounds me that people can get so bent out of shape over a toy that dares to talk about people that exist. This is where I'd gasp and clutch my pearls, but I don't have any pearls.
American Girl (and Girl Scouts, weirdly enough) were the things that formed me a lot as a person and introduced baby me to the concept of female empowerment. ❤ To this day, I always joke that Samantha has heavily influenced my personal style, sense of self and ambitions to improve the world around me. I’m so glad I had American Gorl growing up in the weird early 2000s with constant Christian Nationalism being promoted everywhere.
I remember being so hype when I got the original “Care and Keeping of You” book. I also remember not understanding why my mom stapled the middle section closed. It was the vagina section btw
Wouldn't want you to know about your own body parts! I don't know how some people like your mom would function if they knew there was a puberty book out there that had, like, everyone's genitalia in it. It was all drawings, it was like the stages of life for a man and a woman so there's like a baby penis all the way through to an old man penis. And that didn't corrupt my soul much more than anything else did! I wish I could remember the name of it, it was pretty cool to have a puberty book that wasn't just about female puberty.
Not sure if it's true, but I remember being told that vinyl is too toxic and there are too many regulations to manufacture products using it in the US.
the intro was amazing 💜 as far as why some people seem to think beloved franchises from their childhood has gone woke like American Girl dolls or X-Men, I think some people radicalize later in life and are unable to reconcile their love for something that is fundamentally against their current beliefs they refuse to accept that they're now the bad guy or it's just a grift for fake internet clout
I grew up tangentally Fundie (parents took me to conferences and were doing mission work every weekend) but the friends I knew who were deep into it had American Girl dolls, but I noticed they didn't own the books. I had the books so we were speaking two different languages when we talked about the dolls.
Watched it all and still appreciate your perspective :) I'll clear up a couple of things though. Our current doll face mold is not the AG face. Hold them up next to each other and it will be clear. As far as our stories, they are based on real girls I know. I have never read any of the AG books so I certainly didn't copy a plot. Next, our book quality is sub par to our doll quality for sure and that is bc I'm a stay at home mom with no real budget to make this happen. The doll quality is very important so the $ had to go to that. The book value is in the story not the cover art. Lastly, our original face mold (the one shown in the photos of dolls with girls) was sculpted by my then business partner. Our current face mold was designed by the lady who is my current supplier out of TX. Even though you are against my doll line, I would have been happy to meet you and be interviewed by you and talk about how our views differ and the real reasons Christians appreciate having these options.
Yeah I'm down to talk anytime!!! Thanks for reaching out. Tbh even if we have different views, I'm always interested in talking to other doll & book Lovers 😊
I think Girls of Faith should illustrate their books like a Chick Tract. (Your Josefina segment reminded me of Nadja from "What We Do in the Shadows" saying "I hate that goat."
Given the number of people I've seen complain about Rage Against the Machine suddenly "getting political" it's really impossible to guess whether people are forgetting what was in the books or not.
On one hand I want to see Elsie somehow get yeeted into the 21st century where she gets therapy and learns that everything from the racism to the abuse were all horrible; however on the other hand I want to see Elsie, Edward, and Violet get karmic vibe checked by the civil war and from an uprising of some justifiably outraged people that the family ensl*ved. Like mother of moonflowers the Elsie Dinsmore book series is horrifying just from hearing the blog post
American Girl dolls are intensely patriotic. Molly and her friends did war goods drives, Felicity's family was a part of founding the nation. It has always been this way. But now, "patriotic" means "conservative". Looking back at the 80s/90s with today's eyes... American Girl stories are conservative.
Ngl, the Elsie Dinsmore books are a guilty pleasure for me. It also helps that as an autistic girl, i read Elsie herself as Autistic, with her hyperfixation being on her faith. To be fair, she's got a crap life, even before her dad starts abusing her, and i can relate to that somewhat. The racism is kinda hard to ignore tho I did have her doll and several of the outfits (sold them recently dor a solid $150) and as someone with sensory issues, im so glad they used snaps instead of Velcro for the clothes. Also kinda sus that Laylie, the only doll of color in the Life of Faith line, had only two outfits, one of which being her presentation outfit. #JusticeForLaylie
I went occasionally to girls club / feminity club based on A life of Faith when I was fundie and homeschooled, and we were allowed to borrow the Elsie and Millie books one at a time and we got yelled at if they came back even a little creased on the spine lol. We would sit at tables drinking tea and signing virginity pledges and talking about the stories
I never had an 18 inch doll of any kind (we were poor like that), but I do remember having the first Elsie Dinsmore book on the shelf growing up. I was a voracious reader, but I never bothered with that book because it was just so BORING. I read plenty of other books from the nineteenth century (like Little Women), but I couldn't get into Elsie, and now that I'm older, I'm glad I didn't
I loved this video. But nah, I don't think this Christian influencers were confusing American Girl with some other brand. I assume that they had the dolls as kids but never read the books, so it's easy for their memory to just implant "true feminine values" and whatnot onto the dolls. At least, that's what I think happened.
First of all, I am excited every time you do the stop-motion intros with the American Girl Dolls. I absolutely love them. There is just something about watching my favorite American Girl when I was a little girl declare she's high right now that just delights my inner child in a way I can't explain. Beyond that this was super interesting as while I always assumed there would be cheap knockoffs of the AG Dolls as they have a high price point for a lot of people, it never occurred to me there would be just as expensive Christian knockoffs. Seems obvious in hindsight. As for this insistence that American Girl Dolls had these good Christian and conservative values back in the day, I don't really think it was confusion for one of these other brands so much as the same reason the one company owner can't even properly reference when the book was written - they likely never read those books. Or even if they did the content of those books exists in their minds as this before time when everything was better because the "woke agenda" hadn't come along yet. And given the books never had any romantic subplots they wouldn't have touched too heavily on sexuality that seems to set them off at every turn. The rest might be attributed to their mind self-editing to whatever their rosey-tinted view of "how childhood should be" was. Either way, sorry for the ramble I just ended up mulling on the question you posed and this was just a really enjoyable rabbit hole to go down this afternoon.
I guarantee conservatives aren't misremembering Elsie as AG. It's either A. They never actually read the books, just saw them around and assumed based on design (ie white girls in frills become poc/Jewish/girls in pants) B. Were raised by conservative parents and therefore were only given the Christian Approved ones to read C. Didn't notice the politics because they were kids and only remember them how they want to (the way Star Trek fans complain about modern shows being woke when Stark Trek was ALWAYS like that)
Another thought came to mind. Mostly I think these people want to complain, and they will pick any excuse to do it. When my kids where young, I read to them. Their Godmother knew this and gave them a book based on what she read on the back. As the kids and I were reading, it quickly became clear the racism, and lifestyle bashing that was in it. I talked with the kids and they wanted to finish. I also talked to their Godmother. She was shocked and never would have gotten the book had she known. I never blamed her. I only wanted her aware of what the book was really about, and that we had turn it into a discussion about why the people were acting so badly and how they could do better.
omg im so excited for this!? i still have my elsie dinsmore (forgetting how to spell her name woops) doll bc she's pretty and i related to her personality a lot as an undiagnosed autistic christian so i couldn't part with her. but the books themselves 😅😅 they are honestly so bad lol i had the advice book to its HORRIBLE oh my goodness. i got rid of all the books as soon as i left christianity bc i wasn't reading them anymore anyway and Yikes they are not good. lol
at least the memory of skipping school for no reason with my mom to go to the mall and ice skate and pick out the elsie doll (i must have chosen her over the others in the series) is still a good memory of my mom (she's still alive lmao i just dont talk to her rn anymore) 😅
The belief that American Girl is "conservative", probably has more to do with a belief that the past is conservative. Because AG has a historical line, and many of the struggles those girls have are "things of the past" and "morally right" by modern standards (no one is opposing the message of "slavery/child labor/etc. is wrong"), and we have a tendency to assume that "old fashioned = conservative". It's a leap in logic that most, if not all, people will fall into at some point.
This could be interesting. I have a fascination with all 18 inch doll brands and think some of them are pretty neat while others are just so cheap. But I also appreciate that there are more affordable versions out there now because I would have loved to have an AG growing up but my parents did not want to pay $90 or whatever it was at the time
4:23 I know this video is five months old but this is so funny to me because I just saw the movie long legs and this is literally part of the plot of the movie but with the devil. I just had to share.
We love a well researched girli ✨👏🏻 I also love your stop motion it reminded me of my early youtube days of webkinz and LSP music videos lol 😂. You are like a truffle pig of information in the garden of American girl doll hilarity. Love your video!
I read all the life of faith books. I'd consider my upbringing fundie-lite, think Focus on the Family, The Gospel Coalition, and some slightly more conservative sources. My cousins, however, are full on fundamentalists. I read the books at their house. I think I started with Kathleen and Millie, which were a little more tame. Once I got to Elsie, even conservatively raised child me could tell there was something wrong about it.
OK, as someone who was obsessed with dolls and lived a homeschooled evangelical life, I can firmly say that American Girls Dolls were at one time considered peak conservative Christian! However, as the lines grew, so did the criticism against them. Oh man, I remember Elsie Dinnmore :( I can say, unfortunately for me, that was truly peddled as the peak "This is who I was supposed to be. The abused groomed good christian" I would say more, but I don't want to trauma dump! Now I feel a strange mixture of nostalgia and pure disgust for my childhood around those books. Of course, as a child, you did not catch the deeper messages; you just accepted it! Brainwashing at the finest. Good thing, though, God made me with a brain! I grew and learned!
The very name 'Elsie Dinsmore' should come with a scare chord; the only people I know of who know the book series are conservative Christians(or ex-Christians) who specifically bought (or were given) Lil' Plantation Annie to teach their girlchildren Correct Christian Femininity...granted there's bias there, it's _entirely possible_ for someone else to pick up a book from the library thinking it's Little Womenesque, but literally no one I know has heard of this very, very long century old 'beloved' series except Christians of a particular inclination.
So I was a Christian (Catholic) homeschooler and we did an American Girl history class one year. Yes we utilized the books, but also secondary sources. There dolls are WACK
Same. I plan on having kids and I want to use classic AG to help teach them through history. I wasn't homeschooled but they were extremely popular in my Catholic school growing up. Evangelicals are the weirdest bunch on the planet and I'm so grateful I wasn't raised Evangelical.
Wait I thought Samantha was religious? Isn’t there a plot point about how Samantha and Nellie find Eddie’s money jar in the well and Samantha takes it to church and empties it in the offering plate? Also isn’t Nellie canonically catholic too? I remember more than just Josefina and Rebecca being religious - Felicity, Addy, Marie-Grace and Ceclie. But not overly so, casual mentions here and there to going to church or praying before bed (not on like every other page).
The stop motions killed me 😂 “I punched a goat again”
i mean it was florecita, soooo
@@SAVYWRITESBOOKS 100% justified, all my girlies hate florecita
You gotta do what you gotta do!
😅😂😂
I was so entertained by it that I was like "awww" when it ended before I could see the intervention
I think the influencers are confusing their own conservative childhoods with AG being conservative.
Yes, they frequently rewrite history to match their own worldview. And also there have been many times that I remember a book/tv show/movie from my childhood and then gone back and it’s actually not at all like I remember.
Most conservatives are media illterate (at least to some degree). I believe it's one of the core requirements to be conservative, honestly-- how else can you be in a world constantly bombarding you with opposite messaging?
My thought as well. It’s not necessarily misremembering a knockoff, it’s misremembering how far down a conservative hole they’ve gone. “I loved these stories as a kid, and obviously my values have not changed at all, I always have believed these things, so the stories I remember loving must also have had my current values because to suggest I have changed is horrifying and to suggest I would have liked something then that I hate now is laughable”
They never read the damned books, or they had the really old ones.
I would disagree... at least partially. While many girls who owned AG dolls probably did grow up in conservative homes, that would assume that all of them did and that they then all grew up to speak about the conservativeness of the dolls. What is more likely happening, is a simple leap in logic.
Historical = old fashioned = conservative.
The contents of the historical line's books, which is the most beloved AG line, contain many instances of what, at the time of the setting, were very hot-button issues. However, nobody in modern day thinks that slavery or child labor were good things, or that the US should have remained under British rule. They're non-arguments - no brainers for the audience, who identify/sympathize with the protagonist. The books weren't made to start arguments, they were made to showcase a past setting and uphold the morals (ex: slavery is wrong) that the reader already has.
I am so tired of conservatives bitching about products not being made in America. I'm sorry, who's historically supported deregulation that caused the shift to overseas production??
"Those sweatshop workers making $0.000002 a day are stealing the jobs we weren't going to do anyway!"
@@cam4636 , that's a GREAT point you've made.
THIS
And actually there's a lot of countries where certain industries have brilliant worker protections. Clothes production in China, for example (idk about other industries)
If I had a nickel everytime a Christian American-Girl-knock-off business made a point of discussing the importance of being American made while not actually being American made, I would have two nickels...
Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice, right?
Late to answer the question, but my theory is: These conservative AG attackers' thought process was "The oldest AG books and characters took place in the past. The past was traditional. Therefore, the values the books and toyline preached were traditional." No need to actually read them.
Definitely agree that they probably didn't read the books, just like the book banners. 🙄
100 percent this is what happens. The girls read the books and the parents don't. I told my mom some things that happened in some of the books when I was a kid, but I never mentioned anything that she would have been concerned about I guess...My mom is against child labor, in Samantha's time least.
My grandma was the one who bought my American girl stuff and she liked the stories that reminded her of her childhood around the Great Depression. She didn't think of it as political I guess.
"I'm literally high right now." Omg I'm dying 😂
I never related to a doll more 😂
She's so lucky
Molly's always stoned. She won't stop making me watch adventure time
@@SAVYWRITESBOOKSmake full stop motions please if you can I would shit my pants because they would be so fucking funny with that bitch ass goat and Molly being high
I know a couple of women my age who had American Girl dolls, but were specifically FORBIDDEN by their parents from having the non-white dolls like Addy or Kaya (one friend was only allowed a Felicity doll. Molly was off the table because the siblings argued in that book, which was blamed on the mom working). Maybe the conservative or evangelical commenters who have such a problem with AG now because they had similar limited experiences?
I know I wasn’t allowed ANY bipoc dolls.
Drawing the line at the siblings arguing is so wild. That's just part of being a sibling
They were allowed the white dolls but not the non-white ones...but their parents were SO not racist, right? Of course not. The people draw the line at siblings arguing but a little girl's dad's best friend lusting over her and being a total creeper (Elsie Dinsmore) is good, appropriate literature? Sometimes I wonder what the actual hell is going on in these people's heads.
I want to know what exactly the reasoning behind that was BESIDES the obvious racism? Did the fundies worry that a black or Native American doll would expose the kid to a different belief system as well?
Emily totally saw Girls of Faith and ripped off their idea. That's most likely where she got the idea for Faith Friends, she just knows it will look worse if she says she plagiarized another Christian doll than if she says she plagiarized American Girl.
that's how it feels!!
Christians going against other Christians is nothing new. Seeing as these guys are of the protestant variety, this is pretty in character.
“WTF FELICITY?!” Is now a perfect out of context cutaway statement between me and my friends, thank you 😅
My theory is that this is the same situation as how people remember Mr.Rogers(name might be wrong) as being apolitical. Politics have just moved towards progressivism to a point that what was considered a progressive stance when the dolls came out is now consiered politically neutral. This has resulted in people wondering why the politics of the American Girl dolls changed when all they did was stay on the same side but moved as everything moved with the times. This is just the observation of an outsider who isn't deeply ingrained in America.
that is generally how things move.
Mr. Rogers actually got backlash back when his show was originally airing! He tackled things like racism and divorce and that was too much for some people
Speaking as someone who is Christian this is mostly right. Another addition in this like while Mr Rogers was always political, we agree with those politics now. The state of politics of Mr Rogers’ and now is different. The values of progressivism of the 80s and 90s was versus now is different. Conservatism changes. Like progressivism. Surprise surprise we’re not the racist, sexist, etc you all think we all. Conservatism has changed too. What was “conservative” in the 90s isn’t conservative today. They are misremembering how progressive AG was because they weren’t progressive as they are now. It’s not the same progressive values. They were progressive for the time but it’s not 2024 politics. Get a clue. They’re not mistaking AG for some other company. They’re misremembering the 90s in general. On top of that you don’t know anything about real Christian conservatism. Get offline. Touch grass.
I was raised super fundy Christian and loved the Elsie books as a young teen. I’m now gay married so I don’t think the books worked
You didn't marry the friend of your father?
Oh no, what a loss /s
😅
That last doll collection really brought some childhood trauma back to the surface. When I was little, somebody had donated a few of these Life of Faith dolls to our school. To whoever was in charge's credit: they didn't give us any of the related books so, we just played with the dolls like any normal kid would...which meant that Violet, Millie & Laylie were working to overthrow Elsie, who was sacrificing other girls at their boarding school in order to control the world somehow. The donor of the dolls was not pleased.
I'm Jewish, and one year for Hanukkah, my parents got me the mini Rebecca doll. I loved her so much (still do!), and it makes me so happy that there's an American Girl doll who's the same religion I am. But now as an adult, I'm also grateful to see so many other types of people represented, with a Jewish doll mixed in as part of the group rather than just being exclusively dolls of one faith or another.
Omg the mini dolls! I totally forgot they existed until I read your comment!! I had Kirsten 💕
@@emilyrln She's such a cutie!
Josefina punching Florecita made me laugh for like 2 minutes. But also adding: the Little House books and Kirsten's books both take place in Minnesota. Little House specifically takes place in SW Minnesota and Kirsten's location is not specified I imagine she also more than likely lives in southern Minnesota even if not specifically the south west because the Northern 2/3 of the state are less Prairie and more wooded and hilly.
yes -- i remember reading at one point that Kirsten's series was in part inspired by how well the Little House books sold. Meanwhile, Samantha's series was inspired by how much kids loved reading about rich orphans LOL
Little House on the Prairie was the second book in the series, with it set in Kansas as the family moves from Wisconsin to Kansas to Minnesota to Dakota territory in the book series.
The TV series loosely based on the series stuck to the Walnut Grove, Minnesota setting, only the pilot TV movie was actually set on "the prarie."
Blame Michael Landon and not Laura Ingalls Wilder there.
I think Kirsten's books is partially also based on Gammelgården Museum in MN cause Pleasant had partnered up with them for events.
not entirely related but as a fun fact i recently learned that the same illustrator that did kirsten's books also illustrated the children's "my first little house" books!
To weigh in, I was raised in the Evangelical circle, and growing up American Girl dolls were hugely popular with them. I believe that they saw the traditionally dressed dolls in their historical fashions which do look very similar to what many in the super conservative circles wear now, or at least idealize, and it made AG seem a comparatively wholesome and Christian value friendly option over fashion dolls. At least, that is my theory.
I think a lot of people might equate old AG to Christian conservatism *because* they’re historical. Conservatives associate our modern day with being “completely woke” or whatever garbage they like to repeat over and over, so a historical doll would be the complete opposite of that to them- old ideologies and religion. The people complaining about AG now have obviously, like you pointed out, not sat down and gotten to know the stories they’ve been publishing since the company began, probably because they don’t really care about young girls’ wellbeing, much less young girls’ literature.
When the Faith people said "we wanted to have our dolls made in the US" I really thought it would end up as prison labour.
Majority of things that say "made in the USA" is prison labour cuz they can get paid the same wages as what they'd be paying in a sweatshop but without the shipping costs
omg a Most Popular Girls in School-style miniseries about American Girl Dolls would be so funny
Most Popular Girls in School was my FAVORITE web series when i was in college LOL.
That last book series from the 1960s is absolutely horrifying. Pro-slavery and supportive of grooming I’m sorry for any young girl who read that. Part of the reason why women juries are even more likely to not convict sex offenders is because they have internalized victim blaming and sometimes even been assaulted themselves but see what happened as “normal.” Why would they convict a man for doing something that their husbands or boyfriends have done to them? They can’t, they won’t because it would take years of deep therapy work to accept that what happened was wrong and their view of the world is wrong.
*1860s
That woman claiming her daughters loved the Little House books rubbed me the wrong way.... Homeschooling moms always love the Little House books, and they always assume that their children share their feelings. I HATED the Little House books growing up, I thought they were so boring, but to this day my mom claims I loved listening to her read them out loud.
hahahaha that's a good point! i remember liking the little house books, but the only thing i can remember liking about them was reading the name "laura" so much because i liked how "au" looked next to each other in text. somehow it took me til age 30 to start suspecting im autistic LOL
The first Little House installment was the only book I was read as a kid that I hated so much I demanded my mother stop reading, even though I sat through other things that were kind of excruciating 😂
Wait, I actually didn't mind those books (only the first few books). But my parents also let me read whatever I wanted, and I started reading very early, so I was like 5 or 6. Looking back, those books were pretty yikes though.
@amywilson7540 I remember enjoying the little house books as a kid, and after my 2nd son was born, I tried to find a copy _anywhere_ .They weren't widely available on ebook yet at the time I don't think. I eventually check a very old library copy of _Little House on the Prairie_ . I had a 2 1/2 year old and an infant, and I'm watching these parents just wander their kids into dangerous situations and bringing them to places so isolated the family had no one to talk to each other... I admired the parents' energy, ambition, and bravery, but when a side of their log cabin started to capsize and nearly crushed Ma, I remember looking up from my book where I sat nursing the baby while my partner read in bed beside me and exclaiming with exasperated, bad taste hyperbole, "This is insane! These kids would be safer if their parents had been opium addicts!" Sorry to anyone raised by a parent w addiction, but the amount of danger that family are for so much of all 9 or 10 books! It blows my comfortable, technologically advanced, 21st century mind!
Also, these fundy kids are usually raised in a way that doesn't actually allow them to express their feelings and preferences. So when the choice is between "joyfully listening" or expressing your dislike and getting your ass beat, what's a kid gonna do?
In my experience, American Girl is remembered as 'conservative' because most of the stories of change in the historical books were just how life was expected to be by the time we got to read them. And politics, while still somewhat polarizing, were not as polarized in the 80s and 90s as they are now.
Loved this video!! Always enjoy hearing your input about all kinds of topics. Isn’t it ironic that conservatives are OBSESSED with children being “groomed” by reading diverse stories told in respectful voices, and yet, it’s the “Christian” books that have the creepy male characters? 😬
thank you!! and yeah that's really disturbing
Case in point _Sound of Freedom_ where they tout themselves as "anti-pedophile activists" yet at least some of the key people behind the film and its supporters have done the very same deeds they were supposed to destroy.
@@blakegriplingph and they completely ignore the real victims of crimes and issues like this that say the movie is terrible
I was homeschooled from 2008-2018 in Tennessee, and while I was only vaguely aware of the A Life of Faith dolls, the A Life of Faith editions of the Elsie books were very familiar. The books would circulate the local homeschool textbook sales and, though my mom was fairly liberal for the community, I got my hands on an omnibus of the Elsie books at one of these. I don't think I read enough to get to the worst of the slavery, or if I did I was too young to understand what was actually happening in the books. But yes, these were mostly marketed to homeschooled communities.
I have an extremely old copy of Elsie Dinsmore! It was my grandmother’s and I took it when she died in 1998. I’ve never read it. It’s been sitting on my bookshelf all these years. I had NO idea! I just checked: almost 400 pages of tiny type. A quick scan shows the stereotypical pidgin English and there are full page color illustrations of blonde haired, blue eyed Elsie having her hair brushed by a “mammy”type woman. I just thought it was great to have my grandmother’s “favorite childhood book.” I’m feeling a little icky right now.
Gosh, I'm sorry, that sucks to be confronted with that.
Holy crap, I had no idea about any of that from the Elsie Dinsmore books! I received the first two books as a gift from fundamentalist family members when I was a kid, and I remember even then being frustrated by the books seemingly glorifying enduring abuse without complaint as the only moral courage of action, so I had a pretty negative opinion of them and never looked into the series any further. I had no idea they had such an entirely gross history 😬
I picked one of those up in my school library as a kid, and ALL I remembered about it was Elsie embroidering a little beaded purse for someone and a step sister or something coming and demanding it. I promptly forgot about it for a decade until I thought about The Little Princess and similar, and asked a group of librarians to help me figure out what the book was. They told me Elsie Dinsmore and the minute I tried to read it again, I realized why I put it down almost immediately as a kid. What crazy religious hogwash it was
"there are no problems with limbs detaching" is delightful with no context. Idk if those content scraping bots follow youtube comments, but I'd like that on a shirt.
I think I’ll say that the next time a doctor/nurse/pharmacist asks me how my day is going
HOLY CRAP! As soon as I saw the Girls of Faith new face molds I knew exactly where I had seen them before! These faces are stolen from the Etsy shop Dollofakind! The manufacturer gave the faces to this Girls of Faith brand while already making those faces, who were created by the previously mentioned Etsy shop! WTH! Why are they stealing this face sculpt from another brand????
Omg are you serious?? I was trying to figure out where they stole them from. I searched all through Alibaba and Temu and found nothing. I love that Etsy shop! Would you be down to email me with more info? savywritesbooksofficial@gmail.com I can do a follow up
@@SAVYWRITESBOOKS ofc! Emailing rn!
the elsie dinsmore doll looks like a little girl vampire and i’m here for it
A bit like Claudia from Interview with a Vampire?
@@janel.8921 yes omg exactly!!!
@@janel.8921 I was just gonna say, someone should turn one into Claudia.
As a Masshole, I am baffled by that one doll from Mass living on a dairy farm. It's not like those didn't exist but MA at the time was far more well known for its factories. It's like... they manatee'd it
as a christian mom (who is actually an atheist cis dude) im so disappointed that they didnt even try hard enough to get some good old american prison slave labor to make their dolls😤😤😤
"...Grace, Faith, and Hope! And look out for next season's releases: Chastity, Prudence, and Tithe!"
Mfw I subbed for lefty author content but now get most hyped about the american girl videos lmao
me too haha im way too far from the "american girl" demographic and i still absolutely love these
thank you hahahahaha i'm glad they resonate
My nieces are in American Heritage Girls.. I gifted them American Girl dolls for Christmas. They associate them together now 🙃😅
okay i just looked this up and saw that american heritage girls has doll clothes that fit the 18" dolls ... so it could work!
American Heritage Girls… I haven’t heard that name in years!
I grew up homeschooled in the vision forum movement (cult). They had their own brand of dolls called “beautiful girlhood” and were AG knockoffs! Here is a quote about them:
“Amid a culture brimming with mixed messages, shallow and self-serving ideals, and depraved ‘role models,’ we seek to offer a refreshing and edifying alternative through our distinct line of dolls and accessories,” noted Doug Phillips, President of Vision Forum and founder of the Beautiful Girlhood Collection. “Toward this end, we are pleased to now offer Abigail and Fidelia as part of the Beautiful Girlhood Collection. Abigail means ‘A Father’s Joy,’ and Fidelia means ‘Faithful One’ -- two traits we hope girls will consider as they play with these beautiful 18 inch dolls.”
Omg that Elsie segment made me nauseous 🤮 Can’t imagine the children who grow up on these doing now and how they’ll raise their children! Scary and creepy!
As someone who is catholic, I found that loving American girl when I was young exposed me cultures and traditions I never would have known of. For example I learned about Judaism through Rebecca and addy’s hardship. American girl offers kids the opportunity to learn about history and diversity through the a lens that is targeted to children.
I'd love to see you talk about the Magic Attic dolls--I would get the catalogue sometimes in the mail and I love some of the outfits and accessories, but I remember the dolls were a little smaller than AG dolls and the quality didn't look as good. The books were fun--I was able to get some of them at the library.
Oh, or the Baby-Sitters Club dolls--I had Mallory and I can't remember if I got rid of her or my mom did. For a while there, it seemed like every other major girls' book series had an accompanying doll set.
i never had any magic attic dolls, so they weren't on my mind, but i've had them mentioned to me before. i loooooved the babysitters club books - i didn't even know about the dolls!!! time to look that up
Omg hidden memories unlocked - Magic Attic books were so addictive! I so desperately wanted an attic so that I could attempt time travel 😭😭
I had the Mallory doll too! You unlocked a childhood memory for me!
That’s the one I was thinking of! All through this video I was like “I know there was definitely a knockoff line I was aware of, but what was it?” - Magic Attic!
I actually have two of those dolls(the Elsie Dinsmore line). I got them as an adult. My brother got them from work and gave them to me with a bunch of accessories. He didn't work for the company or anything, I think he worked for a warehouse or shipment type place of some sort. They are gorgeous, and they are really good quality, I'm not gonna lie! I read Elsie Dinsmore after I got them, and just NO. I could actually relate to her a lot though, poor little thing. Her childhood reminded me of mine, and her insane desire to put aside her own needs to do what was expected of her by her overbearing family. Ouch.
I appreciate how one of the company reviews had its strongest ire not for the grift, but the audacity of claiming the company was founded out of a sincere love and interest in dolls and sharing that with children instead of just owning the grift of selling dolls to outraged parents that do not know anything about dolls but want to make their child's playthings a statement of the grownups' values.
The way you were almost laughing when that blog post ended every sentence with "tough". 😂
reading that paragraph was tough. finding words to use in your sentence is tough. creating a variety of sentences that sound different from one another is tough.
I'm writing some children's fantasy books and I'll include a pattern to make dolls of the characters! My stories include heavy emphasis of DIY culture and mutual aid.
One's an urban fantasy in a walled city, where a halfling learns about magic and unconditional love, an autistic vampire who LOVES to infodump, and a mage who might be haunted.
The other's kind of an isekai with the whole waking-up-as-a-royal plot and the prince leanring how to be a proper leader of his kingdom. Balls and galas, lofty plans, and so many DIY projects to recreate in the real world.
Where can I find your work?? This sounds right up our alley at Fairy Land Play School!!
Gosh I want to read these now, even as an adult
@@indigopines I'll start posting art and scenes on my tumblr!
As a former church kid, everyone who was anyone in the youth group had an American girl doll or wanted one. Some weren’t allowed to play with them, as in they had to sit on a shelf. As a status symbol. Their books were just looked as accessories, they sat with the dolls. My doll however was played with and her book was read lol So maybe the conservative people who have issue with them now are remembering them like that. And since their parents purchased them for them as kids they think that it was more conservative than american girl today. When in all honestly AG today is more mild as a whole compared to pleasant company dolls.lol I think they’re misremembering the dolls with the same ignorance they use to dictate other peoples life so passionately like they have a god given right. The people who think that way are honestly sick in the heart, not even in the head. And can’t fully grasp gods love, as they don’t love and accept who they really are. Their parents taught them conditional love, not compassionate love. And it shows.
I had all the books that were out as of 99 ( I think, give or take a year) ... I read them a lot... Unfortunately spilled a drink on a bunch of them (the books were in a set next to my bed) ... Lol cleaned them up as best I could and my nieces have them now. Those books got me into binge reading.
My great aunt got me the Elsie books and my grandpa freaked out and took them away because he said they were out dated
Good on your Grandpa!
I heard "Elsie Dinsmore" and groaned out loud, I HATED those books as a child and every single person I knew in my youth group loved them.
as someone who never even knew there were books but has had a doll since childhood i was AGAST… my poor girlie having come for such a disgusting book…
Pleasant Company started because Pleasant Rowland wanted to fight the Barbification of the girls' toy market. In the late 70s through the 1980s, Mattel was putting out several Barbies per year, each with their own specific clothing and gimmick. Today, there's only a few different Barbie lines on the shelves, and more outfits, in comparison. So American Girl did fill a vacuum in the toy market that existed. I was in my teens when they came out, but I got Samantha and later Felicity as collector pieces. I also have NO problem saying I'm a 50 year old woman that still plays with dolls...LOL though mostly I sew for them.
But, just like Barbie, American Girl soon attracted knockoffs and not just the hyper Christian ones. It's a fairly common occurrence when a specific toy line get popular. You don't want to produce a doll that cannot share the more popular doll's items, you'd simply be shooting yourself in the foot. And let's face it, any time Evangelicals decide to "Christianize" something, the result is almost always cringeworthy.
"God prompted me" 🤣 That's how you get out of a promise you can't keep.
as a doll & mlp collector, it is HILARIOUS for them to say that modern girls toys dont encourage femininity LMFAO
I think it's funny how parents never seem satisfied for toys for their daughters; not Christian enough, not realistic enough, not body positive enough, not human enough (dolls that are animals or mythical creatures), not feminist enough,
But all boys need is a Nerf gun and a ninja army, and that's all ok! 👍🏼
I did know a few families who wouldn’t let their boys buy guns. Swords and stuff were fine but not actual gund
My weird fundie neighbors gave me the first Elsie book when I was like 8. I remember reading it and thinking “wow, this is weird”. I found a copy at the thrift store last year and bought it just to read it again for laughs… it’s a FUCKED UP story!
I do legitimately enjoy Dolls From Heaven, which are dolls of saints. I think of them as doll versions of people, since saints did exist as real people. I'm not Catholic anymore so the divinity part doesn't gel with me, but I do own their Jeanne d'Arc/Joan of Arc doll (she WAS my patron saint when I was Catholic) since I do admire the stories of the real girl, AND she came with little armor. The lady who runs it is also really nice, and when I emailed to purchase a second set of my Jeanne's armor, when it was falling apart, she sent it to me free of charge. There are a few other saints who had interesting lives that I would purchase if they made them, especially a Saint Francis of Assisi, who had a really interesting life, going from nobleman to poor monk. Since they're basically dolls of real people, they feel more like specialized historical characters to me. I also totally have a pilgrim dress from Vision Forum because I'm really interested in that history, but if I had known then about the company's policies, I wouldn't have done it. I also used to have a Violet from Life of Faith, but her odd face size and molding meant I wound up selling her later on. I DID prefer her in modern clothes though!
I'm glad someone mentioned that line! I've been looking at the saint doll line for a nun outfit for awhile as I grew up with my mother working in a Catholic nun run nursing home and have fond memories of visiting.
Same, I think the little St Therese and Bernadette are adorable. I love tiny nun habits lol
Thank you for sharing this!!!! I never heard of this line and just looked them up. Now I'm about to lose more of my money and add to my collection! 😂 I am a non-denominational Christian who has always been fascinated by the saints! I have only one AG doll--Rebecca--who I chose because she was an actress like I am. 😁 That really was the only selling point for me because I always thought AG dolls were facially unattractive and I still do! 😂 Plus I'm not a fan of the dolls whose eyes close when you lay them flat; made playtime annoying. What if my dolly wanted to lay on her back and read books like I did! Nope, eyes are closed, she's asleep now!
Girl, idk what I was expecting when I clicked on this, but this was definitely not it…and yet, I’m extremely glad I clicked on it. 😂😂😂
I grew up Seventh-Day Adventist and I remember they had Adventist Girl Dolls. I don't think they took off very well as they weren't around long, but they had paper dolls and the books and print materials were branded to look JUST like American Girl dolls.
Omg I also grew up SDA and vaguely remember this. Thank fuck my grandparents were not Adventist and got me an actual AG Samantha 😍
The "lying about how God made them" thing is 100% entirely about the book saying "you might be trans" and nothing else
Those Elsie books sounds like something Uncle Ruckus (no relation lol) from The Boondocks would DEFINITELY write and support lol 🤣!
I was raised liberal protestant in a small conservative town... I had so many run-ins w cringey and exclusive to the point of hateful evangelicalism (for example, Catholics not being "real" christians because they "worship statues," or "if you don't speak in tongues you're not really saved," hell, the concept of needing to be "saved" at all after baptism struck me as alienating and strange)! Growing up in the 90's - early aughts covered a peak in the popularity of this patriarchal protestant Christian Dominionism crap, and I found it all so off-putting, I evenually decided to investigate my paternal grandmother's faith. I entered into full communion w the Roman Catholic church the year I was pregnant w my first son at age 28... it's not that I mistook most Catholics for "liberals," it's that I could find liberal Catholics anywhere at all in the real world. If I went to a protest, there might be like, 3 nuns, but there were nuns. There were no mega church pastors or even members that I ever met. If I went to eat or work at the local soup kitchen, half the staff and poverty advocates were Catholics, and the other half had lapsed in some faith or other, or were secularly committed to some kind of liberal social values. The fact that the soup kitchen was operating out of a Methodist Church's kitchen and dining space didn't seem to make much difference about who was staffing the place!
Elsie Dinsmore and absurd Christian branded copies of stuff that already existed in the mainstream was not part of my upbringing, except to the extent that I would run across it every once in a while and get very upset and confused! I ended up learning a lot about those movements as an adult to make sense of these strange brushes with that world during my childhood... I had no idea there had been so many attempts to "improve" American Girl, but it's not surprising to me, in that world, anything not endorsed by your own pastor was not endorsed by G-d, pretty much!
I want to add Savy, that I love the doll and play-oriented turn your content has taken! It coincided with an awesome couple afternoons spent w my sons building and decorating a house for some miniature cats my younger son loved. Then, because we're a family w a pet bunny who love rabbits, my son asked if I could find some mini rabbits to make houses for. I can't tell you how my heart swelled at this, because that was how I'd played when I was a kid! I found some 3" bunny dolls, but I could only get 20 of them at a time... so I told my son I was going to take 4 of them (one in each color) and make a house to indulge my inner child, and we could collaborate on the rest... that was 2 years ago, and I have _way_ more than four 3" bunnies, and discovered I love working with wood to build them houses and furniture... I made them their own Instagram page, and I'm practicing Spanish by texting my tutor little stories about the characters, how I sewed their clothes, or how I made their accessories... I can't quite bring myself to "play" at dialog the way I did as a kid (I love the little videos you do w the dolls talking these days!) but the stories and names and connections of these characters are almost more elaborate than they were when I was 11! I have had many more "grownup" hobbies than this, but I've learned more and more varied skills with this one than any other!
Anyway, if anyone reads all this, thanks. I don't update the miniatures' Insta page as much as I'd like, but you can find them by searching "commune on the moon," ours is the pic w the rabbit dudes dancing together in a gazebo... and I very much look forward to the next doll-introduced/narrated Savy vid!!
I grew up Catholic, and even though I would consider myself an antitheist now, I still feel like Catholicism did a lot of things right. One thing it seems to always promote is education and knowledge--I know a lot of protestantism seems to avoid knowledge because it can "corrupt", while Catholicism seems to have more of a "knowledge is virtuous" approach. That said, I think more knowledge/education does also seem to lead people out of the faith, if the statistics are to be believed... Anyways I'm just glad someone else understands ❤
I am beyond interested in your bunnies' instagram btw!!! I've always wanted to something similar for myself, I just don't have the resources right now
Yeah Protestants can say Catholics aren’t “real” Christians all they want. We find Protestants rather embarrassing anyway, despite the fact we do actually have to claim them, since “catholic” means “universal” - but there’s some in every family, right? And after what our own priests have been in the news for - repeatedly - people really have to work for me to find them more embarrassing than that. It’s a real talent certain groups have.
@@indigopines Well, you know, many of the greatest scientists of the ages were religious. I mean the guy worked out that genetics exists was a monk.
Oooh I love Calico Critters too
I've never heard of any of these doll brands. I got into AG when they debuted in the 80s via the books that the library had, and the catalog that came in the mail every season. I wanted a Samantha doll so badly when I was a kid! My mom finally bought her for me for my birthday in 8th grade - 1993. I graduated high school the year the Elsie doll came out, so I think that's why I missed her. My sister, who based on what you've said is about your age, was into the Dear America books and the Girls of the World books, neither of which had dolls attached. My wife has a bunch of AG dolls and accessories, and we're waiting for our niblings to get a little older to see if they have interest in them, and if so, we're going to pass them down to them slowly.
I love your AG content, and love whenever you bring the dolls into your videos. Learning about the history of the dolls and the controversies - real and imagined - is fascinating. And I love that you are unapologetic in your love of toys - more of us need to be open about the fact that adults can and do play with toys. My high-schoolers think it's weird that I collect and unbox to play with fashion dolls. And my response is always, "I like it, I can afford it, so I do it." Usually followed by my favorite Doctor Who quote: "There's no point in being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes."
Dear america also had a brief doll line!
I think it would be cool to create an online community kinda like ravalry for those of us who love 18 inch dolls and want to get creative with it. Like you can make a post that has a photo gallery and text underneath with the dolls story. Or you can make a video post for stop animation. Or you can go to the seller side and list your creations (patterns, guides, books, modified dolls, collectors items, accessories) for sale.
It would definitely help small businesses all over.
I LOVE this idea even if every one of my dolls is a knockoff from the thrift store
Love the video, Savy! It astounds me that people can get so bent out of shape over a toy that dares to talk about people that exist.
This is where I'd gasp and clutch my pearls, but I don't have any pearls.
my cecile doll has pearls. but she can't clutch them because her hand mold wasn't made to be raised in prayer.
"Realistic Pearl-Clutching Action" sounds like the most unnecessary action figure move of all time, but I'm here for it.
...G. I. JOOOOOOOOOOOOE?
"Jesus is a choking hazard" 🤣
23:20 Kirsten’s illustrator Renee Graef literally illustrated some of the little house books lol
I follow her on Instagram. Her art is so beautiful 😍
That intro skit had me in stitches!
American Girl (and Girl Scouts, weirdly enough) were the things that formed me a lot as a person and introduced baby me to the concept of female empowerment. ❤ To this day, I always joke that Samantha has heavily influenced my personal style, sense of self and ambitions to improve the world around me. I’m so glad I had American Gorl growing up in the weird early 2000s with constant Christian Nationalism being promoted everywhere.
I mean female empowerment is literally the original goal of Girl Scouts
I remember being so hype when I got the original “Care and Keeping of You” book. I also remember not understanding why my mom stapled the middle section closed.
It was the vagina section btw
Wouldn't want you to know about your own body parts!
I don't know how some people like your mom would function if they knew there was a puberty book out there that had, like, everyone's genitalia in it. It was all drawings, it was like the stages of life for a man and a woman so there's like a baby penis all the way through to an old man penis. And that didn't corrupt my soul much more than anything else did! I wish I could remember the name of it, it was pretty cool to have a puberty book that wasn't just about female puberty.
Not sure if it's true, but I remember being told that vinyl is too toxic and there are too many regulations to manufacture products using it in the US.
the intro was amazing 💜
as far as why some people seem to think beloved franchises from their childhood has gone woke like American Girl dolls or X-Men, I think some people radicalize later in life and are unable to reconcile their love for something that is fundamentally against their current beliefs they refuse to accept that they're now the bad guy
or it's just a grift for fake internet clout
I grew up tangentally Fundie (parents took me to conferences and were doing mission work every weekend) but the friends I knew who were deep into it had American Girl dolls, but I noticed they didn't own the books. I had the books so we were speaking two different languages when we talked about the dolls.
Watched it all and still appreciate your perspective :) I'll clear up a couple of things though. Our current doll face mold is not the AG face. Hold them up next to each other and it will be clear. As far as our stories, they are based on real girls I know. I have never read any of the AG books so I certainly didn't copy a plot. Next, our book quality is sub par to our doll quality for sure and that is bc I'm a stay at home mom with no real budget to make this happen. The doll quality is very important so the $ had to go to that. The book value is in the story not the cover art. Lastly, our original face mold (the one shown in the photos of dolls with girls) was sculpted by my then business partner. Our current face mold was designed by the lady who is my current supplier out of TX. Even though you are against my doll line, I would have been happy to meet you and be interviewed by you and talk about how our views differ and the real reasons Christians appreciate having these options.
Yeah I'm down to talk anytime!!! Thanks for reaching out. Tbh even if we have different views, I'm always interested in talking to other doll & book Lovers 😊
I think Girls of Faith should illustrate their books like a Chick Tract. (Your Josefina segment reminded me of Nadja from "What We Do in the Shadows" saying "I hate that goat."
BAT!
@@angelamaryquitecontrary4609 LOL!!😁
I absolutely adore the stop motion intros you make. They're hilarious! I hope they're as fun to make as they are to watch. :]
Given the number of people I've seen complain about Rage Against the Machine suddenly "getting political" it's really impossible to guess whether people are forgetting what was in the books or not.
These are the same idiots who wonder when Doctor Who and Star Trek got “woke” they always were woke.
“And there have not been any issues of limbs detaching” was just a wild detail to throw in lol
I don’t remember the dolls, but dear god you unlocked a memory of the Elsie Dinsmore books… 😮
On one hand I want to see Elsie somehow get yeeted into the 21st century where she gets therapy and learns that everything from the racism to the abuse were all horrible; however on the other hand I want to see Elsie, Edward, and Violet get karmic vibe checked by the civil war and from an uprising of some justifiably outraged people that the family ensl*ved.
Like mother of moonflowers the Elsie Dinsmore book series is horrifying just from hearing the blog post
American Girl dolls are intensely patriotic. Molly and her friends did war goods drives, Felicity's family was a part of founding the nation. It has always been this way. But now, "patriotic" means "conservative". Looking back at the 80s/90s with today's eyes... American Girl stories are conservative.
Ngl, the Elsie Dinsmore books are a guilty pleasure for me. It also helps that as an autistic girl, i read Elsie herself as Autistic, with her hyperfixation being on her faith. To be fair, she's got a crap life, even before her dad starts abusing her, and i can relate to that somewhat. The racism is kinda hard to ignore tho
I did have her doll and several of the outfits (sold them recently dor a solid $150) and as someone with sensory issues, im so glad they used snaps instead of Velcro for the clothes. Also kinda sus that Laylie, the only doll of color in the Life of Faith line, had only two outfits, one of which being her presentation outfit. #JusticeForLaylie
I went occasionally to girls club / feminity club based on A life of Faith when I was fundie and homeschooled, and we were allowed to borrow the Elsie and Millie books one at a time and we got yelled at if they came back even a little creased on the spine lol. We would sit at tables drinking tea and signing virginity pledges and talking about the stories
I never had an 18 inch doll of any kind (we were poor like that), but I do remember having the first Elsie Dinsmore book on the shelf growing up. I was a voracious reader, but I never bothered with that book because it was just so BORING. I read plenty of other books from the nineteenth century (like Little Women), but I couldn't get into Elsie, and now that I'm older, I'm glad I didn't
Using other company's molds is suuuuper copyright-infringing. How are they not being sued yet??
That intro was everything
thank you
Oh yeah. I had ALL the Life of Faith dolls as a kid. Elsie was my favorite.
I loved this video. But nah, I don't think this Christian influencers were confusing American Girl with some other brand. I assume that they had the dolls as kids but never read the books, so it's easy for their memory to just implant "true feminine values" and whatnot onto the dolls. At least, that's what I think happened.
First of all, I am excited every time you do the stop-motion intros with the American Girl Dolls. I absolutely love them. There is just something about watching my favorite American Girl when I was a little girl declare she's high right now that just delights my inner child in a way I can't explain. Beyond that this was super interesting as while I always assumed there would be cheap knockoffs of the AG Dolls as they have a high price point for a lot of people, it never occurred to me there would be just as expensive Christian knockoffs. Seems obvious in hindsight. As for this insistence that American Girl Dolls had these good Christian and conservative values back in the day, I don't really think it was confusion for one of these other brands so much as the same reason the one company owner can't even properly reference when the book was written - they likely never read those books. Or even if they did the content of those books exists in their minds as this before time when everything was better because the "woke agenda" hadn't come along yet. And given the books never had any romantic subplots they wouldn't have touched too heavily on sexuality that seems to set them off at every turn. The rest might be attributed to their mind self-editing to whatever their rosey-tinted view of "how childhood should be" was. Either way, sorry for the ramble I just ended up mulling on the question you posed and this was just a really enjoyable rabbit hole to go down this afternoon.
I guarantee conservatives aren't misremembering Elsie as AG. It's either
A. They never actually read the books, just saw them around and assumed based on design (ie white girls in frills become poc/Jewish/girls in pants)
B. Were raised by conservative parents and therefore were only given the Christian Approved ones to read
C. Didn't notice the politics because they were kids and only remember them how they want to (the way Star Trek fans complain about modern shows being woke when Stark Trek was ALWAYS like that)
Another thought came to mind. Mostly I think these people want to complain, and they will pick any excuse to do it. When my kids where young, I read to them. Their Godmother knew this and gave them a book based on what she read on the back. As the kids and I were reading, it quickly became clear the racism, and lifestyle bashing that was in it. I talked with the kids and they wanted to finish. I also talked to their Godmother. She was shocked and never would have gotten the book had she known. I never blamed her. I only wanted her aware of what the book was really about, and that we had turn it into a discussion about why the people were acting so badly and how they could do better.
one of the knock off dolls has my dead name and I died a bit when I heard it being used in the context of this shit lmaooo
omg im so excited for this!? i still have my elsie dinsmore (forgetting how to spell her name woops) doll bc she's pretty and i related to her personality a lot as an undiagnosed autistic christian so i couldn't part with her. but the books themselves 😅😅 they are honestly so bad lol i had the advice book to its HORRIBLE oh my goodness. i got rid of all the books as soon as i left christianity bc i wasn't reading them anymore anyway and Yikes they are not good. lol
at least the memory of skipping school for no reason with my mom to go to the mall and ice skate and pick out the elsie doll (i must have chosen her over the others in the series) is still a good memory of my mom (she's still alive lmao i just dont talk to her rn anymore) 😅
The Elsie doll is as pretty as the contents of the books are ugly (which is to say she’s a lovely doll and the books are just evil!).
The belief that American Girl is "conservative", probably has more to do with a belief that the past is conservative. Because AG has a historical line, and many of the struggles those girls have are "things of the past" and "morally right" by modern standards (no one is opposing the message of "slavery/child labor/etc. is wrong"), and we have a tendency to assume that "old fashioned = conservative". It's a leap in logic that most, if not all, people will fall into at some point.
This could be interesting. I have a fascination with all 18 inch doll brands and think some of them are pretty neat while others are just so cheap. But I also appreciate that there are more affordable versions out there now because I would have loved to have an AG growing up but my parents did not want to pay $90 or whatever it was at the time
Don't worry, the Christian knockoffs cost just as much. Faith Friends are $115 apiece
@@SAVYWRITESBOOKS I think I’ve seen those LOL! My past super-Christian self would have probably eaten it up
"God called me to exploit workers overseas" 💀
4:23 I know this video is five months old but this is so funny to me because I just saw the movie long legs and this is literally part of the plot of the movie but with the devil. I just had to share.
We love a well researched girli ✨👏🏻
I also love your stop motion it reminded me of my early youtube days of webkinz and LSP music videos lol 😂.
You are like a truffle pig of information in the garden of American girl doll hilarity. Love your video!
as someone who had josefina as a kid that opening skit made me lose my fucking mind
Life of Faith stories are so horrific and it’s awful the hands come together to pray, but the dolls are gorgeous.
I read all the life of faith books. I'd consider my upbringing fundie-lite, think Focus on the Family, The Gospel Coalition, and some slightly more conservative sources. My cousins, however, are full on fundamentalists. I read the books at their house. I think I started with Kathleen and Millie, which were a little more tame. Once I got to Elsie, even conservatively raised child me could tell there was something wrong about it.
OK, as someone who was obsessed with dolls and lived a homeschooled evangelical life, I can firmly say that American Girls Dolls were at one time considered peak conservative Christian! However, as the lines grew, so did the criticism against them. Oh man, I remember Elsie Dinnmore :( I can say, unfortunately for me, that was truly peddled as the peak "This is who I was supposed to be. The abused groomed good christian" I would say more, but I don't want to trauma dump! Now I feel a strange mixture of nostalgia and pure disgust for my childhood around those books. Of course, as a child, you did not catch the deeper messages; you just accepted it! Brainwashing at the finest. Good thing, though, God made me with a brain! I grew and learned!
I was Googling these companies and reading their websites as you discussed them. Damn. Now I need to clear my search history lol.
The very name 'Elsie Dinsmore' should come with a scare chord; the only people I know of who know the book series are conservative Christians(or ex-Christians) who specifically bought (or were given) Lil' Plantation Annie to teach their girlchildren Correct Christian Femininity...granted there's bias there, it's _entirely possible_ for someone else to pick up a book from the library thinking it's Little Womenesque, but literally no one I know has heard of this very, very long century old 'beloved' series except Christians of a particular inclination.
So I was a Christian (Catholic) homeschooler and we did an American Girl history class one year. Yes we utilized the books, but also secondary sources. There dolls are WACK
Same. I plan on having kids and I want to use classic AG to help teach them through history. I wasn't homeschooled but they were extremely popular in my Catholic school growing up. Evangelicals are the weirdest bunch on the planet and I'm so grateful I wasn't raised Evangelical.
Wait I thought Samantha was religious? Isn’t there a plot point about how Samantha and Nellie find Eddie’s money jar in the well and Samantha takes it to church and empties it in the offering plate? Also isn’t Nellie canonically catholic too? I remember more than just Josefina and Rebecca being religious - Felicity, Addy, Marie-Grace and Ceclie. But not overly so, casual mentions here and there to going to church or praying before bed (not on like every other page).
Yes. Nellie would be Irish Catholic.
My parents never let me have AG dolls because of how expensive they are sadly
Yes they r i have 4 now. But thats as adult. I never heard of them as a child. I only heard if them as a adult lol..