Beyond the Bonnet: The American Girl Doll Turns 40

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Grace Wan (0:38)

Welcome to Forum. I'm Grace Wan, in for Alexis Madrigal. There are certain female names that instantly center you on a story. Elizabeth Bennett, Jane Eyre, Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna.

But what about Samantha Parkington or Kirsten Larson, Molly McIntyre or Addie Walker?

If you know what I'm talking about, you're familiar with the world of the American Girl Doll. Created by Pleasant Rowland, yes, that is a real person. The American Girl Doll aim to celebrate girlhood and also act as a tether to those tender years before adolescence. To let children sink into their childhood, to feel no self-consciousness about dressing in the same outfit as their dolls, or bringing their school lunch in a bucket, just like their spunky doll counterparts. This year, the American Girl Doll celebrates her 40th birthday, and as she hits middle age, we examine her life so far and the future ahead. We're joined by journalist Amanda FitzSimons, author of a new book, An American Girl, How A Billion-Dollar Doll and Its Unlikely Founder Changed Girlhood Forever. Welcome to Forum, Amanda.

Amanda FitzSimons (1:41)

Thank you for having me. Yeah.

Grace Wan (1:43)

So, Amanda, for people who have never encountered an American Girl Doll in real life, tell us a little bit about what an American Girl Doll is.

Amanda FitzSimons (1:51)

Sure. So, an American Girl Doll is the second most popular doll in the United States. So, if you haven't encountered one, you may have not been near a nine-year-old girl in a while.

It is a doll that is a high-end doll. There are different characters and there are books that accompany the dolls, and then a variety of accessories that go with the dolls.

Grace Wan (2:23)

Each of these dolls is a nine-year-old.

So, she's a young girl herself. The origin story, as I noted, begins with a woman named Pleasant Rowland, who was for a time an anchor on local Bay Area station KGO. Tell us a little bit about Pleasant.

Amanda FitzSimons (2:40)

Yeah.

Originally, Pleasant was a teacher. Then, you're right, she made this fabulous career pivot to local TV. She was briefly an on-air reporter, and then went back into education and was in educational publishing before she founded Pleasant Company, which launched the American Girl doll line in 1986

Grace Wan (3:09)

Pleasant started with this premise.

She didn't have children herself, but she wanted to create a doll that let girls just be girls. So what was her fever dream? I mean, you've mentioned historical and books, and was it a whole universe where these dolls interacted with each other?

Amanda FitzSimons (3:30)

Well, no. The dolls existed in different time periods in American history.

So they wouldn't be friends with each other. Well, I guess I'm skipping ahead a bit. But the idea was, yes, that she would create a doll that was exactly the age of the girl who would play with her. And that sounds like a really simple concept. But when I started to think about it, there really wasn't a lot before that. She was turned off by Cabbage Patch dolls, which were all the rage in the mid-'80s. And Barbie, who was the number one doll not only in the United States, but in the world at the time, toy industry experts would refer to the play pattern of Barbie as a future projection. You would play with Barbie to figure out what it might be like to be all grown up. But there wasn't anything that was meeting girls exactly where they were at.

Grace Wan (4:31)

And I like this idea of what Pleasant was saying is, if the girl is interesting to write about, given the historical backstory of some of these dolls, then so am I as a child. Like, if it's a validity to talk about Samantha Parkington, then maybe I have some validity myself.

Amanda FitzSimons (4:50)

Yeah, I mean, that was such an interesting thing. A lot of researching this book for me was just retreading things I had known as a nine-year-old consumer of the product and then revisiting it, you know, with an adult lens. But precisely, I think it's interesting to me. Barbie has basically no backstory. I mean, she's got Ken, she's got Skipper. But intentionally so, there's really little about Barbie. And the idea is that you could project whatever you wanted onto Barbie. There was that, that was how she was universal.