Like Samantha Parkington, I have emerged from the grave with CONTENT for you as I enter my American Girl era. Don your bonnets and clutch your pearls as we dive into a thing that’s DIFFERENT NOW and I don’t LIKE it.

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All my links are here: https://babbitykate.squarespace.com

Tiktoks on AG and much more:   / babbity.kate  

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Most images are from the American Girl website, either today’s or through the wayback machine. The catalog pictures are fan-posted, some by the blog americangirlfan.com or doll ightful dolls. The book illustrations are taken from the paperback books I purchased for myself for this project. Many are from the excellent American Girl Wiki, from which I took most of the dates I used to put together the timeline. I am grateful for the work of AG fans that kept these meticulous and detailed records; any mistakes are my own. Probably. I mean, it’s still a fan wiki.

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There’s a truly tremendous amount to discuss when it comes to American Girl.

I realize that my rosy, nostalgic view of the brand can appear as dismissal of the brand’s issues, but as I allude to, the brand embodies a simplistic, outdated, and privileged worldview in many respects. And there have been a lot of mistakes.

The brand has a complicated history of representing race, which I briefly allude to but is outside the scope of this video. Here are a couple places to start to learn more:

If you read nothing else about AG, read Aisha Harris’ amazing piece on the development of Addy Walker: https://slate.com/culture/2016/09/the...

Smithsonian mag with lots of quotes on Claudie’s launch: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...


Some videos with deep dives on topics covered:

Video on AG history:    • A Deep Dive into the American Girl Fr...  

Referenced video on the Beforever rebrand:    • Revisiting American Girl's 'AWFUL' Re...  

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Many of my subscribers followed me for Disney Princess content. I am currently choosing to take a break from discussing anything Disney, as well as movies and TV in general, in solidarity with WGA and SAG-AFTRA workers striking for fair contracts from the AMPTP. I have hope for a positive resolution to the strikes soon, and you can expect more Princess content then. In the meantime, you can support the workers who make some of your favorite media possible here: http://give.actorsfund.org/site/Donat...
The unions have said that voicing your support on social media also helps their cause.

I can’t wait to take you all on a journey into the world of Kirsten Larson. Look for that video (which will be… long. Not like this video is long. I’m talking multiple hours) in a couple weeks. Thank you for your support!