Line #8 YMMV/AmericanGirlsCollection


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Rebecca, Sadie and Sophie complain about variously being told they can't read from the Torah or throw a ball well because they're girls, with the idea being that this is the way things are because it's 1914. Fair enough, but there's the fact that the girls are all Jews, and given when Reform and Conservative movements within Judaism rose, it's likely the situation the girls are in is a result of their being Orthodox Jews rather than just the realities of their time.
2	* AluminumChristmasTrees:
3	** Children who got Molly might have been confused that her penny was silver, not copper like was expected. Steel pennies really were minted in 1943 due to copper shortages. In fact--early in the line's creation--the penny that came with Molly dolls was ''actual coinage''. (This was, sensibly, changed to copies later on.)
4	** Felicity names the [[CoolHorse horse]] she later frees Penny, saying that she has the coat of a bright copper penny. This can be thought of as inaccurate because the US didn't mint pennies until the 1790s, after the Revolutionary War. However, British half-pennies and pence would have been in circulation (given Virginia was a British colony) as well as other coinage such as the Spanish dollar (and bits broken off it) and Spanish coins in copper. "Penny" wasn't just a term for one-cent pieces and more a general term for any coinage in use.
5	** A lot of the [=BeForever=] stuff has been assumed to be historically inaccurate, particularly bright and colourful items or things that would be considered unusual today. In particular, many people complained that Samantha's [=BeForever=] collection had too much emphasis on pink colored clothing. However, the availability of coal dyes starting in the mid-1800s made bright pink (among other colors) a very widespread fashion choice and highly popular, and it's possible that older extant clothing has faded from originally brighter hues. So yes, Samantha's Frilly Frock is historically accurate, including the lace-up boots (which are roundly mocked as "metallic" but were based on real ''satin'' boots, which would indeed have been shiny).
6	* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: The Historical Characters' book illustrations are not only very pretty to look at, but they reflect the time period and setting. For example, the family portraits in Molly's books are in black and white, and have borders designed to look like an old photo album. The portraits in Kirsten's series (until they were changed) are the only ones to have full-body images of the families to simulate family daguerreotypes, with full background images as well.
7	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
8	** The accompanying background music for the defunct online game "Kirsten's Winter Stars" was absolutely ''gorgeous.''
9	** The soundtrack to Felicity's movie has some lovely fiddle and whistle tunes as well.
10	* BaseBreakingCharacter:
11	** Characters that people are sharply divided on vary, but two of the biggest are Molly (some fans find her a realistic view of a child during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII while others see her as too much of an AttentionWhore, bratty and self-centered, and a weak example of home life) and Samantha (some consider her a brave, strong girl who was a child's first foray into social concerns and feminist history while others consider her a spoiled rich girl who receives much more attention than other characters in the line).
12	** Modern dolls--both the LE Girls of the Year and the modern Truly Me line with unnamed characters--can be hit and miss. Some people feel that they expand the line and allow different perspectives and character creation, while others consider any and all modern lines to be "detracting" from the original message of history launched by Pleasant Rowland.
13	** Most people either hate [[TheOneGuy Logan Everett]] for introducing a male character into a line aimed at girls and taking focus, not to mention using a face mold that was only intended for Kaya rather than a generic mold [[note]]The mold was originally designed only for the Kaya doll alone, because of a cultural taboo in Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) culture of baring the teeth as it shows aggression. This not only removes the cultural impact, but implies passively that Kaya's face is more "masculine"; furthermore, no other Native characters have been released but Kaya[[/note]], or adore him for a sign of American Girl branching out past the all-girl ensembles and targeting other audiences. There are few in-betweens.
14	** Addy, the franchise's only black doll until the release of Cécile Rey in 2011 (followed by Melody in 2016 and Claudie in 2022), is a controversial character. She is both celebrated for representing black girls in history ''and'' criticized for painfully reducing black history to slavery. [[https://slate.com/culture/2016/09/the-making-of-addy-walker-american-girls-first-black-doll.html This article]] goes into more detail about it, both how the then-Pleasant Company sought black writers, artists, and advisors and how those same people clashed with the company's often ignorant higher-ups and struggled to do the job they were hired to do as a result. As one commenter put it, "Would you really want the only doll to which your child can relate to be a story about how her ancestors were being raped, beaten and exploited while worrying if you would ever see a second doll?" Addy fans and supporters, however, point out that that's ''not'' the story; people who reduce her to "slave doll" ignore that enslavement was a small early part of her story and escaping from it was the main drive of the first book (and the line goes hard on that, ''never'' having made any side stories or merchandise set before her escape) and her story isn't about being enslaved at all, it's about her life in freedom. Also, many of the members of the cultural panel considered other widely known Black-focused historical eras, but every other era led back to the truth of African enslavement and so they decided it should be addressed first.
15	* BrokenBase:
16	** Pleasant Company items vs. Mattel's (to the point that "Pre-Mattel" is often seen as a ''value judgment'' rather than a plain, unbiased term, and some areas of fandom caution to avoid the term).
17	** The [=BeForever=] relaunch, when it's not treated like FandomHeresy. Some collectors found it an an unnecessary change in character designs and book changes that no one could stand, while others felt that the relaunch gave new breath into the line and refocused the line on the age-range of eight-to-twelve year old girls as the primary audience. The same is happening with changes made after the five-year [=BeForever=] rebranding.
18	** Any character from a later time period than the 1940s, particularly the 1980s and 1990s characters, among people who actually lived through their era. Some feel like [[MaamShock they're being called old]] by their childhood being marketed as historical, while others find the post-'40s dolls nostalgic and note that even the ''modern'' line was initially marketed saying that all time was history, including the present.
19	* CommonKnowledge: A lot of the fandom was introduced to the brand when younger, only read the first book that came with their doll, have misconceptions about the brand, or mix-and-match events between the movies and books. There's a lot of "facts" the fans know that aren't actually true. [[CommonKnowledge/AmericanGirlsCollection Now has its own page.]]
20	* CreatorWorship: The founder of the brand, Pleasant Rowland, named the company after herself (Pleasant Company) and was the head until selling it to Mattel in 1998, and fully stepped down in 2000. She nowadays doesn't do many interviews about the brand--she did some small ones for the 35th anniversary in 2021--but she still gets lauded as the ultimate founder of the company with nothing but noble goals for the brand to educate girls about history using realistic young girl characters and making products intended to be long term keepsakes and heirlooms put away, rather than short-term toys.[[note]]This last part is in part due to the widespread dissemination of a story of her finding an old, well-loved doll in an attic in a storage trunk and being inspired to continue with the project, which was often posted on the back of catalogs. The story is embellished; the doll exists, but [[http://web.archive.org/web/20120830205137/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/artifacts/archives/001948.asp was actually a mint condition museum piece]] donated by the owner she had posed next to an older trunk.[[/note]] Several fans still take her past words to heart about the target goals of the company as a way to immerse children into history and make keepsake products. A significant contingent of [[PeripheryDemographic adult fans]] (older millennials and Gen Xs) who discovered the brand in the 1990s-2000s, in a strong mix of FanMyopia and NostalgiaGoggles (while [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks complaining about how things have changed since the Mattel purchase]]), have said that things wouldn't be so [[OpinionMyopia "terrible"]] if she was still in charge of the brand or would come back/be consulted, and could make the line focus on important eras of history instead of "flashy" new lines, revamps, multiple crossovers with other popular media, and eras that are [[MaamShock too "recent"]] to be historical. They may also state that the golden age of the line was prior to the 1998 purchase of the company by Mattel, and that if she returned to helm the line, everything would be better and things wouldn't be [[DarthWiki/RuinedFOREVER as "bad" as they've clearly been ever since]]. Notably, Ms. Rowland does not do interviews much anymore and has stated she hates them.
21	* DiagnosedByTheAudience: In canon, [=McKenna=] is only said to have issues with reading comprehension--a common hurdle for fourth graders once reading is less about the skill of reading and more about understanding what's being read and getting meaning from it. Many people in the fandom have interpreted this as dyslexia.
22	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
23	** Lindsey was sold until the end of 2002. She had terrible sales when available, yet ironically she's one of the most sought-out dolls by collectors nowadays.
24	** Julie and Maryellen reportedly prop up the entire historical line by themselves, and whenever Samantha has been an active character (not archived or cubed), she's reliably raked in the cash; at least three new product launches (the company itself, the Best Friends line and movies, and the [=BeForever=] rebranding) had her as a prominent part.
25	** Claudie was immediately embraced by the fandom even before her release, due to her adorable design, the first doll to represent the 1920s and her story discussing both the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Migration.
26	** Speaking of Julie, many people strongly prefer her best friend Ivy Ling, with several wishing that the 1970s had been about Ivy instead and focused on Chinese Americans in the US (instead of Julie's mixed topics about divorce, the Bicentennial, the 1976 election, ''and'' environmentalism).
27	* EvenBetterSequel: ''Samantha: An American Girl Holiday'' was, by all accounts, thoroughly good. But its successor, ''Felicity: An American Girl Adventure'', well surpassed it in quality thanks to a universally talented cast, with the Oscar-winning Creator/MarciaGayHarden (Mrs. Merriman) and a young Creator/ShaileneWoodley (Felicity herself) in particular standing out for their luminous performances.
28	* FandomHeresy: It's assumed that no one liked the [=BeForever=] revamp of the Historical Characters. ''No one.'' It was the worst thing ever second only to Mattel buying the company.
29	* FanMyopia:
30	** A lot of older fans can get locked onto several myopic ideas and opinions about the brand. Examples include that the best years of the company being before Mattel bought the company, the founder Pleasant Rowland was [[CreatorWorship purely noble in her mission and only did good]], product quality was at its best when they were a child, characters were more in depth in the past and hinged less on nostalgia, and the most popular characters of the brand are naturally, the Historical Characters (often released before a certain time period, with the other lines of the brand being mere hangers on or worse, called cash grabs). This was also an issue with the [=BeForever=] rebranding and later depreciation, which gets looked back on as having been completely inaccurate regarding the Historical Characters and thus, [[FandomHeresy absolutely no one in the fandom found any good in it.]]
31	** [[NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe Nostalgia-heavy]] articles, especially in the mid 2010s (from about 2013-2015) often lamented the shift of the company's promotional focus from being mostly about the Historical characters to mostly about the Girls of the Year. One widespread article was titled [[https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/04/american-girls-arent-radical-anymore/275199/ "American Girls Aren’t Radical Anymore"]] and proposed that while the Historical Characters had covered the "most heated issues of their respective times" and taught important history, many of them had been [[PutOnABus replaced (on Mattel's call)]] by the less relevant Girls of the Year who worried about shallow things that didn't have the same impact, such as "organic gardening and school art supplies." (The articles were often written by adults reflecting on their own childhood experiences with the brand prior to 2000, then looking up the website or catalogs to not see the same items they saw back then and thus [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks complaining that things had changed]].) While it's true some Historical characters were made unavailable to purchase for various reasons, their books remained accessible through the company for years (and even so, could be found on the secondary market) ''and'' the historical line has continued to exist in some form since 1986, with new characters for new eras added fairly regularly to keep the line active and refreshed. Plus, the modern characters each had their own relevant problems and addressed topics such as bullying, caring about the environment, and low school funding removing electives. Samantha wasn't retired so Isabelle could get kids to worry about ballet instead--they're two separate lines.
32	* FanNickname:
33	** "Blondiebeth" for Elizabeth post-AdaptationDyeJob.
34	** "Princess Samantha" for Samantha (and the scaled-up "Pretty Princess 'Mantha", usually by detractors of her popularity).
35	** "Valerie the Inept" for author Valerie Tripp by fans of the authors who preferred to tackle more serious issues or whom they perceive as producing better-quality books. This has fallen out of favour since Maryellen's release, with much of the community acknowledging that she's grown as an author in the decades since she first wrote for AG and that she was clearly in her element writing Maryellen's books.
36	** Kanoonie, Kanorbles, Canasta, Kangaroo... for Kanani. Some people, especially those old enough to know better, seem to have no idea how to spell her name, so the fanbase ran with it as a joke.
37	** A number of the Girls of the Year have insulting nicknames such as "Chipotle Mayo" for Saige (for being yet another white girl despite being from New Mexico) and "Enviro-Lanie" for Lanie (for being a retread of fellow blonde environmentalist Kailey, who wasn't very popular on her release).
38	** "Face Stealer" for Logan, thanks to using Kaya's face mould that was supposed to be only for her.
39	* FranchiseOriginalSin: One of the major complaints in the late 2010s and early 2020s was the overuse of solid molded plastic shoes with dolls, as opposed to the nicer, faux leather realistic shoes of the past; this was pointed out as a sign of Mattel cutting corners to save money. However, the first three characters ''all'' had poorly made shoes themselves; Samantha and Molly both came with the same style of black plastic molded Mary Janes, and Kirsten came with soft-soled pleather boots that were more like booties.
40	* GenreTurningPoint: While companion style dolls have existed as long as dolls have, American Girl helped popularize its particular size and style of dolls -- 18 inches tall, often with cloth torsos and vinyl limbs -- and [[FollowTheLeader led to other companies releasing dolls in their style]], including adding companion stories and collections for characters.
41	* HarsherInHindsight:
42	** The ''Kit Kittredge'' film coincided with the late 2000s recession, and during filming, one of the cast members told producer Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas that her friend also lost their home in a similar foreclosure.
43	** Seeing how well-to-do Samantha and her family are is this considering what would happen [[TheGreatDepression just 25 years after the series' events take place]].
44	** Samantha's and Rebecca's stories end with the characters looking to the future with hope. Guess what happens [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI in 1914]]?
45	** In Samantha's movie, when Nellie (who had lost her mother the previous year) learns that ''both'' of Samantha's parents are dead, she comments, "That's awful, I don't know what I'd do without my Da." Nellie's father dies towards the end of the movie.
46	* HilariousInHindsight:
47	** In ''Samantha: An American Girl Holiday'', [[Creator/RebeccaMader Aunt Cornelia]] gives Samantha a copy of ''The Wizard of Oz'' the first time they meet. A decade later, the same actress would appear on ''Series/OnceUponATime'' as... The Wicked Witch of the West.
48	** After ''Series/WandaVision'' revealed that Agnes [[spoiler:is actually Agatha Harkness]], it'd be easy to snicker at Cornelia's twin sisters (also Samantha's same-aged aunts and friends) Agnes and Agatha.
49	** The name of Lila's shy, distant horse that she brings out of her shell is named Hollyhock--like the illegitimate relative [[spoiler:(sister)]] of WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman.
50	* HoYay: A lot of people see some or all of the Best Friends relationships as {{PseudoRomantic Friendship}}s or a precursor to more. This is helped by the fact that the books tend to emphasize the importance of strong bonds between young girls and never focus on boy problems. Then there are the main characters with the My Journey girls... especially Samantha and Ruby, who in one story path switch clothes and in another sneak out to go swimming in their underwear. Particularly common subtext-reading is seen with Felicity/Elizabeth, Samantha/Nellie (though [[ItWasHisSled the former's family]] ''adopts'' [[NotBloodSiblings the latter]]...), and Molly/Emily.
51	* JustHereForGodzilla:
52	** Julie has a pinball accessory and Courtney has a miniature ''VideoGame/PacMan'' replica to go with them. They're actually fully functional games that you can play. Some who otherwise have no interest in ''American Girls'' have admitted to wanting these particular accessories. Fortunately for this group, the official website actually lets you buy the accessories separately and ignore the dolls entirely.
53	** Many BJD collectors purchase furniture and/or accessories for their similar sized dolls. A 16-18" (1:3 scale) BJD will scale decently to chairs, beds, and tables.
54	* MandelaEffect: Many fans--again, due to misremembering books read as children--think that Samantha's impassioned speech about the dangers of child labor in factories was done in front of the factory owners themselves. It wasn't--it was part of a town wide essay contest and just presented in front of local townsfolk. There's no factories in Mt. Bedford either--the factory Nellie worked in is stated to be back in New York City, and the image of her working there is a flashback while she's telling Samantha about them.
55	* MemeticMutation:
56	** At least some of the characters from the series ended up in a number of WebVideo/HitlerRants parodies on Website/YouTube. Some of the characters who appeared in the parodies, namely Felicity and Kit, were depicted as way off-character, either ending up being a {{Troll}} in the vein of Fegelein, as in the case of Felicity, or ranting like a maniac like Kit and Samantha.
57	** "Kirsten gets eaten by a bear!" (She doesn't, but she does encounter one in her summer book.)
58	** Courtney did [[{{Pun}} Moore]][[labelnote:Explanation]]When it was announced that Courtney's second book involves her advocating for a friend with HIV, much of the Tumblr fandom jokingly noted that she did more to help those living with HIV and AIDS than Ronald Reagan (who as president notoriously opposed research and other aide during the AIDS epidemic). This, combined with the obvious pun on her last name, quickly spiraled into users spamming the AG website's custom t-shirt maker with designs bearing the slogan "Courtney Did Moore" using the various 80's-style designs.[[/labelnote]]
59	** Psychic Gwynn Tan [[labelnote:Explanation]] The [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane weight with which the narrative treats]] Gwynn and Corinne's "sister brain" leads it into surprisingly fantastic territory for an otherwise-grounded franchise, drawing many fans' attention. The fact that Gwynn's doll was later revealed to have a [[https://desertdollranch.tumblr.com/post/678447249447059456 defect]] which caused her eyes to turn purple only fueled this, with many memes claiming her to be a powerful sorceress.[[/labelnote]]
60	** Saint Pleasant (of Rowland)[[labelnote:Explanation]]Many older collectors--in a strong case of FanMyopia--think the best time of the company was prior to the 1998 purchase of the company by Mattel when it was still owned by the founder, Pleasant Rowland. They often push the narrative Ms. Rowland was naught but a sweet good-hearted educator who only wanted to teach about American history with dolls girls could relate to, and was all but strong armed into selling her beloved niche brand to mean old Mattel. (Hence the term "Pre-Mattel" used as a marker of quality or nostalgia.) Several other collectors mock the misinterpretation/deification of the founder by calling her a "saint", because she's all but treated like one: a [[CreatorWorship perfect creator]] of the brand with no faults whose return would save the brand, and never a capitalist at all who took the $700 million Mattel offered willingly.[[/labelnote]]
61	** "Wait, the other ones can hear us??"[[labelnote:Explanation]]2020's Girl of the Year, Joss Kendrick was the first deaf character released, and many news articles stated she was the first doll with hearing loss. [[https://twitter.com/FaithKMoore/status/1212387067084394496 This tweet]] stated those exact words and went viral.[[/labelnote]]
62	* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: Addy Walker was the first African American doll of the collection. She and her family were born into slavery, in the days of the American Civil War, but soon obtained their freedom. Some people find it frankly offensive the existence of a "slave doll" and there are also those who complain that the history of African Americans is always reduced to the issue of slavery. On the other hand, there are those who defend Addy, keep good memories of her and her books, and point out that her story and personality are not reduced to being a "slave doll".
63	* MisaimedFandom: ''American Girls Premiere'', a computer game released in the late '90s that gave players the ability to write and perform plays about the various historical protagonists and their families and friends. It was supposed to be educational, but it was hard to take the game seriously between the creepy robot voices and the strange movements (characters could even float or [[GodMode walk through walls]], and even normal gestures were always exaggerated). As a result, way more people used the game for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgzjILW0b9c parodies]], ''Film/{{Downfall}}'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDGpOygtlMY spoofs]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KJ-EdLy1ZE poop jokes]] than for its intended purpose, helped along by the game's almost total lack of a word blacklist. WebVideo/{{L\|azyGameReviews}}GR did a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqGwUffHyCo review]] on it, where he mentioned it was one of the most amusing dick joke simulators. The comments on the video mention all sorts of unusual productions people made, like people falling down the stairs, murder "mysteries", and swear words. You could also record your own dialogue with your voice... which resulted in all sorts of unusual screams.
64	* {{Narm}}:
65	** Jiggy Nye beating Penny in the Felicity movie.
66	** Felicity's grandfather coughing violently out of nowhere [[spoiler:before he dies]], again in the Felicity movie.
67	* NightmareFuel:
68	** In the first Addy book, the overseer makes her eat tobacco worms off the plants that she missed, and the way they pop in her mouth is described.
69	** In Samantha's [[TheFilmOfTheBook movie]], a boy working in a factory gets his finger caught in a machine.
70	** The American Girl magazine runs a story contest every year. One year, the winning story was about someone who befriends a mysterious girl down by the lake. At the end, the mysterious girl turns out to be a malevolent ghost. The ghost drowns the main character, who then takes the ghost's place, waiting for the next victim to wander by.
71	** One for doll owners: In some older dolls, the internal parts of one or both eyes may come unglued due to heat or liquid exposure, resulting in a rather scary-looking effect called [[https://americangirl.fandom.com/wiki/Silver_Eye silver eye]]. Thankfully, the Doll Hospital will fix it at no cost.
72	* ObviousBeta:
73	** The website. Especially the online store, much to the derision of purchasers. It's either being unable to place orders properly; at the more disturbing, ''someone else's account'' may show up for no good reason.
74	** The [[https://americangirl.fandom.com/wiki/American_Girl_Tablet_powered_by_nabi American Girl-themed Nabi tablet]], which is essentially a rebadged [[https://m.service.mattel.com/us/Technical/productDetail?prodno=FGC59&siteid=27 Nabi SE]] with American Girl-themed apps bundled and a berry-colored bumper. Using the same [=MediaTek=] [=MT8127=] system-on-chip as the [[Franchise/LeapFrog [=LeapFrog=] Epic]], it wasn't without performance issues, as Nabi Mode tends to lock up or glitch out and the Android operating system being used gets sluggish at points, and adding insult to injury is its pathetically short battery life and the battery pack itself occasionally swelling up--a safety hazard considering the device's intended audience. To think that the Epic's performance was lackluster enough for its price.
75	* OneTrueThreesome:
76	** Kit and her best friends, Ruthie and Stirling, are sometimes read this way; the more liberal end of fandom has {{fanon}} establishing them as growing up to be a polyamorous triad.
77	** The same liberal end of the fandom applies the same logic to the girl of the year Chrissa, and her two "girlfriends" Gwen and Sonali, making them a modern triad.
78	* PanderingToTheBase: To the older collectors, really.
79	** Through the company, this has been done in a lighter, "remember when?" way. This started with the 35th Anniversary, which released short-term older versions of the first Six Historicals; this was followed by the release of "fan items" that have older print designs of the classic outfit patterns for the first five (and Kit) and a rerelease of Molly and Kit's "Classic" collections with older items in their collections from before the [=BeForever=] redesign. Nicki and Isabel's collection have IntercontinuityCrossover in the stories, but also with items in the collection--this includes remakes of late 1990s outfits and items, using the older American Girl of Today logos. Furthermore, in September 2023 "encore" rereleases of two long-retired outfits were offered on a limited edition basis. [[https://www.americangirl.com/blogs/articles/fashion-flashback The site blog post]] even appeals to the older collectors by asking if they perhaphs "star[red] them in glittery gel pen in [the] catalogue" back in the late 90s/early 2000s.
80	** Among some corners of the community, there are constant calls from the VocalMinority to take American Girl "back to its roots" as a brand, generally to [[NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe whatever time their childhood with the brand was]] and especially if the childhood was during the Pleasant Company era from 1986 to 1998. (This often includes suggestions to discontinue any or all of the modern dolls (and any collaborations) or "too recent" Historicals such as Courtney and the Hoffman twins (from the 1980s and late 1990s respectively), reverting the [=BeForever=] redesigns, reverting the books to the older designs and six-book format for all characters, and/or rereleasing everything Historical that's been retired, including retired characters and items.) The implication from these people is that this "restoration" will "revive the brand" and not only appeal to the older collectors [[FanMyopia who must all universally be fed up with the direction of the company]], but be certain to bring in new audiences as well (who will surely understand that the way [[NostalgiaGoggles things used to be were better than now]] and so be fine with the lack of any modern items or anything considered "historical" past a certain endpoint of time and not want anything not as close to the PC days as possible). However, this is a position mostly held by really passionate fans of the brand including hardcore collectors, rather than casual fans of the brand who maybe enjoyed one or two characters and look back on them fondly--and completely overlooks the target child audience of eight- to twelve-year old girls who may not be as enthralled in the brand without modern characters or more recent history that their own parents or grandparents are more likely to have lived through,[[note]]In the mid-1990s, a grandmother of a fifth grader would've have a childhood closer to Molly's era, but one of a fifth grader in the 2020s would've have a childhood closer to Julie's era. TimeMarchesOn.[[/note]] and modern-day characters and outfits similar to their own time to potentially draw them in. This can be really weird when seen in collectors who call for a return to the oft-lauded Pleasant Company days--but who were the target audience in the early 2000s by the time Mattel owned the brand!
81	* PeripheryDemographic:
82	** American Girl has a lot of fans who are adult women, often doll collectors, who were fans either as children or came across the brand in other ways. They can be the strictest, most nostalgic fans, especially those who got into the dolls as kids and apply the NostalgiaFilter or FanMyopia too hard. This can also lead to some of the ''scarier'' parts of the fandom.
83	** There are fans of the brand in other countries such as Canada, Australia, and the EU even though the brand heavily focuses on American history and culture. American Girl as a company does cater to them, in that items can be shipped there, but purchasers have to call in to set up their shipping costs. In the case of the UK, dolls can't be sent in for repairs due to taxes.
84	** It's unfortunately not unusual to see children much younger than the 8-12 demographic dragging around an 18" doll, leading to damaged dolls of all kinds of states on the secondhand market. Part of [=BeForever=]'s goal included focusing on reminding purchasers that the target age range ''was'' 8-12, that the named characters had stories behind them, and the dolls were intended to be treated well and possibly preserved for future use or handed down rather than temporary playthings to later grow out of and discard. The Toys/WellieWishers line was released in part to help direct younger children towards dolls that are part of the brand and can take more play stress, but it's only partially successful, as children often want the "real" dolls. The Truly Me dolls now have a lower age of six (with the [=WellieWishers=] now at four and Bitty Baby at eighteen months), but Historical Characters and Girls of the Year are still recommended on packaging for eight-plus.
85	* PortingDisaster: The [[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.americangirl.welliewishersapp Android port]] of ''[=WellieWishers=]: Garden Fun'', was particularly messy as it flat-out crashes on certain devices due to an error with the Unity engine powering it. And it got even worse when [x]cube Games released version 1.1, to which no device was able to run it for some reason. It didn't help that ''Garden Fun'' is an AllegedlyFreeGame requiring in-app purchases to unlock minigames and is nothing more than a social "clicker" game at its core, both of which have been controversial business models especially with games aimed at children.
86	* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Both the Julie and Kit games for the Nintendo DS were given scathing reviews due to poor controls, subpar graphics, {{Luck Based Mission}}s, and overall a poor representation of the stories they were supposed to represent. The ''American Girls Premiere'' PC game was a different story, though, being that it was [[SoBadItsGood/VideoGames unintentionally hilarious]].
87	* ReplacementScrappy:
88	** Agnes and Agatha, whom fans often accuse of replacing Nellie as "safe" friends for Samantha who aren't walking metaphors for classism and the bad parts of the Edwardian era. (This was not helped by the fact the first author was replaced two books in, with a separate author for the third book and the series completed by Valerie Tripp.) Nellie came back in ''Changes for Samantha'' and is present for stories set after [[spoiler:her parents' deaths and her and her sisters' adoption by the Edwards]], while Agnes and Agatha don't come up much outside of the two books they're in and some short stories.
89	** Caroline also got a lot of this for replacing Felicity (and [[RealWomenDontWearDresses being blonde and wearing pink gowns]]), as has Nanea for daring to share a time period with the then-long-archived Molly (even if Molly's been rereleased three separate times after Nanea came out and is a different angle on the war, so Nanea hasn't really ''replaced'' her).
90	** In the past this was also said about Cécile and Marie-Grace replacing Kirsten, but since they only got three years and are rarely acknowledged by the company, they get treated a lot kinder now.
91	* RetroactiveRecognition:
92	** In ''Samantha: An American Girl Holiday'', Samantha is played by nine-year-old Creator/AnnaSophiaRobb in her first lead role. The next year, she would break out in ''Literature/BecauseOfWinnDixie'' and ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'', then later star in ''Literature/BridgeToTerabithia'', ''Film/RaceToWitchMountain'', ''Film/SoulSurfer'' and ''Series/TheCarrieDiaries.'' In October 2022, Robb dressed again as Samantha for Halloween.
93	** Felicity Merriman was played by a fourteen-year-old Creator/ShaileneWoodley, who would later gain fame through acting in the films for ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'' and ''Literature/{{Divergent}}''.
94	** From the Girl of the Year DirectToVideo movies, Music/OliviaRodrigo had her start in the movie ''Grace Stirs up Success'' as Grace Thomas (the 2015 Girl of the Year) before her appearance in Disney Channel's ''Series/{{Bizaardvark}}''. Rodrigo later gained critical acclaim for her Billboard chart-topping single "Driver's License" and continues to make strides in the music genre.
95	** ''Chrissa Stands Strong'' has a twofer, featuring the film debut of future Golden Globe nominee Creator/KaitlynDever as Gwen, and ''Yellowjackets'' star Creator/SamanthaHanratty in the titular role.
96	* TheScrappy:
97	** Kailey. The hate she gets is so bad that it spreads over to ''any'' character whose story has an environmentalist message, like Julie or Lanie.
98	** Tenney Grant gets a lot of hate as well, largely for (allegedly) being the planned Girl of the Year for 2017, only to be replaced by Gabriela [[note]]American Girl's first, and thus far only, African-American Girl of the Year[[/note]] instead (and as a result, Gabriela's collection and story were both rushed, and the doll herself was just a retired "Truly Me" doll). After Tenney was released a month after Gabriela as a "contemporary character", AG basically pushed Gabriela to the side to focus on Tenney instead.
99	* ShipToShipCombat: Felicity/Ben versus Felicity/Elizabeth. The Ben/Felicity camp cites the target audience's age and [[ValuesDissonance historical attitudes]] as evidence for why Felicity/Elizabeth opponent will never be canon, whereas the Felicity/Elizabeth camp shoots back with ''modern'' attitudes' {{squick}} over the five-to-six year age gap between Felicity and Ben. Occasionally, elements of the ships' opposing supporters bury their differences by proposing a triad of Felicity/Ben/Elizabeth.
100	* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: "Up, Up and Away" from "Grace Stirs Up Success" bears a strong resemblance to "Firework" by Music/KatyPerry.
101	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
102	** Mattel purchased Pleasant Company in 1998 and took over completely in 2000. They frequently remodeled the dolls and outfits as well as retired a lot of items. In some corners of fandom, anything made after 1998 is utter crap and not worth collecting. (The Pleasant Company items vary in quality but are still seen as "better" by others regardless of it.) Some collectors use the loaded phrase "Pre-Mattel" to indicate any items made before 2000, implying they are better.
103	** The revamp of the Historical Line with [=BeForever=] has led to this opinion in some places. Some collectors insist that the rebranding of the line ruined historical accuracy, shrank the books (they were collected into two-volume books and had illustrations removed to appeal to older demographics, but didn't remove any of them--that was later) and "dollified" the characters to appeal to modern opinions and color designs instead of caring about the character's classic looks. Much like "pre-Mattel," "pre-Beforever"/"post-Beforever" is considered a loaded term in the fandom.
104	** Even more so with "permapanties" i.e. permanently-integrated underwear, done by AG as a cost-cutting measure among other things. Many fans and purchasers were livid over the change, comparing it to New Coke or Windows 8's start screen in terms of unnecessary change to a well-established product. Aftermarket doll accessory makers responded with [[http://www.alldolledup-dollclothes.com/store/p427/The_Solution.html conversion kits]] for worn-out or permapantied dolls to replace the entire torso. In the same vein as Coca-Cola and Microsoft, AG [[https://www.facebook.com/americangirl/posts/1432849116758244 announced]] that they would discontinue the permapanties, mere months after it was first announced, and offered free repairs to exchange the unwanted bodies for the original style.
105	** The drastic changes to the plot in Molly's and Kit's movies were considered entertaining and keeping the core of the stories while abbreviating them (it helps that Molly's books have a lot of detractors who found her characterization and story much better in the film). But when the adaptation of Melody's highly lauded books were done, reception was not as kind. By making the lead more outspoken and assertive than the ShrinkingViolet she was in the books, [[DisappearedDad taking her dad out of the picture]] (along with all of her siblings--making her an only child--and her grandmother), switching her skill at singing to a skill at costuming and obsession with space travel, and moving the focus from being a story about black community to being about integrating into a white school, the movie was criticized for turning a more unique Black character story to a borderline racist, stereotypical "civil rights" cliché that felt it had to shove a bunch of white kids in and a "message" to get people to watch. (And on a [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking much less serious note]], it barely showed any of the outfits the Melody character had and gave her glasses which really didn't help the feeling of the AG license being slapped onto an unrelated movie at the last minute--even if it wasn't.) The later Amazon specials were TruerToTheText; ''Ivy & Julie'' switched around the roles of main character and sidekick, but still kept the plot of the books it was adapting.
106	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The modern line of American Girl (first known as American Girl of Today, now called Truly Me) falls into this. When the modern line started in 1995 the clothes for the dolls were, if not the height of modern fashion, at least reasonably fashionable for an eight-to-twelve year old girl to be seen in. As time—and fashion—moved on, many of the older clothes fell out of fashion and heavily reflect the fashion of the eras they were released in. Because of this, some of the older clothes designs from the 1990s have been used as "throwback" clothing for the 1990s characters, Isabel and Nicki, in 2023.
107	* TheWoobie:
108	** Nellie O'Malley starts out with a rough background compared to Samantha, who also is an orphan but rich. Nellie initially came from a factory to be a servant, but was sent back to New York City because she wasn't as strong as her employer wanted. She--and her family [[HopeSpot return to work for another family]] but within a little more than a year both her parents die, and her employer sends her and her two sisters back to New York, where they are taken in by their alcoholic Uncle Mike who sells all their things for drink and then abandons them, forcing them to go to a cruel orphanage where they are almost separated before Samantha intervenes and Uncle Gardner and Aunt Cornelia adopt them. Even so, after that Uncle Mike finds Nellie again, threatening to take her from her new safe family and make her work to give him all the money again.
109	** Emily, especially in Molly's movie. Not only has she witnessed firsthand the terrible effects the war has done to her life in England (bombed out houses, taking refuge in the subway tunnels from the blitzkrieg, the death of her mother), she even has a nightmare about being attacked.
110	** Kaya: the girl gets [[NeverLiveItDown called "Magpie"]], she had to leave her sister and horse behind with their captors, she loses her mentor, and she often doubts if she's really a worthy person.
111	** Addy, who was born into slavery, watches both her brother and father get sold away by the sadistic Master Stevens (and Addy is whipped when clinging to her father and begging for her family not to be sold away). The next day she is picking tobacco worms and, depressed from their loss, misses several that the overseer forces her to eat in punishment. Although she and her mother escape from slavery, they must leave her baby sister behind. After they start a living in Philadelphia, Addy soon realizes that her life in "freedom" isn't what she had hoped for, due to the hard work her family must do, things costing money, and racial and class segregation; she even faces brutal prejudice in "Happy Birthday Addy," when going to the other side of town to buy medicine for a member of her boarding house. A mere week after the end of the Civil War, Lincoln's assassination upsets her. While many of her family members are all reunited at the end of "Changes for Addy," she has lost her beloved Uncle Solomon (who died before he was even reunited with them) and, shortly after, Auntie Lula passes.
112	** Nothing ever goes right for Lindsey, no matter how well-intentioned her goals are. By the time she has a breakdown in the school bathroom upon seeing the school bully get an award for her art, let alone what happens ''after'', you feel horrible for this poor kid.

Context YMMV / AmericanGirlsCollection