Characters / American Girls Collection - Girls Of The Year

Girls of the Year (and companions) from the American Girls Collection, listed in year of focus release order.

Lindsey Bergman (2001)

Lindsey Bergman

An eager girl who wants to help people out, but her actions tend to not work out. Released in 2001 and lasted into 2002. She was the first Jewish character and first Girl of the Year.

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• All Jews Are Ashkenazi: Lindsey, along with the other Jewish characters, is Ashkenazi.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: She acts as this to her older brother, Ethan.
• Canine Companion: Her dog, Mr. Tiny (who was not made into an item in her collection), who is her best friend. She is distraught upon losing him and offers to trade her prized scooter for his safe return.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Lindsey thinks her life is always going to turn out like her fantasies. She's never right.
• Cool Uncle: A bit of a subversion, with Lindsey being the Cool Niece who helps her recently-divorced Uncle open up.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Lindsey is clumsy and adorable.
• Didn't Think This Through: Lindsey never thinks before she acts.
• Eccentric Artist: Downplayed, but a lot of Lindsey's interests lead towards artistic endeavors, such as decorating the trash cans or becoming invested in her collage.
• Even the Dog Is Ashamed: From Lindsey's book, after everyone gets mad at her for ruining the pet parade.
  It didn't get any better when I got home, either. Mom met me at the door with her own version of the asparagus face. Even my dog, Mr. Tiny, the most loyal and fabulous wiener dog in the history of the world, lowered his tail and slunk down to the basement at the sight of me.
• Fatal Flaw: Lindsey's inability to think things through results in all of the problems in her book.
• The Heart: Nobody realizes Lindsey is this to the rest of her family until she needs to cheer up Ethan, her mother, and then her Uncle.
• Hidden Depths: Lindsey's brother Ethan is mainly just annoyed at her for most of the book, until he has a stress-breakdown related to his bar mitzvah and refuses to talk to anyone but Lindsey.
• Jewish and Nerdy: Lindsey is the first American Girl character to have a laptop, in a time period where personal laptops weren't always available to girls her age. This is likely due to the fact her father is a tech company engineer.
• Jewish Mother: While her mother isn't a stereotypical depiction, she becomes quite nervous and controlling as Lindsey's brother's bar mitzvah approaches.
• Jewish Smartass: Lindsey isn't trying to be a smartass. She's just not really able to understand what's appropriate and inappropriate to say.
• Kids Are Cruel: Lindsey and her best friend, April, are relentlessly bullied.
• Loser Protagonist: Nothing ever seems to go right for this poor girl.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The story of her life. She can't ever seem to do anything right; her protest against the Pet Parade just turns everyone against her, she tries to set up a teacher with another MARRIED teacher... and most famously, her attempts to make her neighborhood look happier with her smiley-face stickers ended up getting her neighbors threatening to sue.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Everything Lindsey tries to do backfires spectacularly.
• Pet the Dog: Lindsey's rude neighbor, Josh, plays into this trope when he finds and returns Lindsey's lost dog Mr. Tiny.
• Quirky Curls: She has curly auburn hair, though it's quite short, and is quirky and helpful.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Lindsey's red to April's blue. Lindsey is talkative and energetic while April is more shy and gentle.
• Shipper on Deck: Lindsey tries to force a relationship between two of her teachers. One's married.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Lindsey and April are the only ones who understand each other at their school; they are also the school weirdos.
• Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: Lindsey is tomboyish, sweet, energetic, and joyful. She stands up for April, a girl who often gets picked on by Missy and Blair, two girls who are Alpha Bitches.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Lindsey likes climbing trees and riding her scooter and doesn't mind getting her hands dirty. Her new friend, April, wears pink and is more calm natured, but isn't especially girly.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She is energetic and loves climbing trees and riding her scooter, but has no problem wearing a sparkly blue dress for her brother's bar mitzvah and dancing with her Uncle Bernie.
• Tropey, Come Home: Mr. Tiny goes missing, devastating his owner.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: A sanitized version of this trope as this book was written for a target audience of eight to twelve year olds. The book begins with Lindsey interrupting the pet parade to try and protest for animal rights—resulting in mass chaos.
• Yes-Man: Missy Rizzo, Blair's best friend who really only repeats what she says.
• Youthful Freckles: Lindsey has a splash of freckles across her nose; she was the second character to have them.

Kailey Hopkins (2003)

Kailey Hopkins

A Californian bodyboard surfer girl who wants to preserve her nearby beach's tide pools from being destroyed in a mall development project. She was released in 2003 and lasted until 2004.

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• Capitalism Is Bad: Kailey and Tess are at first excited about the prospect of a new mall in their town until they find out that the mall will destroy the local ecosystem.
• Commonality Connection: Kailey manages to connect with Mr. Drake over their love of the tide pools.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Kailey is adamant about saving the beach from the new mall, but Tess really wants the mall and is less sympathetic to Kailey's cause after breaking her arm on the beach.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Downplayed, as Mr. Drake turns out to be quite reasonable.
• Dissension Remorse: Kailey and Tess.
• Earthy Barefoot Character: While Kailey's doll comes with sandals, she is usually illustrated as barefoot on the beach.
• Green Aesop: Kailey fights for the creatures living on the beach's tide pools.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Kailey is a bright blonde girl with a heart for every living thing on the beach.
• Injured Limb Episode: Kailey's best friend, Tess, breaks her arm for half the book.
• Kid Hero: Kailey spearheads her environmental campaign against the new mall.
• Lighthaired Swimmer: Blonde beach girl.
• Nature Is Not Nice: Tess falls from the rocks on the beach, breaking her arm in an immensely painful way.
• Nature Lover: Both Kailey and her mother are fascinated by marine biology; Kailey spends a lot of her time on the beach inspecting the tide pools.
• Outdoorsy Gal: Kailey loves going to the beach to surf with her beat friend Tess.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Part of the reason Mr. Drake sees sense about not destroying the tide pools is because his mother-in-law, Julia, gives him a talking-to.
• Ocean Awe: Kailey spends a good chunk of the book talking about how beautiful the beaches are.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Kailey is a bit of a tomboy due to her sporty attitude and not a fan of shopping, while her best friend, Tess, is a huge fan of shopping.
• Toyline-Exclusive Character: Kailey was given a golden retriever dog, Sandy, in her small collection. This was strange, considering she did not have a pet named in the books; meanwhile, the previous Girl of the Year, Lindsey, had a plot-important dog who got no representation.

Marisol Luna (2005)

Marisol Luna

A Mexican-American girl from Chicago who loves to dance. She and her family move from one neighborhood to another in the Chicago area, and she worries about both her dance lessons and the new neighborhood. She was released in 2005 and was the first of the Girls of the Year to be successful.

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• Ambiguously Gay: Marisol, a sporty girl, claims she will never have a boyfriend (her Dad playing pretend with her was her "first and only boyfriend") and instinctively pulls away when a boy pulls her in to dance. As well, Gloria Mendoza and Clara G move in together after reconnecting; Clara used to be Gloria's student, but their ambiguous ages could imply this is a romantic connection.
• Choreography Porn: A good portion of the book is spent describing different dances.
• Cool Teacher: Marisol's homeroom teacher was voted best teacher of the school the previous year. She also helps host Marisol's going-away dance-off.
• Dance Party Ending: Marisol's class has a going-away surprise party for her featuring a celebratory dance.
• December–December Romance: Marisol's neighbor, Roberto Mendoza, is sixty years old, and decides to marry one of the women from his local senior center. This manages to free up his caretaker daughter Gloria to teach dance in Marisol's new neighborhood.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Rascal, Marisol's cat, used to be a stray, but Marisol took care of him and took him home.
• Moving-Away Ending: The whole book leads up to the Luna family's move to a new neighborhood.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Marisol describes herself as incredibly good at any sport that requires a ball.
• Take a Third Option: Marisol is told that her new neighborhood doesn't have a dance studio, so she may have to give up dancing. She instead manages to convince her neighbor to open a dance studio close enough for her and the other kids in the neighborhood.
• Tropey, Come Home: Rascal goes missing shortly before the family moves, to Marisol's dismay.
• Troubled Production: Marisol's book was criticized for the scene where her parents explain they are moving; they say the neighborhood is dangerous and hard for kids to play in. Residents of the Pilsen area protested, seeing this as a negative and inaccurate portrayal of their neighborhood. American Girl responded as such:
  "We feel that this brief passage has been taken out of context in the book...In the story you'll see that Marisol's parents want to have a house and a yard, and a place for her to play. As well as [those], there are some other reasons, too, that they are talking about moving."

Jess McConnell (2006)

Jess McConnell

A half-Japanese, half-white girl who goes to Belize with her archaeologist parents and learns about the local culture. She's an active soccer player. She was released in 2006.

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• Action Girl: Jess is an enthusiastic soccer player who is excited to go kayaking and climbing.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Jess would like to be this.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Jess struggles to be seen as grown-up when her parents and siblings just see her as the baby of the family.
• Big Brother Bully: In his letter to Jess, her brother reminds her of her past failings and calls her by a nickname she hates.
• Braids of Action: Jess's doll comes with her hair in braids, as do most of her illustrations, and she plays soccer.
• Commonality Connection: Jess and Sarita, over soccer.
• Cool Big Sis: Jess's sister's letter, in contrast to her brother's, is sweet and heartfelt.
• Culture Clash: Jess is shocked to see a woman breastfeeding in public.
• Fish out of Water: This is the first time Jess has been out of the country and on one of her parents' archeological expeditions.
• Going Native: Jess often imagines herself as a Maya princess. She does end up staying with an indigenous Maya family for a little bit, becoming best friends with the daughter, Sarita.
• Homeschooled Kids: Jess is homeschooled during her trip to Belize, though she checks in with a teacher by emailing her assignments. This is one of the earliest portrayals of homeschooling in the series outside of historical homeschooling.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Jess and Sarita bond over their love of soccer.
• Pet Baby Wild Animal: Jess temporarily helps raise a parrot while in Belize.
• Treasure Room: Jess and Sarita fall into a room full of ancient pottery.

Nicki Fleming (2007)

Nicki Fleming

A Colorado girl who struggles to say no when asked; she offers to help her pregnant mother train a dog to be a service dog for others. She was released in 2007 and was the first character to have more than one book to tell her story.

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• All Dogs Are Purebred: Zigzagged. Sprocket is said to be a mixed-breed dog, however he has the appearance of a purebred Bernese Mountain Dog.
• All Girls Like Ponies: Nicki is quite the horse girl. She even has her own beloved horse, Jackson, who she rides when she feels down.
• Big "NO!": Nicki struggles with saying "No" throughout her first book, until she finally does so in order to protect Sprocket.
• Bittersweet Ending: The second book ends with Nicki learning to let Sprocket go and do what he was trained to do, even though she will miss him.
• Canine Companion: Sprocket, as Nicki trains him to be a service dog.
• Catchphrase: For Nicki's brother, Adam: "No way, José."
• Character Tics: Heather constantly taps her pencil, as if to the beat of a song in her head.
• Dogs Love Being Praised: Nicki always says "Good dog" to Sprocket whenever he does something right.
• The Eeyore: Poor Nicki spends most of the second book completely depressed over the departure of Sprocket.
• Farmer's Daughter: Nicki lives on a pig and horse farm, and dresses like it in all of her marketable outfits.
• Interclass Friendship: Nicki and Becca both dislike the rich people moving into and gentrifying their neighborhood. While Heather turns out to be just as much of a rich brat as they thought, Kris becomes a close friend of theirs.
• "Near and Dear" Baby Naming: Nicki's mother asks her to name her twin baby sisters, and she names them after her best friends, Becca and Kris.
• New Friend Envy: Becca gets jealous whenever Nicki hangs out with Kris in both books.
• Nice Girl: Nicki can't say "No," no matter what, out of fear of disappointing someone.
• Outdoorsy Gal: Her main interests are skiing and horseback riding; she also spends a lot of time sitting outside and sketching.
• Passionate Sports Girl: For skiing, though it doesn't appear much in the books.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Her best friend, Becca, gets jealous of Nicki's new friend Kris in both books and threatens to ditch Nicki due to it.
• Practically Different Generations: Nicki is ten years old when her youngest siblings are born.
• Precious Puppy: Sprocket brings Nicki hope, fun, and a love she's never felt before. Too bad he'll inevitably have to leave, as he's only there to be trained.
• Samaritan Syndrome: The entire first book features Nicki being unable to say "no" to anyone, to her own detriment.
• Selective Obliviousness: In Thanks to Nicki, Nicki's mother talks happily about how well Sprocket's training went and how they should train another dog—while Nicki and Adam are both completely depressed right in front of her.
• Stoic Woobie: Throughout most of her stories, Nicki is trying to act like she is fine despite her anxious and depressive thoughts.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Only a few years before Nicki's debut, Canadian doll brand Maplelea debuted Taryn Brady, an Appalachian brunette girl with a Bernese Mountain Dog and an interest in art and nature. Justified as the distance between characters means target audience children didn't exist during Nicki's release, and Taryn is made by a different brand altogether. Funnily enough, fifteen years later Nicki would get her own suspiciously similar substitute in Corinne, and her name was reused for Historical character Nicki Hoffman.
• Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: Nicki in the second book, while her Mom obliviously talks about how great Sprocket's training went.
• Training the Pet: She agrees to train Sprocket to be a service dog as a favor to her mother, who is pregnant.

Mia St. Clair (2008)

Mia St. Clair

An ice-skater from upper New York who, after years of playing hockey with her family, wants to pursue figure skating instead. She was released in 2008.

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• The Baby of the Bunch: Mia is the youngest of her family and the only daughter. When her brothers accidentally hurt her in a game, her mom chastises them, telling them that Mia is weaker than they are.
• Bully Turned Buddy: Vanessa starts to be a little nicer to Mia following their heart-to-heart in the hotel.
• Catchphrase: "No guts, no glory."
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Mia is constantly messing up her skating routine. She also begins the book by almost running over someone with a zamboni... oops.
• Embarrassing Animal Suit: Mia has to dress up as Zuzu the mascot Squirrel.
• Fiery Redhead: Mia has bright red hair and is active and passionate.
• I Have Brothers: Mia has three older brothers, who she attributes to her tough attitude.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Mia finds out that her rival, Vanessa, acts out due to the fact her parents never give her attention.
• Like Brother and Sister: At the end of the second book, Mia tells Anya that she's one of the St. Clairs now.
• Like Father, Like Son: Mia's best friend Anya is an ice skater; her mother is said to have been a skater in Europe.
• Living Legend: We find out that Coach Schubert used to be an Olympic Ice Skater.
• The Mentor: Coach Schubert gives a lot of time to Mia.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Mainly for ice skating, but she also loves ice hockey and used to play.
• Perpetual Poverty: Mia and her family often work odd jobs in order to make enough money to survive.
• Race Lift: Early prototype images of Mia dolls show designs of darker skinned dolls but at release, she was changed to a white redhead.
• Redheads Are Uncool: Mia mentions in the first chapter of her first book that she's often teased for her red hair.
• Resentful Outnumbered Sibling: Downplayed for the most part, but Mia does sometimes feel left out as the only girl.
• Sibling Team: Mia and her brothers all play ice hockey together.
• Working-Class Hero: Mia and her family are working class, in comparison to the more well off ice skaters she interacts with.

Chrissa Maxwell, Gwen Thompson and Sonali Matthews (2009)

Chrissa Maxwell, Gwen Thompson and Sonali Matthews

Gwen, Chrissa and Sonali in the books.

Sonali, Chrissa and Gwen in the movie.

Chrissa Maxwell is a girl who, after moving to Minnesota, struggles with bullying in her classroom and outside from the Mean Bees, a group of mean girls. A girl in her class, Gwen Thompson, is the other girl the Mean Bees harrass, and Sonali Matthews starts out as one of the Mean Bees but later becomes Chrissa and Gwen's friend. Released in 2009. All three were released as dolls, but Gwen and Sonali were companions; Chrissa was the first girl of the Year to have additional characters released, as well as the first to have a movie.

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• All of the Other Reindeer: Chrissa (for being the new girl) and Gwen (for being poor) are picked on by the Mean Bees.
• Beta Bitch: Jadyn. In the second book, she becomes the main Alpha Bitch after Tara starts trying to befriend Chrissa.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Tara is able to get away with a lot of her bullying due to her reputation.
• Brainy Brunette: Chrissa is a kind and smart young girl with a big heart.
• Bullied into Depression: Happens to Chrissa throughout her story. Implied to be part of the reason Gwen is so depressed all the time as well.
• Bully Turned Buddy: More so in the film than in the books, but this happens to all of the Mean Bees. Sonali is the first to turn away from bullying Chrissa.
• Cool Old Lady: Chrissa is close with her Nana, who raises llamas.
• Cyberbullying: Cyberbullying was just starting to become a problem in the late 2000s due to the rise of accessability to internet for younger children and households, and Chrissa's entire second book is focused on it.
• Disappeared Dad: Gwen's dad; in the books he abandons his family, and in the movie he has died.
• Elegant Classical Musician: Gwen, who is very talented at playing the violin.
• Enemy Eats Your Lunch: In the film, the Mean Bees steal Chrissa's cookies. Luckily, she had some saved up.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: The class bully and popular girl, Tara, is blonde. So is her second-in-command, Jadyn, in the film.
• Fake Nationality: Indian Sonali was portrayed by Mexican Ariela Barer.
• Fighting Back Is Wrong: Subverted, in which Chrissa learns that speaking up is not the same as "snitching."
• Friendship Trinket: Chrissa, Gwen and Sonali's headbands.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Gwen is a shy girl with blonde hair who is timid but very sweet.
• Heel–Face Turn: Sonali enters the story as a girl who is a Mean Bee along with Tara and Jadyn, but pretty soon, in the ending of Chrissa's first story, she soon realizes how to hang out with nicer people, and leaves the Mean Bees and hangs out with Chrissa and Gwen from that time on.
• Homework Slave: Implied in the film, as Sonali has to swiftly leave Chrissa's house to help Tara with homework.
• Important Haircut: Gwen excitedly wants Chrissa to help her get bangs after things start looking up for her. This is unfortunately ruined by Tara's intervention.
• Jobless Parent Drama: Gwen's mother struggles to find a job while the two of them live in the homeless shelter.
• Kids Are Cruel: Chrissa and Gwen are relentlessly bullied by the Mean Bees.
• Live-Action Adaptation: Recieved the movie An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong, which was named after the second book's title.
• New Friend Envy: In the second book, Sonali and Gwen become distant from Chrissa when she starts trying to befriend Tara. Justified, considering what she'd done to them. This plotline is cut for the movie.
• Nice Girl: Chrissa is extremely nice and outgoing and desperate to make friends, which makes the bullying hit all the harder.
• Reformed Bully: Sonali is the first of the Mean Bees to reform and become nicer, and then Tara and Jadyn.
• Street Urchin: Gwen initially lives in a homeless shelter with her mother.
• Struggling Single Mother: In the books, Gwen's dad abandoned her family, leaving her mother to struggle and eventually lose the house. In the film, it's softened so that he died.
• Terrible Trio: The Mean Bees, until Sonali leaves them.
• Throwing the Fight: Chrissa used to let Tara win at swim meets in order to avoid worse bullying. She eventually gets brave enough to swim on her own.
• Traumatic Haircut: For Gwen; Jaydn says she's going to cut her hair nicely, and then hacks her bangs off.
• Troubled Production: There was public hullaballoo over Gwen being a homeless character represented by a $100 doll, with no proceeds going towards homeless charities.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: In the first book, Tara pushes Gwen into the swimming pool, despite the fact the poor girl can't swim. It's entirely possible she expected her to drown.
• Unconfessed Unemployment: Gwen keeps her homelessness a secret. Which makes sense, considering how relentlessly she's been bullied.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: Chrissa's grandmother owns llamas. While this interests Sonali, Tara only uses it against her, calling her "Chrissa the Llama Girl." This ends up being the final straw.

Lanie Holland (2010)

Lanie Holland

An adventurous girl who loves the outdoors while her family prefers the indoors; she wants to get outside and explore nature, but struggles to do so.

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• Annoying Younger Sibling: Emily to Lanie, until she learns that Emily looks up to her that she wants to be a scientist just like her.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: Her little sister Emily will only eat pizza, so everyone has to make every food they make into some kind of pizza-shape.
• Bunnies for Cuteness: Lanie has a pet rabbit named Lulu.
• Butterfly of Transformation: Rather overt, as Lanie's study of butterflies connects to her relationship to her family.
  "I looked at Emily, who was gazing in wonder as the monarchs’ new wings lifted them into the air, and it struck me: in a way, Emily herself had new wings—and in a way I guess I did, too. Like the butterflies, we had changed—and in the process, we had discovered a wider, more wonderful world right around us."
• Cool Aunt: Lanie's Aunt Hannah. She supports Lanie's dream of being a scientist, and spends time with Lanie gardening and camping.
• Cool Big Sis: Angela who styles Lanie's hair and comforts her when she is feeling stressed out.
• Cranky Neighbor: Lanie's next-door neighbor, who often argues with her over the state of her garden or her control over her rabbit. At one point she threatens to call the HOA on the Hollands.
• Dissension Remorse: Lanie snaps at Dakota over email and immediately feels so bad about it that she sends her another email apologizing.
• Dumb Blonde: Averted. Lanie is a bookish and scientific blonde.
• Friend to Bugs: Lanie loves insects, unlike her little sister.
• Green Aesop: Lanie's storys have encourage conservation efforts among the target audience.
• Green Means Natural: Lanie's meet outfit is a green dress with blue accents.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Lanie is bright and cheerful and friendly to all animals and insects.
• Middle Child Syndrome: Between Angela always practicing the same song on the cello and Emily always wanting to spend time with Lanie when she's doing scientific research on things, Lanie often feels bombarded, but she soon learns that Angela has to practice the song in order to play it right for music class, and Emily wants to be a scientist just like Lanie.
• Outdoorsy Gal: To Lanie's chagrin, she's the only one in her family; they prefer to be indoors watching TV or on computers.
• Pet the Dog: After Lanie makes an attempt to connect with her neighbor, it actually works.
• Plenty of Blondes: Lanie, her mother and her little sister all have the same blonde hair.
• Pretty Butterflies: Lanie has a huge interest in monarch butterflies and their conservation. Butterflies decorate a few of Lanie's outfits.
• Quirky Curls: Lanie's a weird nature girl and science enthusiast with incredibly curly hair.
• Quirky Household: Mrs. Holland is an architect, and she designed her family a strange, three-story house, with a working dumbwaiter for Lanie's rabbit.
• Spiders Are Scary: Lanie's little sister, Emily, has a fear of bugs at first, until Lanie shows her a caterpillar that she is taking care of.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Lanie is the Outdoorsy Gal tomboy to her older sister, Angela. Lanie is active and energetic, doesn't mind getting her hands dirty, and is interested in science and nature, while Angela is more feminine, enjoys hair styling, and prefers staying indoors and playing the cello.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Lanie is energetic, has a love for science, and doesn't mind getting her hands dirty when gardening or when touching bugs. However she has no issue wearing dresses and lets her older sister Angela style her hair whenever she is stressed out.

Kanani Akina (2011)

Kanani Akina

A partially-Hawaiian girl living in Hawaii who tries to get along with her visiting cousin, who seems bored with their home. Released in 2011, nearly five years after the last Girl of the Year to be of color.

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• All-Loving Hero: Kanani wants to spread the spirit of aloha to everyone she meets.
• Clashing Cousins: Rachel is snippy and distant for most of the first book, until she and Kanani manage to connect.
• Endangered Species: Kanani rescues a baby monk seal on the beach, and then gets involved in conservation efforts.
• Family of Choice: Kanani considers everyone in her town and neightborhood to be extened family.
• Hula and Luaus: While mostly averted, Kanani does hula dance at a luau; however, it's a performance of her culture, not merely to entertain tourists.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: Kanani has some of the longest hair of any American Girl doll; it comes down to the doll's knees.
• Nice Girl: She is a friendly girl towards everyone, including guests that come to her parents' shave ice shop.
• Parent with New Paramour: Rachel's mother drops her off in Hawai'i to stay with her extended family while she goes off to have a honeymoon with her new husband.
• Secret Diary: Kanani and Rachel's grandmother gives them both identical diaries, which results in Kanani accidentally reading Rachel's.
• Sturdy and Steady Turtles: Kanani is told a story about a turtle in order to convince her to keep moving forward.
• Switching P.O.V.: This is the only contemporary character book that uses third person POV instead of first.
• True Blue Femininity: Kanani's meet outfit features a long, flowing blue island style dress.

McKenna Brooks (2012)

McKenna Brooks

A girl into gymnastics who struggles to balance her academic difficulties with her love of and focus on gymnastics. Released in 2012 and the second to have a movie.

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• Adaptational Jerkass: It's downplayed since American Girl clearly doesn't want their main character to be a jerk, but the movie makes McKenna much more prideful in herself and her achievements. In the book, her ankle injury was due to an accident; in the film, it was due to her overestimating herself and her abilities.
• All Girls Like Ponies: McKenna and Josie are overjoyed to go to a therapy horse barn.
• Continuity Cameo: McKenna is the first character to canonically appear in another character's book series; in 2024 she—now an adult in college—is Lila Monetti's gymnastics coach and previous babysitter.
• Dream-Crushing Handicap: Josie initially thinks that her paralysis will prevent her from becoming a horse rider. She discovers differently in the second book.
• Follow in My Footsteps: Toulane's mother wants her to be a competitive gymnast, but Toulane wants to do rhythmic gymnastics.
• Game-Breaking Injury: McKenna's initial injury prevents her from practicing gymnastics for an extended period of time.
• Inspirationally Disadvantaged: McKenna's tutor, Josie, downplays this but it's still present. While she is seen having her own interests and personality, her main role in the story is to help McKenna overcome her own ableism.
• Live-Action Adaptation: The second Girl of the Year to get her own TV movie, following Chrissa: McKenna: Shoot for the Stars.
• New Friend Envy: McKenna's best friend, Toulane, towards Josie.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Gymnastics. She describes it as her whole life.
• Physical Therapy Plot: McKenna begins taking physical therapy after her ankle heals.
• Race Lift: Toulane is played by Filipino actress Ysa Penarejo; she has no stated ethnicity in the books but is illustrated as white.

Saige Copeland (2013)

Saige Copeland

An artist who, after hearing her school must alternate between art and music instruction due to budget cuts, wants to help raise funds so they can continue to do both. and struggles to overcome performance anxiety. She was released in 2013.

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• Adaptational Jerkass: In the film, Dylan is a more malicious in trying to get Tessa's attention away from Saige and to her. In the book, it seems to be more of a simple misunderstanding.
• All Girls Like Ponies: Saige is even more of a horse girl than Nicki; while Nicki's horses were rather incidental to the plot and only seen when she rode to take her mind off issues, Saige is constantly at her grandmother's farm. She is learning how to train horses, paints the horses for inspiration, and gets her own horse for her birthday.
• Animal Lover: Horse Girl Saige, as well as her new friend Gabi, who knows how to train horses and dogs.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Saige is usually a nice girl but in the movie, when Dylan tells her and Gabi that they should just do their own art fundraiser instead of doing an art and music fundraiser (and Tessa agrees with her), Saige angrily explodes at Dylan.
• Cool Horse: Picasso is actually able to paint.
• Cool Old Lady: Saige is extremely close with her grandmother Mimi, who is an artist who raises horses and rescues kittens.
• Cutting Corners: Saige is distraught that she will have to go a year without art class, due to the school not being able to afford a permanent art teacher and having to rotate between it and music.
• Feud Episode: In the movie, Saige gets upset with Tessa for taking Dylan's side on what kind of fundraiser they should have instead of listening to her ideas. She immediately explodes at Dylan and blames her for taking over everything—leading Tessa to get upset and storm off with Dylan. Tessa eventually shows up at Saige's house and tells her Saige was right about her ideas, and that she was jealous that Saige was hanging out with Gabi in the same way. The two best friends hug and make up. Saige later apologizes to Dylan and learns she was jealous of Saige's friendship with Tessa, and the two of them work together (along with Tessa and Gabi) for the art and music fundraiser.
• Game-Breaking Injury: Mimi is put out of commission for quite some time after getting tripped by her new kitten.
• Live-Action Adaptation: An American Girl: Saige Paints the Sky. Confusing partially as it's also the name of the second book.
• New Friend Envy: Saige becomes insecure after her best friend, Tessa, makes a new friend at music camp, Dylan. Also, Tessa becomes insecure when Saige hangs out with Gabi, a new girl in school.
• Performance Anxiety: Saige struggles with this throughout her story.
• Pets as a Present: Is given a horse for her tenth birthday.
• Pony Tale: Saige's second book focuses a lot on her training her horse to perform in a parade.
• Saving the Orphanage: Saige puts on an art show in order to raise money for her school's art class.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Saige is a brunette horse girl with an interest in art, extreme social anxiety, and a black-and-white dog, similar to 2007's Nicki Fleming.

Isabelle Palmer (2014)

Isabelle Palmer

A ballet dancer who attends the (fictional) Anna Hart School of Arts in Washington, DC and wants to both dance and design her own costumes and outfits. She was released in 2014.

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• Adapted Out: Her best friend Gabriel, the aspiring magician, is absent in the film.
• Alpha Bitch: Renata. Not only is she is rude to Isabelle, she tries to outdo her during ballet class.
• Ballet Episode: Isabelle's books are way more focused on ballet than Marisol's.
• Choreography Porn: Most of the books feature elaborate descriptions of Isabelle's dance practices and performances.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Isabelle is constantly falling over herself in her attempts to dance.
• Cute Kitten: Isabelle's new kitten, Tutu.
• Dainty Little Ballet Dancers: Isabelle is shy and awkward. Subverted with her best friend Luisa, who is an Action Girl who'd fight just about anything or anyone.
• Dancing with Myself: Isabelle often dances to de-stress.
• Dissension Remorse: In the movie, Isabelle and Jade have an argument and soon feel bad about it. They soon make up though, of course.
• Every Girl: Isabelle isn't especially talented at dancing like everyone around her is. She does later discover her own talent and passion for sewing and designing.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: While Isabelle has her own issues with getting attention, her big sister Jade, who looks just like her, is the darling of everyone around them.
• Feud Episode: In the movie, Isabelle and Jade have an argument when Isabelle tells Jade that she feels tired of being in her shadow, when Jade gets upset and tells her that everyone pays attention to Isabelle's feelings more than hers, leading Isabelle to accidentally break their nutcracker. In the end, however, Isabelle apologizes to Jade and understands that Jade has anxiety just like she does, and Jade tells her that she's glad that Isabelle didn't give up in the show in Anna Hart. The two sisters hug and make up.
• Girly Girl: She is one of the most feminine American Girl characters: her favorite color is pink and she loves fashion, sewing, and ballet.
• Growing Up Sucks: Jade is terrified of getting taller in fear that she'll lose the dance roles she's been working so hard for.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Isabelle is a sweet, quiet, shy blonde.
• I Can't Dance: Isabelle is much less of a natural dancer than her sister, Jade. Promotional material for the film adaptation, has her parents often discuss how much worse she was than her older sister Jade. Yikes.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Renata is secretly jealous of Isabelle for having a close family that cares about her dancing, while Renata's parents neglect her and focus more on her brother's football interest.
• Infant Sibling Jealousy: In the movie, Isabelle learns that Jade can sometimes be jealous, because everyone pays so much attention to Isabelle's problems that nobody pays attention to Jade's.
• Inspirationally Disadvantaged: In the third book, when Isabelle's troupe performs for a children's hospital. Isabelle finds inspiration to dance better in the little girl in the wheelchair who is about to get surgery so she can "dance like [her]."
  "The expression on the girl’s face was enough to make me leap even higher the next time—higher than the tallest ocean wave, so high that I could wrap my arms around the moon and bring it back for her."
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Isabelle.
• Live-Action Adaptation: Isabelle Dances into the Spotlight.
• Monochrome Casting: In the books, the only mentioned black character in the Washington DC setting is Gabriel. In the film, it's only Renata. It's exceptionally strange as Washington, DC, is a largely black city, with over 1/3rd of the demographics African-American.
• Nervous Wreck: Isabelle has anxiety when performing, especially when Renata is around.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Isabelle is constantly in her big sister's shadow.
• Pets as a Present: Her kitten Tutu a gift for her mother.
• Pink Means Feminine: A very obvious example. Isabelle is interested in ballet, fashion design and creation, and kittens, and is often dressed in pink. Her promotional material is always pink, and her removable hair extensions are a hot pink.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Isabelle's blue to Luisa's red. Isabelle is shy and anxious while Luisa is more talkative and confident.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Bright and cheerful Isabelle is the first American Girl character to have unnatural hair colors, with pink highlights; on the doll, the tips were attached and could be removed.
• Successful Sibling Syndrome: Isabelle has this big time with her older sister Jade, who is a dancing prodigy. Especially after Jade is cast as Clara in their school's Nutcracker production.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For Marisol Luna, who was also a ballet dancer. Justified as Isabelle was eleven years after Marisol (the target audience would have been toddlers at best) and Isabelle's stories and collection actually focuses more on ballet, while Marisol cares more about folklorico dance and is just starting in ballet (while her collection doesn't truly reflect this).
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Isabelle finds that she has a talent for sewing and fashion design.
• Troubled Production: Isabelle received some backlash upon release due to the fact she lived in Washington DC, a place with an incredibly diverse population and a large Black population, with an author known for writing Black character books—but was a white blonde character and yet another in a series of multiple white Girls of the Year. She didn't sell as well as was expected; her doll was available at overstock benefit sales for multiple years following her release.

Grace Thomas (2015)

Grace Thomas

A baker and aspiring entrepreneur from Massachusetts, who travels to France with her mother to help in her aunt and uncle's patisserie when she is pregnant. Grace's movie tied in with MasterChef Junior and her collection focused heavily on cooking and baking.

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• Brainy Brunette: Grace aspires to be a business owner, even at her young age.
• Canine Companion: Grace's french bulldog, Bonbon.
• Clashing Cousins: Sylvie is at first incredibly standoffish towards Grace.
• Gay Paree: Grace actually doesn't spend a lot of time touring Paris, as she's there more while her mother's helping. But her collection focuses on the bistros, cafés, and Eiffel Tower imagery everywhere.
• Infant Sibling Jealousy: Sylvie, towards her new half-sister.
• It Runs in the Family: Grace is a chef, just like her grandparents.
• Language Fluency Denial: Sylvie pretends to not speak English to avoid having to talk to Grace. This falls apart the second Grace mentions it to Sylvie's parents.
• Live-Action Adaptation: Grace Stirs Up Success.
• Pets as a Present: In the film, she is delivered her dog as a birthday surprise.
• Pink Means Feminine: Grace is girly and has many feminine outfits with pink.
• Race Lift: Grace is white but in the film was played by Olivia Rodrigo; however, she is still portrayed as white.
• Retroactive Recognition: Grace was played by then-newcomer Olivia Rodrigo in her film adaptation. Rodrigo would later become a Disney television star, and then a Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter. As of 2022, she still has her Grace doll (as well as a doll of Maritza Ochoa), which she posted pictures of when she visited the American Girl store in New York.
• Saving the Orphanage: Grace has to help her grandparents earn money for a new oven, or else they will have to close their bakery.
• Sweet Baker: Grace is a sweet girl who has the dream of being a baker.
• Supreme Chef: While Grace has her occasional accidents in the kitchen, she is immensely talented for her age and manages to win over major critics, ranging from her older brother to MasterChef Junior.
• Tomboyish Ponytail: Grace is girly, but she only has a high ponytail when she's baking.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Macarons.

Lea Clark (2016)

Lea Clark

A photographer who goes on a trip to Brazil to visit her older brother; she shows interest in wildlife preservation. She was the last to have a film until Corinne Tan in 2022. Released in 2016.

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• Action Girl: Lea's best friend Camila, who is constantly running around, swimming, and practicing capoeira.
• Adapted Out: Camila, despite featuring heavily in Lea's books, is mysteriously absent in the film when Lea is in her area and could use some serious help.
• Adaptational Badass: Lea does some pretty badass things in her book, but none of it compares to the film. There she takes a determined trek through the jungle to rescue her brother including making her own makeshift raft, trapping and threatening a poacher, and action-movie attempts to take down a smuggling ring.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the books, Lea is daring, adventurous, and caring. But in the movie, she is more irritable and rude towards Zac's fiancee, Paula, at first. She is also more bossy but she eventually gets along more with Paula during their big adventure in the Amazon.
• Animal Lover: Lea's collection featured multiple animal plushies, representing the animals she came across in Brazil. In the movie, she also works to stop an animal-smuggling ring and has a sweet moment with an injured sloth.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: When Zac has an obvious crush, Lea decides to use this to get him to take her to the beach.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Lea struggles to be seen as more grown-up, despite her whole family seeing her as the baby.
• Braids, Beads and Buckskins: Aki's tribe in the movie.
• Camera Fiend: Lea's main interest is in photography.
• Cool Old Lady: Lea's late grandmother, Ama, who traveled the world.
• Earthy Barefoot Character: In the movie, Lea removes her shoes while rowing the boat.
• Embarrassing Nickname: "Cricket."
• Mighty Whitey: In the movie, it's revealed that Ama visited an uncontacted native tribe and gave them important medical care that they wouldn't have had otherwise.
• Native Guide: Aki in the film, a Native South American child who lives in the Amazon and meets Lea and Paula on their mission to find Zac.
• New Friend Envy: In Lea's third book, Lea and Camila, Lea feels left out when Abby and Camila start hanging out.
• Parent-Child Team: In the film, when Lea and her mother go to Brazil together.
• Practically Different Generations: Her older brother Zac is in his twenties and already living and working abroad, while Lea is ten years old.
• Pretty Butterflies: Lea's Rainforest Hike outfit is decorated with butterflies; it's the one featured most prominently in the movie.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: In the books, with cautious and careful Lea and her enthusiastic and energetic best friend Camila. In the film, with determined and daring Lea and skittish Paula.
• Sequel Escalation: Lea's books are quite adventurous but rather lighthearted, with Lea learning how to swim, navigate the jungle, raise animals, and communicate with her friends. The movie scales up the drama and features her having to rescue her kidnapped brother from an animal-smuggling ring.
• Shipper on Deck: When Camila sees Zac embarrass himself in front of Paloma, she slyly informs him that her cousin is single.
• Shown Their Work: Author Lisa Yee took the effort of doing research at the Amazon Rainforest for her Lea Clark books, taking part in river raft rides while mingling with wildlife and the locals for her and the readers to better immerse with the setting and to add authenticity to the story.
• Spiders Are Scary: Lea and Paula both scream and run away from a spider they see on a branch.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Lea is similar to Jess McConnell from 2006, with her travel to a South American country starting with "B", finding a sporty best friend who lives there, struggling to prove she's more grown-up despite being the baby of the family, raising and releasing a baby animal native to the region, being inspired by traveler family members, and more. Justified as Jess had been released ten years ago, long enough for a target age child to have little to no memory of her release.
  • Additionally, there's Paloma. Zac has a huge crush on Camila's cousin, Paloma the scuba instructor, in the books. In the film, he instead has a girlfriend named Paula.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Lea is absolutely terrified of the ocean and swimming in general. Unfortunately, they are practically living on the beach during their trip to Brazil, with Lea's new best friend being a passionate swimmer with a scuba-diving instructor for a cousin.

Gabriela McBride (2017)

Gabriela McBride

An African-American spoken-word poet and dancer, whose mission is to save the Liberty Arts Center her mom directs from destruction. She also has a stutter, making her the second main American Girl and first Girl of the Year to have a canonically stated disability (McKenna's ADHD never goes past implied).

Gabriela is the first and so far only Black Girl of the Year, and was the first character since Kailey to have a longer availability window; she was released in 2017 and available until mid-2018.

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• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: It's implied that as a Student Council member, Gabriela would actually be able to implement widespread change in the school.
• Affectionate Nickname: "Enchilada Princess" for Aaliyah.
• Big Brother Mentor: Red, to his cousin Gabriela in their poetry slams.
• Bully Turned Buddy: Aaliyah Read-Johnson.
• Bullying the Disabled: Aaliyah mocks Gabriela for her stutter at first, but then, the two of them become friends in Gabriela: Time for Change.
• Choreography Porn: Especially in the Flash Mob scene.
• Clashing Cousins: In the second book, Gabriela feels betrayed by her cousin Red taking part in the freshman initiation.
• Cool Teacher: Amelia Sanchez.
• Commonality Connection: Gabriela and Red are both really into poetry. She also befriends Isaac, who is really into Shakespeare poems. She also connects with Amelia Sanchez, her ballet instructor, over their respective disabilities (Gabriela's stutter and Amelia's dyslexia).
• Dancing with Myself: When Gabriela is practicing for the flash mob.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: When Gabriela writes Aaliyah a poem.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Starts with Gabriela being called "Repeat," but soon every new student in the middle school gets one.
• I Can't Dance: Gabriela is a good dancer, but falls behind in her practice after taking on the Student Council. She ends up giving up ballet in order to make time for her schoolwork and poetry.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Aaliyah turns out to be this. Teagan also gets this trope, because Gabriela soon learns that she has trouble making friends when she is trying to figure out why Teagan is jealous of Gabby's friendship with Aaliyah.
• Initiation Ceremony: There turns out to be a freshman initiation to Gabriela's middle school, where cruel pranks are pulled on all of the students.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: With the Contemporary Characters. In Z Yang's stopmotion promo series, Gabriela had a phone interview with her, and later they FaceTimed so she could meet Tenney Grant.
• Kids Are Cruel: Aaliyah used to bully Gabriela for her chronic stutter by calling her "Repeat."
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Gabriela has a soft fluffy cat named Maya.
• Loving Bully: A rare platonic example, where Aaliyah bullied Gabriela because she thought that Gabi didn't want to be friends with her, while she desperately wanted to be friends with her and Teagan.
• New Friend Envy: Teagan towards Aaliyah.
• Reformed Bully: Aaliyah stops making fun of Gabriela after they find common ground.
• Saving the Orphanage: The first book focuses on Gabriela and her friends trying to raise funds to save Liberty Arts.
• Shout-Out: In the first book, Gabriela's dance studio holds a flash mob to save their arts center. They dance to "You Can't Stop the Beat," itself a shout-out to Hairspray, but they then proceed to describe the exact remix they're using, and the descriptions perfectly match the Glee version of the song.
• Single-Minded Twins: Kayla and Layla in Gabriela Speaks Out.
• The Smart Guy: Teagan, who goes to a school specifically for coding.
• Speech Impediment: Gabriela has a chronic stutter and has to go to speech therapy.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For Isabelle and Marisol, who were both ballet focused characters. Notably, this is more in the collection, as Gabriela later drops from ballet (while Marisol had only just started and Isabelle had a focus on it) and justified as Marisol was over a decade since release.
• Toyline-Exclusive Character: Not exactly a character, but Gabriela was promoted with exclusively tap dance outfits and props. The books barely mention tap dancing, with most of her focus being on ballet (which she later quits).
• Two-Timer Date: The third book deals with Gabriela having a ton of responsibilites that clash with each other, culminating in her Halloween failure.
• Writer's Block: Gabriela has this often when she needs to write a poem for something.

Luciana Vega (2018)

Luciana Vega

An aspiring astronaut of Chilean descent, she dreams of being the first person on Mars and attends Space Camp. A lot of her collection is designed to promote STEM to girls. She was released in 2018 and remained available until fall 2021, making her one of the longest available characters.—

• Affectionate Nickname: "Lulu" by Isadora, "Astro-Luci" by her cousins.
• Alpha Bitch: Ella at first, who envies Luciana, but the two of them become friends eventually and learn to work together. There's also Claire, who is bratty and tries to manipulate people including Luciana, but she shapes up later on.
• Big Brother Instinct: Luciana is thrilled that her family will be adopting a new baby, and is over the moon that she'll get to be a sister.
• Clashing Cousins: Luciana finds it hard to relate to her Chilean cousins, only to realize it's because she only talks about her own adventures. This trope also goes with Ella and Charlotte's relationship as cousins, because Ella envies Luciana at first for being the leader and Charlotte often bosses Ella around in order to make her nice.
• Comforting Comforter: In the first book, Luciana feels like a bad leader, but her whole team comforts her and tell her that she is a part of their team, and Ella adds on that without Luciana, they wouldn't even be a team, which makes Luciana feel much better.
• Cosmic Motifs: Luci has a star necklace she always wears, and a matching moon one she gets for her sister. Most of her outfits and promotional photos are decorated with stars as well.
• Everybody Hates Mathematics: Despite being incredibly smart and skilled in everything else needed to go to space camp, Luci mentions disliking math and not being very good at it.
• Girls vs. Boys Plot: In the first book, with the girls' team and boys' team pitted against each other in competition.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Luciana has a love for sparkly things, anything pink and purple, and added a purple streak in her hair to match with her best friend Raelyn from back at home. However, she is active and has the dream of being an astronaut on Mars when she grows up.
• New Friend Envy: Ella thinks that this is the reason Luci keeps blaming Claire for things. Turns out she was right and Claire was trying to manipulate everyone.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Luci and her team take it upon themselves to investigate to see if their lost part was stolen... only to break the other team's robot and earn themselves a disqualification.
• Nonconformist Dyed Hair: Luciana's purple streak, which is meant to symbolize her impulsiveness, as she and her friend applied it to themselves on a whim.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: In the first book, when Luci leads her team to accidentally break another team's robot.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Claire abandons Luciana in the pool's storage room in hopes of getting her in trouble and thus getting more attention; this leaves Luci underwater for an extended period of time during which she could have drowned, and she has panic attacks following while remembering the incident. Lampshaded by the fact Claire always thought that Luciana would be rescued and didn't think it would have any lasting effects.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Luciana mentions that she's incredibily lonely at home with both her parents working. Also Claire Jacobs to her father; he's unable to pick her up at any time, until the end of the third book when he realizes he's been working too much.

Blaire Wilson (2019)

Blaire Wilson

A girl who lives on a farm; her family in upstate New York owns a farm-to-table restaurant and she has recently learned she has lactose intolerance and has to adapt to a new diet—and that a family friend is getting married. Her story deals with connecting with friends and family.

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• Animal Lover: Blaire lives on a farm and constantly hangs out with her animals, especially the goats and silkie chickens.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Her brother, Beckett.
  "Did you see this?" I asked, waving my tablet at him.
  "What did Beckett do to your tablet now?" Dad said, sighing.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: With Eli.
• Boys Like Creepy Critters: Beckett is a fan of bugs and frogs.
• Cool Big Sis: Cat, the farm manager, serves as this for Blaire.
• Disappeared Dad: Blaire's friend Eli's dad.
• Feud Episode: In Blaire's first book, she and Thea argue about Blaire paying too much attention to her wedding plans instead of her performance, but they immediately make up, and they tell each other that they missed each other, even during all the times when Blaire was planning a wedding and Thea was hanging out with Madison. In the second book, Blaire snaps at Eli and blames him for the fact that she bumped into her mother and caused the sauce to spill, but then apologizes to him during recess the next day that she got so mad at him and admitted that she was right about her causing her mom to spill the sauce, and Eli apologizes that his videoing got in the way, and Blaire learns that he enjoys making videos on his tablet because his late father got him into video making.
• Fiery Redhead: She is a red head who has a bad temper whenever things go wrong.
• Ironic Allergy: Blaire's lactose intolerance clashes hard with the food she enjoys baking.
• Kiddy Coveralls: Blaire lives on a farm with a farm-to-table restaurant (and often cares for animals like pigs, chickens, and lambs). She has her gardening outfit, which consists of denim shortalls and wellie boots.
• Missed the Recital: Thea is angry that Blaire was on her iPad instead of paying attention to her performance. (Despite the fact Blaire was dealing with wedding planning, and got off her phone right after.)
• Multigenerational Household: Blaire's whole family lives at the inn, including her maternal grandfather.
• Overalls and Gingham: Wears overalls for farm work. One of her outfits has overall shorts and a gathered blue gingham top.
• Phoneaholic Teenager: She is actually not a teenager. She is ten years old in the books. But despite her age, Blaire has trouble getting off her tablet and living in the moment.
• Poverty Food: Implied in the second book as Blaire's family hosts a party to make sauce for the homeless shelter.
• Shout-Out:
  • Blaire's family inn is called Pleasant View Farms as a reference to the company's creator, Pleasant T. Rowland, and the first name of the company, Pleasant Company.
  • Both Blaire and Eli's favorite book is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Blaire herself.
• Technologically Blind Elders: Blaire has to explain to Ms. Vandegriff how to use emojis.

Joss Kendrick (2020)

Joss Kendrick

A deaf surfer who, after a dare from her older brother, tries out for the cheerleading team and gets on, discoving in the process she can enjoy and even blend both sports. She is the first visibly disabled character and the doll included hearing aids. She was released in 2020 and remained until 2022.

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• Alpha Bitch: Mila, who asks Joss rude questions about her hearing loss and tries to outdo her during cheerleading.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Joss is the youngest in her family and the only girl, and heavily dislikes being treated as such.
• Big Brother Mentor: The oldest Kendrick child, Liam, inspires Joss and helps her with both surfing and cheerleading.
• Canine Companion: Joss's friendly skateboarding bulldog, Murph.
• Catchphrase: "Be all in, 100%."
• Cool Board: Joss is both a skateboarder and surfer.
• Cruel Cheerleader: Deliberately subverted, as Joss finds friends and community within her cheer group. Even Mila, the girl who was being mean to her turns out to just be defensive of her craft, and warms up to her.
• Curtains Match the Window: Notable for Joss; she is the first Caucasian Girl of the Year to have brown hair and brown eyes. Others before her have either had blue/green/hazel eyes with their brown hair or blonde hair if they had brown eyes.
• Failed Future Forecast: Joss's books were written shortly before and released at the start of 2020; the first book, set in May, has her going to school in person and visiting crowded beaches in California while the second set in October has her participating in a public cheerleading competition. All these kinds of activities were suspended with the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic in March 2020—even the American Girl stores closed until May and limited shoppers inside for months after reopening, often encouraging curbside pickup. (The characters released after her, Kira and Corinne, both mention the pandemic.)
• Female Misogynist: Implied with Joss at the beginning of her character arc, as she finds the cheer squad to be too girly for her. She (and her best friend, fellow tomboy Sofia) later learn to respect and love the sport of cheerleading.
• Forgot the Disability: Unfortunately happens to Joss often. Sofia often forgets she's deaf and needs to lip-read on the beach, and students at school don't face her when talking.
• Handicapped Badass: Joss is an incredibly athletic surfer, cheerleader and skateboarder, who is deaf.
• I Have Brothers: Joss is interested in a lot of masculine things after seeing her brothers take them on. However, she despises the implication that she's worse at these things because of her gender.
• Near-Death Experience: In the second book, when Joss almost drowns in the dangerous tide. She's eventually able to make it out with her brothers' help.
• New Friend Envy: Joss's best friend, Sofia Goto, gets angry at her spending so much time with her cheer squad. She eventually becomes friends with fellow cheerleader Brooklyn.
• Not Like Other Girls: Joss and Sofia are a bit on this high-horse before Joss joins the cheer squad and learns that femininity isn't bad.
• Passionate Sports Girl: For surfing, and later cheerleading.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Sofia becomes incredibly insecure after Joss joins the cheerleader squad and spends time with other people on it.
• Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: Joss at first finds the cheerleaders to be boring and "too girly." After joining the squad she realizes how hard they work, how nice the team is, and how much she actually enjoys the sport—and that it is a sport.
• Resentful Outnumbered Sibling: Joss doesn't like being the only girl in the family.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Joss is active and a Passionate Sports Girl whose primary sport is surfing, while her friend from cheerleading, Brooklyn, is a cheerful cheerleader.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Joss is sporty and loves to surf, but her character arc involve her learning she enjoys getting dolled up in sparkles and pink for cheerleading—especially after she learns that it's just as much of a sport as surfing.
• Tropey, Come Home: Murph runs away during a thunderstorm. Joss goes out to find her at the beach.

Kira Bailey (2021)

Kira Bailey

An animal lover spending the summer in Australia with her mother, assisting her veterinarian great-aunts with the wildlife sanctuary after the Australian Wildfires. She was released in 2021.

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• Affectionate Nickname: Kira's deceased father used to call her "Bean." She later names the new infant koala that as a tribute.
• Animal Lover: Kira loves animals so much that she's constantly begging her mom to let her move to Australia to live on the family sanctuary.
• Awesome Aussie: Alexis, who is far more experienced with the sanctuary's biome than Kira.
• Birthday Buddies: Corinne and Kira were given the same birthday, September 13th. (Kira was born in 2010, which makes her a year older than Corinne.)
• Bittersweet Ending: Kira not only has to return to the United States, but the Wildlife Sanctuary catches fire before she does.
• But Not Too Gay: Subverted. Kira's great-aunts show more affection than many straight couples in American Girl books, and they are illustrated with a photo from their marriage as their portraits.
• Cats Are Mean: Debatable, as the stray cat in the first book is simply acting on predator instinct. However, he does turn out to be the major predator bothering the sanctuary.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Kira's dad.
• Disappeared Dad: Kira's dad died a few years previous to the story. This affects her greatly– while not directly mentioned as the cause, it's implied that her anxiety and over-preparedness are a result of his death, and it is directly stated that she's afraid of hospitals due to her experience waiting for her dad in one.
• Dissension Remorse: Kira and Alexis following their fights always get back together and apologize.
• The Great Fire: After fearing it may happen for the last several books, a fire finally wrecks the Wildlife Sanctuary.
• Green Aesop: Unsubtley, due to the Sanctuary being in danger from the concernt of the then-recent Australian forest fires.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Kira is a blonde haired girl who is passionate about caring for animals in the sanctuary.
• High Koala-ty Cuteness: Bean in the stories. Koalas are also prominent on Kira's pajamas and her collection has two of them.
• Homeschooled Kids: Alexis does online school while she lives at the reserve. Kira begs her mom to let her do this, too, so she can live permanently in Australia. Her mom refuses, as she herself is a teacher and thinks Kira should be in public school.
• Hope Sprouts Eternal: At the end of the second book, where Kira and Alexis find hope within the ruins of the burned Sanctuary.
• Infodump: Kira drops a lot of information to the boy next to her on the plane until she sees her mom signal her to be quiet.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: Kira was, oddly enough, included in a lot of World By Us promos and stopmotions—despite never appearing in their books and being on another continent during their stories' timeline. Even if she had been in America, she lives in Michigan while the trio lives around Washington DC.
• Kangaroos Represent Australia: While Kira's merchandise mainly focuses on her koala a plush kangaroo is also sold, and featured prominently in the second book.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Kira and her mom foster kittens at home in Michigan. This makes Kira more inclined to like cats than her Australian friends.
• Land Down Under: Most of the story takes place at the Bailey Wildlife Sanctuary in Australia.
• Late Coming Out: It's mentioned that Kira's great-aunts have only recently gotten married, due to Australia's recent passage of marriage equality laws.
• Nervous Wreck: Kira sometimes has anxiety and struggles with going with the flow.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Kira, who doesn't know that domestic cats are considered natural predators in Australia, feeds a cat she sees on the sanctuary, accidentally encouraging it to stay and getting her in a fight with Alexis when she finds out what happened. Kira later uses her connection with the cat to trap it and get it to a good shelter.
• Pet Baby Wild Animal: All of the animals in Kira's sanctuary are sold in her collection as pet plushies. In the stories, her aunts make sure that she knows that no matter how cute and nice they are, the animas they help are still wild animals.
• Raised in Captivity: Kira's koala, Bean, who she eventually has to send to another sanctuary to find a mother.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Overenthusiastic and daring Alexis to cautious and anxious Kira.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Kira is similar to both prior characters Jess (Girl of the Year 2006) and Lea (Girl of the Year 2016), due to their love for animals and traveling. All three of them traveled out of America for the majority of their series: Jess traveled to Belize, Lea traveled to Brazil, and Kira traveled to Australia. Kira also has traveling in common with Grace (Girl of the Year 2015), who traveled to Paris. Justified as target audience children wouldn't remember Lea well—or Jess at all, as they likely didn't exist during Jess's release.
• Troubled Production: Kira receieved a bit of controversy due to being one of another many blonde-haired white girls. Notably, the custom doll used for Alexis in the promotional photos got a lot more attention and praise from adult collectors. There was also conflict with conservative parents upset that Kira's great-aunts are a lesbian couple.

Corinne and Gwynn Tan (2022)

Corinne Tan and Gwynn Tan)

Corinne and her younger sister Gwynn are Chinese-American girls from Aspen, Colorado. Corinne loves skiing and is dealing with the new privileges and challenges that come with her new blended family including a financially well off Swedish stepfather, and confronting xenophobia caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Gwynn, her younger sister, takes up ice skating and insists they have "sister brain", connecting the two girls.

Both Corinne and Gwynn were released in 2022, with Gwynn being a modified WellieWishers doll.

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• Adapted Out: Her best friend Cassidy, who plays a major role in the books, isn't in the film.
• Adorably Precocious Child: Gwynn takes up ice skating and quickly excels, withg her coach saying she's picking up skills quickly.
• Age Lift: In the books, Corinne is ten while Gwynn is seven. In the film adaptation their actors Miya and Kai Cech are thirteen and ten respectively, so the character ages are adjusted accordingly.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: While Gwynn and Corinne mostly get alone perfectly well, Gwynn's childishness begins to grate on Corinne in the books as Gwynn's behavior interfers with her training of Flurry.
• Asians Eat Pets: Deliberately subverted. When the girls overhear white men joking about their Chinese-Restaurant-owning mother cooking their pet dog (and that the restaurant is infected with covid), Gwynn is distraught at hearing it. Their mother angrily races out to confront the racists and tells them off for making a child cry.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Gwynn is the younger of the two. Until her mother has a new baby.
• Blended Family Drama: Corinne has a lot of trouble adjusting to her parents' divorce and mother's remarriage to the well-off Arne, worried that her parents won't care about her equally now that they're apart; Gwynn adapts easier.
• Blue Is Heroic: Corinne is put in a mainly blue color scheme, along with blue-tinted hair.
• Big Sister Instinct: Corinne is extremely loving towards and protective of Gwynn.
• Birthday Buddies: Corinne and Kira were given the same birthday, September 13th. Corinne was born in 2011, so she is a year younger.
• Canine Companion: Corinne's dog Flurry, who she is training to be a rescue dog, becomes quite close with both girls.
• Cool Big Sis: Towards Gwynn who looks up to her.
• Cope by Pretending: Corinne puts on an act of not being as well off as she is now to avoid arguing with her friend Cassidy, who doesn't think well of rich kids.
• Gender-Blender Name: Gwynn Guang Tan. "Gwynn" is a masculine Welsh name, meaning "white/fair/blessed" and referring to Gwyn, the king of the Otherworld and leader of the wild hunt. "Guang" is a masculine name in both Chinese and Taiwanese that means "light, glory."
• "Getting My Own Room" Plot: Subverted. Corinne wants her own room after they move in with her stepfather, but is unable to get one after her mom becomes pregnant.
• Girlish Pigtails: Gwynn's hair is always shown in two braids.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Even before adopting and training Flurry, Corinne was extremely interested in dogs, and gets the idea when encountering someone training a Search-and-Rescue dog.
• Innocent Bigot: Arne tries to downplay the racism Corinne faces from some white boys, in hopes that she will feel safer. Instead she feels like he doesn't understand.
• Infant Sibling Jealousy: In the second book, Corinne becomes nervous that her mother and stepfather will love the new baby more than her and Gwynn, due to them being Arne's biological child. This fear is amplified when her grandparents seem happier to hear they're having a boy instead of another girl. when Blix is born, Corrine adores him.
• Kid Hero: Corinne and Cassidy have to travel across the forest by themselves to get help for the rest of Corinne's family after their accident while camping.
• Live-Action Adaptation: American Girl: Corrine Tan with sisters Miya and Kai Cech as Corinne and Gwynn; it was intended to release in 2022 but was not released until 2024.
• Mistaken for Racist: When Arne tells Corinne that she must have heard wrong when she overheard a racist remark, Corinne feels that he's belittling the prejudice she faced. He later reveals to her that he had said as much because he hoped that denying the racism would make her feel safer, but realizes that was wrong of him.
• Named by the Adaptation: Corinne's parents are given the names Judy and "David" in the film adaptation, while they're completely unnamed in the books. Her stepfather Arne is also given the last name Karlsson.
• New Baby Episode: The secondary plot of Corinne To the Rescue is her mother revealing she's pregnant. She has a boy which she and Arne name Blix Yong.
• Nice Girl: Corinne is a compassionate and caring girl and cares about those she loves, including her little sister.
• Nonconformist Dyed Hair: Corinne has bright blue streaks in her hair.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Corinne is really into skiing, while Gwynn prefers skating.
• Pets as a Present: Corinne leverages her stepfather's promise of a big gift by begging him for a dog to train.
• Pink Means Feminine: Gwynn is often clothed in pink or purple.
• Practically Different Generations: Corinne is ten when her half-brother is born.
• Psychic Children: Gwynn claims that she and Corinne have a connected "sister-brain"; while Corinne doesn't take this seriously, the narrative seemingly does. Gwynn is able to hear Corinne shout during her skating routine despite Corinne being in a loud crowd, and reacts accordingly by falling in the middle of the jump. Gwynn is also the one who thinks of sending out Flurry to search for her lost sister, and says that she sent Corinne a message to not give up, which Corinne wonders about. This is amplified in the second book, where Gwynn is able to predict that Corinne and Cassidy encountered a mountain lion despite neither of them telling anyone about that, and says she sent them a "message" to not give up when she felt that Corinne must be "really, really sad." Soon after, she says that she and her mother played a game by listing purple things; the thing that gave Corinne hope during her journey was a purple columbine, which Corinne had introduced Gwynn to earlier in the book. All this together implies that Gwynn's "sister-brain" may indeed be a thing, though not a serious one. The first chapter's Shout-Out to Matilda may also be implying this.
• Psychic Link: In a rare non-twin version of Twin Telepathy, Gwynn claims that she and Corinne have a "sister-brain" that links their thoughts and feelings. Everyone finds this to be quite amusing and Corinne mostly dismisses it until she's lost in the woods.
  “Did you get my sister messages?” asked Gwynn. “I kept telling you not to give up.”
  Gwynn’s question made me wonder. Had I gotten a sister brain message? That moment when I thought I might give up, but then I realized I needed to hang on– maybe that was Gwynn. Or maybe sister brain was just another way of saying I love you.
• Purple Is Powerful: Corinne finds inspiration in the purple columbine she sees growing in the woods. With Gwynn's beleif in their "sister-brain" psychicness, her purple color scheme also adds to this.
• Shout-Out: Several references to real-world media are made in Corinne's stories:
  • Gwynn mentions watching Matilda in Arne's house.
  • Both girls idolize Chinese-American skiier Eileen Gu, breifly meet her, and hang a signed poster of her in their room.
  • Gwynn's ice skating routine is set to "Happy" by Pharrell Williams.
  • Corinne and Gwynn reference the dementors from Harry Potter.
  • Corinne, Gwynn and Cassidy sing "Where the Columbines Grow," the official state song of Colorado.
• Near-Death Experience: Corinne runs out into the wintery mountains after being upset at Gwynn's skating performance, losing her way and nearly freezing to death. She also mistakes a rescue dog (Flurry) for a bear for a moment.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Corinne is the second Girl of the Year to be an eldest sister skiier from Colorado dealing with the training of a bouncy puppy and later, the birth of a new sibling with the anxiety issues that come with it. Unlike Nicki, Corinne is boosted into the upper class of Colorado, has her book more focused on her sisterhood with Gwynn, and focuses more on skiing than Nicki's horse-riding. Justified as target audience children wouldn't remember Nicki at all, as they likely didn't exist during their releases.
• Outdoorsy Gal: Both Corinne and Cassidy prefer to spend their time outside.
• Training the Pet: Corinne's main goal is to train her puppy, Flurry, to be a search-and-rescue dog.
• True Blue Femininity: Corinne has a majorly blue color scheme, to contrast Gwynn's pink/purple.
• Wealthy Philanthropist: Corinne's stepfather Arne is implied to be exceptionally well off, but he's also incredibly kind and loving and generous to his children.
• Youngest Child Wins: Gwynn is always bright and happy to contrast Corinne's anxiety, and is easy to make friends, as well as apparently a prodigy at ice skating. This is subverted when Gwynn is promoted to the middle child after the birth of their little brother Blix at the end of the second book.

Kavi Sharma (2023)

Kavika "Kavi" Sharma

An Indian-American girl living in New Jersey who loves to dance and participate in performing arts at school; she enjoys attending musicals in nearby New York City, with one of her favorites being Wicked—which she gets to see as a gift for her twelfth birthday. But her academic performance is being affected by her inability to focus on her schoolwork, resulting in lowered grades and risks of not being able to perform if she can't get her grades up.

Kavi is the first South-Asian Girl of the Year (but not the first ever South Asian character of the year; that honor goes to Sonali from 2009 who is stated to have a South Asian mother). She is also the first Girl of the Year to not have her full book released at launch, instead being released with a in-character journal, Kavi's Journal. The full book, It's Showtime, Kavi! released in July 2023.

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• Annoying Younger Sibling: Her brother Rishi teases her often.
• Birthday Beginning: Kavi's book opens with the celebration of her twelfth birthday.
• Canine Companion: Kavi has a maxi cockapoo, Scamper.
• Dancing with Myself: Kavi often dances when she's alone both with and without music.
• Happy Birthday to You!: Kavi has Happy Birthday sung to her, both the English and Hindi traditional birthday song.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Kavi has a falling-out with her two best friends as they have trouble figuring out the choreography for their performance.
• Shout-Out: Kavi is inspired to sign up for her school's revue after seeing a performance of Wicked. On the AG site, her desk has a poster for the show as well as The Phantom of the Opera, Hamilton and Mamma Mia!. Her collection released deluxe costumes for Elphaba and Glinda, partially in honor of the 20th anniversary of the musical.

Lila Monetti (2024)

Lila Monetti

An Italian-American girl living in St. Paul, Minnesota. She's recently joined a competitive gymnastics team in hopes of following her dreams, but is afraid of fitting in and doing well. At her coach's suggestion, she attends a horse camp and learns her strengths through training the new palomino, Hollyhock. Like Kavi, she also has a journal with the doll, with her full book due in 2024.

Lila is the first character to release in October (prior to the winter shopping season), instead of the traditional January.^note This started to change with Blaire who was released earlier than 2019 in late 2018; however, this is the first character to release prior to December at all.

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• All Girls Like Ponies: Lila is a huge horse girl and spends a lot of time training and caring for a palomino, Hollyhock, while at riding camp.
• Continuity Cameo: Her beloved gymnastics coach (and previous babysitter) is McKenna Brooks, who was the 2012 Girl of the Year and is now an adult in college in Minnesota.
• Girlish Pigtails: Her self-proclaimed favorite style is French braids, and her meet outfit has her hair in two front high pigtails.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Lila is big into gymnastics and later becomes just as passionate about horseback riding.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: She becomes very anxious when her friend, Katie, hangs out with friends from their old team instead of spending time with her.
• Pony Tale: Lila attends horse camp in hopes of becoming more confident in her gymnastic abilities.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Amusingly enough, it's for for her own coach, McKenna Brooks who was the 2012 Girl of the Year. They both have an interest in gymnastics and horses (though McKenna's interest in horses isn't reflected in her collection, only in books). Justified because Lila is many years younger and McKenna is her coach, who would logically tell Lila about her own past as a gymnast and initially suggests the horseback camp.