History Trivia / AmericanGirlsCollection

* InspirationForTheWork: Pleasant Rowland gave three personal stories as inspirations for creating the line: a trip to historic Colonial Williamsburg where she saw people interacting with living history; an inability to find dolls for relatives that were not either baby/child dolls or adult dolls, rather than companions the same age as the intended recipient (though these existed, they were not as prominent as {{Franchise/Barbie}} or Toys/CabbagePatchKids, which were the dominant brands at the time); and 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 last story is VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory; while the doll exists, [[http://web.archive.org/web/20120830205137/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/artifacts/archives/001948.asp the doll was actually a mint condition museum piece]] donated by the owner decades prior and part of the Wisconsin History museum; it was posed with the damaged trunk for the advertisement.

** In an [[https://ew.com/american-girl-live-action-movie-mattel-not-snl-sketch-8415727 article]] by Entertainment Weekly, contributor Jessica Wang erroneously lists the first three Historical Characters--Kirsten, Samantha and Molly--as from World War II; Kirsten was a Swedish immigrant from the 1850s Pioneer era, while Samantha was from the Edwardian era during the turn of the 20th century.[[note]]American Girl previously marketed her as a "bright Victorian beauty", even when UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria was already dead since before the start of her stories.[[/note]] Molly is the only one of the original bunch who actually represents the wartime era. This was later corrected by removing the incorrect paragraph; the original error can be seen [[https://web.archive.org/web/20231215010051/https://ew.com/american-girl-live-action-movie-mattel-not-snl-sketch-8415727 here]].
* CreatorBacklash: It feels as though American Girl wanted nothing more to do with Cécile and Marie-Grace when their collection sold poorly, initially. Dolls and items went on heavy discounts soon after launch, they were retired three years in (as part of ending Best Friends lines) and for years the only references to them on the official website were in the Character archives. This has since changed as in 2020, the entire series and Cécile's mystery were made free as part of a diversity initiative, and in 2023 the long retired Marie-Grace face mold came back into rotation for other dolls. However, the characters are still not included in multi-character books, even if the books include characters such as Kirsten (who was archived in 2009, but as one of the first characters is likely seen as more iconic to older people).

* InspirationForTheWork: Pleasant Rowland gave three personal stories as inspirations for creating the line: a trip to historic Colonial Williamsburg, an inability to find dolls for relatives that were not either baby/child dolls or adult dolls, rather than companions the same age as the intended recipient (though these existed, they were not as prominent as brands such as {{Franchise/Barbie}} or Toys/CabbagePatchKids, which were the dominant brands at the time); and 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 last story is embellished; while the doll exists, [[http://web.archive.org/web/20120830205137/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/artifacts/archives/001948.asp the doll was actually a mint condition museum piece]] donated by the owner.

* FollowTheLeader: In this case, them being said leader; while there'd always been some degree of "a doll with a story attached" around, American Girl was one of the first to take off the way it did. The success of the franchise led to myriad brands of 18-inch (or near to it) dolls, several with a similar premise of characters including ''Literature/MagicAtticClub''. Some of them, like Target's ''[[http://www.ogdolls.com/ Our Generation]]'' dolls by Battat or My Life As from [=WalMart=], are ''intentionally'' compatible with their ''American Girl'' counterparts, making their accessories and clothes a suitable low-cost alternative to items sold by AG. A number of companies, such as the Canada-based ''Toys/MapleleaGirls'', Australian ''Australian Girl'', or British "A Girl for All Time", apply the ''AG'' formula of characters and/or history to suit their national tastes. Meanwhile others market their ''AG''-like dolls as TheMoralSubstitute especially for devoutly religious or conservative parents, as in the case of ''[[http://www.dollsfromheaven.com/ Dolls from Heaven]]'' or the now-defunct ''Life of Faith'' based on the public domain Literature/ElsieDinsmore series. Even ''Literature/DearAmerica'' briefly sold dolls designed by Madame Alexander.

** Likely due to licensing with the Creator/Disney company, no items in the Disney Princess collection can be shipped outside of the US and Canada.