List of American Girl characters
is an American line of dolls released originally in 1986 by Pleasant Company. The dolls portray eight to thirteen-year-old girls of a variety of backgrounds. They are sold with accompanying books told from the viewpoint of the girls. Originally the stories focused on various periods of American history, but were expanded in 1995 to include contemporary characters and stories. From 2014 to 2019, the Historical line was branded as BeForever.
Below is a list of characters from the Historical series, Contemporary Characters, Girl of the Year, World by Us, and WellieWishers lines.
Overview
Year representative releases
Other releases
'''Notes'''Historical characters
The Historical Characters were initially the main focus of Pleasant Company. This product line aims to teach aspects of American history through a six-book series from the perspective of a nine-year-old girl living in that time period. Although the books are written for a target market of eight-to-thirteen-year-old girls, they endeavor to cover topics such as child labor, child abuse, poverty, racism, slavery, alcoholism, animal abuse, and war in a manner appropriate for the understanding and sensibilities of said market.The first dolls in the American Girl/Historical line shared the same face mold but had different hair and eye colors. The first dolls were created with white muslin bodies, but these cloth bodies were changed in 1991 from a white muslin to a matching flesh tone. This accommodated the low necklines of Late Colonial/Revolutionary period gowns produced for the Felicity Merriman character. Additional face molds were later developed for other dolls, and the line to date includes ten characters covering the period 1764 to 1999.
The "Best Friends" line was introduced in 2004; supplemental characters from the core book series were created in doll form and marketed as "best friends" for some of the Historical Characters. These Best Friend dolls share the collections of the main characters, but each has her own book, and additional products were marketed under their names. However, in May 2014, American Girl announced that Ruthie, along with Ivy, Cécile and Marie-Grace, will be retired from their historical roster, citing business reasons as they decided "to move away from the character-friend strategy within the line".
A reboot of the Historical Characters line dubbed as BeForever was launched in August 2014, complete with redesigned outfits, a two-volume compilation of previously released books, and a "Journey Book" for each character, with players taking the role of a present-day girl who found her way to the past and met up with one of the Historical girls. The line also coincided with the relaunch of Samantha Parkington, whose collection had been discontinued in 2008. On October 1, 2019, American Girl officially removed the BeForever branding from Historical Characters and by early 2020 most BeForever Central Series books were replaced with abridged Central Series books. American Girl also discontinued the My Journey books, the historical mystery books, and any remaining Best Friends books. In 2021, American Girl launched limited edition Anniversary Dolls of the first six Historical Dolls for their 35th Anniversary. They were discontinued by 2022.
Kaya
Kaya was originally released in 2002 and a part of the BeForever collection. In her collection, she comes with a knit blanket sweater, a deerskin outfit, a tepee and bedroll, a saddle, and a mare named Steps High, a foal named Sparks Flying, and a dog named Tatlo. Her story is based in the 1700s as a nine-year-old girl from the Nimiipuu or Nez Perce tribe living in the pre-contact Northwest. Themes in her core series focus on leadership, compassion, courage, and attachment. Chronologically, Kaya's adventures are the earliest of the historical characters. Kaya is depicted as brave and outgoing, but careless and thoughtless, and wants to be a leader of her people. Her role model is a female warrior named Swan Circling. She was created in collaboration with a consultation team that included representatives from the Nez Perce tribe.Kaya is the only Native American doll made by American Girl to date. Kaya is the only doll in the series not to show teeth, per tribal custom. Kaya is also the first doll in the series to not follow the book naming customs established by previously released characters – the second book in the series is titled Kaya's Escape instead of Kaya Learns a Lesson. In the book series readers are introduced to Kaya's blind adopted sister, Speaking Rain, her older sister named Brown Dear, and her two twin brothers named Sparrow and Wing Feather.
Felicity Merriman
Felicity Merriman is the fourth historical character. Felicity is an auburn haired, horse-loving girl living in 1770s Williamsburg, Virginia, who is caught between Patriot and Loyalist family and friends at the onset of the American Revolution. Themes in her core books include loyalty and staying true to one's ideals.Felicity is depicted as spunky, brave, and free-spirited, and is often fed up with the customs that young women are expected to observe at the time, much to her mother's disappointment. She can be a little brash, impatient and foolish sometimes, and sets her heart on things often. She is also quite outspoken, but will stand up to bullies, as she did with Jiggy Nye. Felicity also is not afraid to tease Annabelle Cole, her best friend Elizabeth's older sister, coming up with the name "Bananabelle". She eventually learns to be more ladylike throughout the series; however, she is still quite active.
Felicity was originally first released in 1991. Many items from Felicity's collection were retired in the early 2000s, but when Felicity's core books were dramatized for Felicity: An American Girl Adventure on November 29, 2005, new products were introduced in her collection. On August 27, 2010, American Girl announced on its website that the Felicity and Elizabeth collection would be archived. On March 28, 2011, Felicity, Elizabeth and their respective collections were officially archived. In February 2017, Felicity was re-introduced as part of BeForever, but then archived again in December 2019.
Elizabeth Cole
Elizabeth Cole is Felicity's best friend, despite her Loyalist family leanings during the American Revolution. In spite of being quiet and shy, she is known to poke fun at her older sister Annabelle with Felicity – this stems from being teased at by Annabelle, who gave her younger sister the nickname "Bitsy". Elizabeth is also shown to be somewhat wealthier, as evidenced by having a larger home, a larger garden, and fancier clothing.The Elizabeth doll was introduced in August 2005 as the second Best Friend doll with a book written by author Valerie Tripp, and the character was prominently featured in Felicity: An American Girl Adventure. In the original Felicity book illustrations, Elizabeth had brown hair and eyes but the character's appearance was revised to have blue eyes and blonde hair with the release of the Felicity DVD and Elizabeth doll. Later editions of the Felicity books were re-illustrated to reflect these changes and edit Elizabeth's physical description. On August 27, 2010, American Girl announced that Elizabeth and her collection would be archived with Felicity, which took place in March 2011.