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"Follow your Inner Star!" |
The American Girls Collection — generally referred to as "American Girl" — is a collection of dolls and books that show history in various time periods ranging from Late Native America to The Nineties — all through the eyes of the average nine-year-old girl.
The main Historical Characters currently consist of:
- Kaya'aton'my (1764): Nez Perce Native American in the Pacific Northwest, pre-European settlement. Tries to get rid of her Embarrassing Nickname 'Magpie' by proving to her tribe she isn't like the selfish bird. She has a Cool Horse.
- Felicity Merriman (1774): Strangely, not part of the original three, yet pulled from the lineup in 2011; she was later re-released in 2017 as part of the BeForever reboot. Fiery Redhead, daughter of a merchant family in Virginia as The American Revolution approaches. Her series has a lot of plots focusing on the conflict of independence vs. loyalty to tradition. She also has a Cool Horse.
- Josefina Montoya (1824): Shrinking Violet, daughter of a rancher in Mexican-controlled Southwest. Her mother died just before her series starts, leaving her, her three sisters, and their grieving father somewhat lost, until her aunt Dolores moves in and helps everyone discover their Hidden Depths. No relation.
- Cécile Rey and Marie-Grace Gardner (1853): Two very different girls (a French-speaking African American and an English-speaking Caucasian American, respectively) growing up and becoming friends during the boom of 19th century New Orleans, Louisiana. The girls' stories involve embracing one another despite differences and cultural barriers, and giving aid to those in distress, most notably during the breakout of yellow fever which struck New Orleans in 1853. The first of the main historical characters to be marketed as a duo (although each have their books, and their dolls can be purchased separately), and the newest to be released as of summer 2011. Also one of the few Historical Dolls not set in a year ending in '4.
- Kirsten Larson (1854): One of the original three, pulled from the lineup in 2010. Swedish immigrant to Minnesota in Pioneer Times. The series focuses on the difficulties of adapting to a new life in harsh surroundings and features many staples of "frontier" stories, such as scary weather, a strict Schoolmarm and a secret Native American friend.
- Addy Walker (1864): The first non-white doll. First a slave in North Carolina, then escapes to Philadelphia, during The American Civil War. Her family is separated and has to reunite, and stories focus on issues faced by former slaves, such as catching up on the education they'd been denied and the fact that "free" black people weren't all that free, even in the North.
- Samantha Parkington (1904): One of the original three, pulled from the lineup in 2009 and was re-released in 2014 as part of the BeForever line. Marketed as Victorian Era despite 1904 being The Edwardian Era. She's a rich orphan being raised by her conservative grandmother in upstate New York. She learns about the women's suffrage movement and the horrors of child labor.
- Rebecca Rubin (1914): Russian Jewish immigrant living in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and aspires to be a movie actress, despite her parents and grandparents' more traditional views.
- Claudie Wells (1922): Claudie lives in Harlem, New York during Harlem Renaissance. She is a girl who wants to figure out what her biggest talent is.
- Kit Kittredge (1934): Cincinnati, Ohio, during The Great Depression. Learning to make-do with and without a lot of things that many people then took for granted.
- Nanea Mitchell (1941): Released in 2017 and the second BeForever-exclusive character, Nanea lives in Hawaii when the Pearl Harbor attack took place. The war severely affected her life as she and her friends are caught up in the conflict and her books start just before the bombing.
- Molly McIntire (1944): She lives in Illinois during World War II, while her father is serving in England as a doctor, and her books are largely about adapting to the changes brought on by war. Emily Bennett, an English war evacuee and the family's ward, was released as a Best Friend doll in 2006. They were both retired in 2013, though Molly was re-released as a Costco bundle in 2018.
- Maryellen Larkin (1954): The first character to be released after the BeForever reboot, hailing from Daytona Beach, Florida. A polio survivor (thus making her the first character to have a disability, though it isn't explicitly shown in her doll) and the middle child in a large family, she tries to make herself heard.
- Melody Ellison (1964): The second character to be released after Beforever release. An African-American girl growing up in Detroit, Michigan during the Civil Rights Movement. She wants to find a way to speak up and help her black community, and she wants to use her voice to help others understand that black people can do anything white people do.
- Julie Albright (1974): Lives in San Francisco in The Seventies. She learns how to deal with the changes her parents' divorce caused to her life while navigating social upheavals like second-wave feminism, the environmentalist movement, and the changing rights of racial minorities (explored through her relationship with her Chinese best friend).
- Courtney Moore (1986): A girl who lives in Orange Valley, California, who loves playing arcade games, is a child of her parents' divorce, and someone who witnesses the Challenger disaster at school and who makes a friend with HIV.
- Isabel and Nicki Hoffman (1999): Two twin sisters who live Seattle, Washington who are complete opposites but still love each other and are ready to face changes as they go into the year 2000.
There is also a set of dolls, called "My American Girl", which offers multiple dolls of varying looks to make into a personal character. This can lead to some unusual characters.
Also since 2001, there has been a "Girl of the Year" (GOTY), a 9-year-old girl who would represent the year she came out.
Girls of the Year so far include:
- Lindsey Bergman in 2001. She was sold until the end of 2002. She was the first Jewish character to come out of American Girl and in her stories, she tried to help people with negative consequences. She had terrible sales when available, yet ironically she's one of the most sought-out dolls by collectors nowadays.
- Kailey Hopkins in 2003. A surfer girl who tries to save the California tide pools from development projects.
- Marisol Luna in 2005. A Hispanic girl who loves to dance, yet has to move to the other side of town where they don't have dance lessons.
- Jess Akiko McConnell in 2006. A half-Japanese, half-Irish girl who goes out to Belize with her archaeologist parents.
- Nicki Fleming in 2007. A Colorado girl who trains a dog to be a service dog.
- Mia St. Clair in 2008. An ice-skater who wants to pursue figure skating when her family is full of hockey players.
- Chrissa Maxwell, Sonali Matthews, and Gwen Thompson in 2009. Chrissa is the new girl who has to deal with bullying from the mean bees. Sonali is a former member of the bees, and Gwen is the (literally) poor girl they used to harass.
- Lanie Holland in 2010. An adventurous girl who loves the outdoors living with a family who prefers the indoors.
- Kanani Akina in 2011. A Hawaiian girl who introduces her cousin to her homeland. The line appears to be trying to avoid Hula and Luaus, but there are some spots...
- McKenna Brooks in 2012. A girl who struggles to balance her struggle with her schoolwork with her love of and focus on gymnastics.
- Saige Copeland in 2013. An artist who does a fundraiser in order for students to continue having both art and music class.
- Isabelle Palmer in 2014. A ballet dancer who tries to overcome anxiety and truly wants to dance and design her own costumes.
- Grace Thomas in 2015. A baker who travels to travels in Paris, France with her mother to help out her aunt and uncle's patisseree.
- Lea Clark in 2016. A girl who is 1/8 Brazilian who travels to Brazil with her older brother for adventure.
- Gabriela McBride in 2017. An African-American girl who has a stutter and focuses on literature and poetry.
- Luciana Vega in 2018. A girl in Chilean heritage who enjoys astronomy and has the dream of being the very first female astronaut to land on Mars.
- Blaire Wilson in 2019. A farmer girl who is lactose intolerant who plans a wedding, befriends a girl at a food pantry, and has the dream of being a chef.
- Joss Kendrick in 2020. A surfer who has a hearing loss and joins a cheerleading session.
- Kira Bailey in 2021. A girl who travels to Australia and visits her two aunts, and offers to help out at an animal sanctuary.
- Corinne Tan in 2022, along with her little sister, Gwynn Tan, two Chinese-American girls who stand up to racism and xenophobia and have hobbies of skiing and ice skating, along with having the dream of having a puppy.
- Kavi Sharma in 2023, an Indian-American girl who has ADHD and who wants to increase her grades in school, along with participating in her school's revue.
- Lila Monetti in 2024, an Italian-American girl who enjoys gymnastics and horseback riding, and is actually the student of her gymnastics coach, McKenna Brooks.
While the dolls are targeted towards the 8-12 year old age range, most of the fandom will be found to be over the age of eighteen. This is because much of the fandom around the dolls consists of people who got or wanted the dolls young and grew up. (The dolls are expensive and can only be mail-ordered or purchased at specialty stores found in very large American cities.) There is also a large demographic of middle-aged women, many of whom have children who have or had the dolls.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Melody's movie "Love Has to Win" killed off her father and made her an only child going to a white school, where she was consistently bullied by a white boy named Donald and his friends for her race.
- Adaptation Dye Job: in the original Felicity books, Felicity's best friend Elizabeth is a brunette, but in the movie (and later, for her doll) she's a blond.
- Allison Hargate in Molly's movie, too. In the books she's a blonde, in the movies she's a curly-haired brunette.
- Adaptational Heroism: Not Felicity herself, but her attitude in one particular plot point. In "Changes for Felicity," she's still nursing her grudge against Jiggy Nye for his abuse of Penny and has to be talked into bringing him medicine and blankets by Elizabeth. In the movie, she feels sorry for him immediately upon seeing him sick and alone in jail, and it's her idea to bring medicine and blankets. Her father is even surprised at her sympathy towards the man who threatened to kill her beloved horse.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Two examples in Molly's movie:
- In the books, Allison Hargate is a spoiled rich girl who can be a little bossy, but she's overall a nice person. In the movie, she's a stuck-up brat who knows she's the best dancer in the class and gets mad when Molly wins the part of Miss Victory.
- Jill. In the books she's a bit stuck up and tries to be mature all the time, and in Molly's Surprise she makes a big deal of telling Molly it's "childish" to expect happy surprises on Christmas (at first). But she's also quite nice most of the time, offering Molly advice and helping her siblings out when they need her. In the movie, her main role seems to be snapping at Molly for being childish (even when all she's doing is talking about a funny event that happened downtown) or scolding Ricky for making light of bomb drills and fighting.
- Adaptational Niceness:
- In Changes for Samantha, Aunt Cornelia and Uncle Gardner's maid Gertrude is antagonistic with Samantha and eventually snoops to find out about Nellie and her sisters. In Samantha's movie, however, Gertrude is way more friendly and stands up for Samantha when Miss Frouchy accuses her of stealing, and she is happy when Samantha's speech is chosen for a school assembly
- Molly's brother Ricky is a similar case. He has his immature moments (making light of bomb drills and being sexist about his mother working), but since the movie doesn't cover the Halloween storyline where he sprays Molly and her friends with a hose, he's more of a minor nuisance than an outright jerk.
- Adapted Out:
- Agnes and Agatha Pitt in Samantha's movie. There is a little girl named Agatha, but she takes the place of another young girl from the book continuity named Alice.
- Brad McIntyre in Molly's movie.
- All Girls Like Ponies: Felicity, Kaya, and a big chunk of the modern collection.
- Alliterative Name: Rebecca Rubin, Molly McIntire, and Zig Zagged with Kit Kittredge; Kit is just a nickname and her real name is Margaret, but her full name is Margaret Mildred Kittredge.
- Alpha Bitch: Harriet Davis in Addy's series and Lavinia Halsworth in Cécile and Marie-Grace's series. Also Annabelle, Elizabeth's older sister in Felicity's story, Edith Eddleton in Samantha's story, and Blair in Lindsey's story with Missy as her Dragon.
- Always Identical Twins: Agnes and Agatha Pitt in Samantha's series, and Rebecca's twin older sisters Sadie and Sophie.
- Ambiguously Brown: None of the "tan" Just Like You dolls are given a specific race, and can generally be whatever the purchaser chooses. The tan dolls now actually have more facial diversity than the light ones.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Ethan to Lindsey.
- Anti-Protagonist Morality: Lindsey's book seems to run on this. It's one thing for the heroine to learn she needs to dial it down when she tries to help people, it's another thing to constantly let her bullies win and get away with everything to hammer the point home.
- Ascended Extra: Emily was originally a minor character who stayed with Molly's family for two weeks. She was later made into a doll, given her own book and starred prominently in the movie.
- Elizabeth, Nellie, Ruthie, and Ivy eventually got their own doll and book, best friends to Felicity, Samantha, Kit, and Julie, respectively.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Josefina is suddenly a lot less of a Shrinking Violet when you piss her off.
- Brainy Brunette: There are certain examples:
- Samantha has dark brown hair and always thinks of ways on how to be generous to her best friend, Nellie, and help her learn stuff in order to succeed at school.
- Josefina also has dark brown hair and is very good when it comes to healing animals, specifically the goats at her ranch.
- Bittersweet Ending: Kaya's mystery The Silent Stranger. While giving away her beloved pet dog Tatlo to the titular stranger is great character development for Kaya, it's a bitter pill for many readers to swallow.
- Changes for Addy. Yes, Addy's whole family is reunited once more, but Uncle Solomon dies before he can reunite with the Walkers and Auntie Lula dies a few days after returning Esther to the family.
- Meet Kirsten. The final chapter shows Kirsten arriving in Minnesota and becoming friends with her cousins. The previous chapter has Kirsten dealing with the death of her best friend Marta.
- Black Best Friend: With different races. Julie's best friend Ivy Ling is the only Asian Historical, and Kirsten has a Native Best Friend in Singing Bird.
- Josefina, who may be mestiza, also has a Pueblo Indian friend, Mariana. Happy Birthday, Felicity! features a young black militiaman whom Felicity and Ben hang out with.
- Blithe Spirit: Julie. Heck, her first book is about Julie trying to have her new school accept girls onto the boys-only basketball team.
- Blitz Evacuees: Emily Bennett.
- Braids, Beads, and Buckskins: The only Native American doll, Kaya, is set in 1764. Guess what she wears.
- British Stuffiness: Emily Bennett from Molly's story fits this at first, and the trope is also mentioned by Molly's mother.
- But Not Too Black: The dolls of color in the Just Like You collection. The Asian one looks like a pale white girl with black hair and "almond" eyes, the company added several new dark skin models in 2010 (some even with the new Sonali mold), and the tan dolls are all racially ambiguous. They recently toned down the "textured" hair of the black dolls so the hair is less "natural" and more like chemically straightened hair, and the dark skin tone has gotten noticeably lighter. Some people will even purchase the Just Like You #26 doll and put her in Addy's clothes.
- In an interesting subversion, the Sonali doll actually has darker skin than the original character.
- Child-Hater: Mrs. Schumacher from Lindsey's story comes across this way.
- Christmas Episode: Felicity, Josefina, Addy, Samantha, Kit, and Molly have their own holidays stories that take place during Christmas.
- Coming of Age Story: The center of the historical dolls' stories.
- Cool Big Sis: Some of the older sisters have their moments, like Francisca in Josefina Saves the Day when she's the one to accompany Josefina into Santa Fe in the middle of the night to get the stuff Patrick O'Toole left for them.
- Daddy's Girl: Molly, Kit, Nanea, and Caroline are all close with their fathers in their stories.
- Darker and Edgier: The Girls of Many Lands book and doll line and the History Mysteries book series (both discontinued). Both series had slightly older protagonists than the historical dolls, and both touched on some of the darker and sadder parts of history the main historical series tend to play down.
- Death by Childbirth: Florecita, one of the goats on the ranch where Josefina lives, in Happy Birthday, Josefina!
- In the Felicity movie, Felicity's mother Martha becomes seriously ill after giving birth to her fourth child, leading the family to worry she might succumb to this. Thankfully, she recovers.
- Denied Food as Punishment: In Changes For Samantha, Samantha's friend Nellie is regularly punished by the cold headmistress and given little to no food during her stay at Coldrock House.
- Did Not Do the Research: Mostly averted, but some fans have pointed out the following discrepancies:
- Samantha being marketed as Victorian despite her stories taking place in the Edwardian era. Technically, Samantha was born in the Victorian era and would remember bits of her childhood at that time, and Grandmary is very much a product of those times. But the conventions in her stories are of the Edwardian era, such as Samantha being allowed to interact with Nellie at all when in the Victorian era she'd be forbidden.
- Molly's stories have been pointed out as feeling like they're from the 1950s due to details like her going to summer camp or her Miss Victory costume.
- Courtney's class watches the Challenger explosion live on TV, when in California it would have already happened and they'd be told about it when they come to school.
- Disappeared Dad: Stirling's dad from Kit's series, Molly's dad until the end of Changes for Molly, and Gwen's dad from Chrissa's series.
- Don't Split Us Up: In Changes for Samantha, when the orphaned Nellie was to be sent on the orphan train without her sisters, Samantha helps the three sisters to run away and hide out in her attic so they could be together.
- Dramatis Personae: At the front of every book, the protagonist's family and friends are depicted in a historically accurate way - individual portraits for the well-to-do Colonial Merrimans, but a group family daguerreotype for Kirsten's family, and so on.
- The current books tend to stick with individual portraits for all the stories, Kirsten's group daguerreotypes being replaced with single portraits. The frames do reflect either the character's time period or their culture, however.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Lindsey's story.
- Edible Theme Naming: The Coconut pets are all named after various food items.
- Even the Dog Is Ashamed: From Lindsey's book --
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. |
- Everything's Better with Llamas: Chrissa, the girl of the year in 2009, has a pet llama named Starburst.
- Every Proper Lady Should Curtsy: In Happy Birthday, Molly!, one of Molly's friends tries to curtsy while wearing pants when she meets the English girl Emily, and she says that she thought English girls always did that. Felicity and her peers have to learn for real.
- Everything's Worse with Bears: Kirsten gets eaten by a bear, of course. (No, actually, she doesn't. But it's a close thing!)
- Fake Brit: Molly and her friends fake British accents while anticipating the arrival of Emily.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Rebecca's parents and grandparents don't want her to be an actress, pushing her towards being a teacher instead because it's a "respectable" job for a lady. There are hints that they may get over it, though, as her cousin Max is an actor and as much as they gripe about it, they still love him and treat him well.
- Fashion Hurts: In Molly's last book, she's obsessed with curling her hair so she'll be more likely to get picked for the lead role in a patriotic dance for her tap class. After trying various increasingly uncomfortable methods, she resorts to one that involves sleeping with soaking-wet hair, which causes her to catch a cold and not be able to perform at all.
- Fear of Thunder: Josefina (although it's actually lightning she's afraid of).
- Feud Episode:
- In "Kit's Surprise," Kit and Ruthie have an argument when Kit rejects being offered charity, including Ruthie's old Christmas dress and the thought of Ruthie's mother will pay for tickets for a show, but the two friends make up after Ruthie saves Kit from Uncle Hendrick's house. Then, the two of them walk home, talk about plans about their holiday traditions, exchange gifts, and wish each other a Merry Christmas.
- In "Happy Birthday, Molly!," Molly offers to share her birthday with Emily after missing several birthdays during the bombing of London during WWII, which Emily happily agrees to. However, the two of them soon constantly argue over party plans and end up saying hurtful things to each other before going to bed. However, the two friends both feel remorseful about last night's argument the next day, and the two of them receive puppies for their birthday gift, and the two of them eventually work things out after Emily mentions about the dog she used to have before the war began and after Molly gives her condolences. The two of them finally agree on plans and enjoy their celebration after giving their names to their puppies and receiving princess outfits.
- Fiery Redhead: There are a couple of examples:
- Felicity has red hair and is very headstrong and feisty.
- On a lesser degree, Maryellen, who has strawberry blonde hair and can be competitive and impulsive at times.
- First Love: This trope is alluded to in one of the American Girls Collection of stories, this one being Josefina's, whose mother has died before the series began, and it turns out the poem was a favorite of hers, even though she could not read, although the reader is allowed to infer that Josefina's papa read it to her mother, and their relationship was very close, as it takes Josefina's father some time to grow to love her aunt, Tia' Dolores.
- Force Feeding: Addy's first book, when the slave driver forces Addy to eat slugs off the tobacco plants.
- Four-Girl Ensemble: The Montoya sisters: Ana, the oldest and the Team Mom (almost literally, since their mother is dead and she's already married with two kids); Francisca, the beautiful, fashionable, rebellious one; Clara, the diligent, prudent, preachy one; and Josefina, the youngest and the main character, who's chirpy and cheerful and tries to keep the peace between Francisca and Clara when Ana's not around.
- Girliness Upgrade: Kit states that she doesn't like pink, and her collection originally reflected this with no pink outfits and items. Once her movie came out, Kit got a batch of pink outfits and a pink blanket.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Many examples:
- Samantha wears frilly dresses and bows and cherishes porcelain dolls and teddy bears, but she also climbs trees, rides motor cars, and thinks that women should have the right to vote or become the president.
- Ivy has interests of baking and making bracelets and has a feminine wardrobe, but she also has a sporty side for gymnastics.
- Courtney collects dolls and stuffed animals and shows interest in fashion, but she is also a gamer girl who enjoys going to the arcade, with her best game being Pac-Man.
- Isabel is the more girly Hoffman twin in comparison to Nicki, because she gushes over fashion and loves the color pink and anything sparkly, but she also has a sporty side for tennis.
- Nellie cherishes fancy dresses and sparkly cross necklaces (especially after so long of being a maid but soon being adopted by Samantha's family along with her two other sisters, Bridget and Jenny), but she is also very skilled at fixing clocks, has interest in troubleshooting car problems, and has the strength to kick a crooked butler after he threatens her.
- Rebecca is very dreamy and dramatic, always wants to look her best, cherishes her Jewish traditions, enjoys dressing up, playing with dolls, and performing, and has the dream of being an actress when she grows up. However, she also has the urge and strength to climb a ferris wheel to save her cousin, Ana.
- The Great Depression: The setting for Kit's books and her movie.
- Gray Eyes: Molly.
- Hair Contrast Duo: Samantha (brunette) + Nellie (strawberry blonde), Kit (blonde) + Ruthie (brunette), Felicity (redhead) + Elizabeth (originally brunette but then became blonde after Felicity's movie), and Molly (brunette) + Emily (redhead).
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Elizabeth, Caroline, Kirsten, Kit, Julie, and Isabel all apply to this trope.
- Halloween Episode: Molly's first book, "Meet Molly."
- "Happy Holidays" Dress: Almost every Historical Character has a holiday dress.
- Have a Gay Old Time: In the Rebecca mystery "The Crystal Ball", one paragraph mentions "the gay crowds". Since this story takes place in the 1910's, the language is accurate for describing a cheerful group of people. On the other hand, the story was published in 2012 - and today's average tween and young teen reading this book is likelier to be much more familiar with a very different meaning for the word "gay".
- Heroes Want Redheads: Arguably, part of the justification for the Ben/Felicity pairing.
- Hollywood History: History gets (somewhat) prettied up when making it palatable for children. The worst abuses of Edwardian Era workhouses are left out (except in the movie), but it's still pretty clear that they're rotten, awful places. Also, although it makes a lovely story, it's unlikely that a society as class-driven as Samantha's would have seen a rich couple adopting immigrant street orphans.
- Hot Dad/Uncle: From the pictures in the books and later the movie, it's sufficient to say that Kit's dad deserves this trope.
- Uncle Gard in the Samantha movie falls into this category as well.
- I Just Want to Be Free: The Walker family.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In Changes for Josefina, Tía Dolores feels that despite her feelings for Josefina's Papá, she has to leave the ranch so he can find a new wife. Ironically, Papá does love Tía Dolores, but he wants his beloved to be happy and let her go where she wants to go. Fortunately they end up Happily Married with each other when Josefina clears up the situation with her Papá.
- Iconic Item: As part of the strict formula, each girl has a necklace and gets a doll at Christmas. Sometimes these have some plot significance, and sometimes they don't — e.g., Josefina's necklace is a gold cross with a garnet that's never mentioned at all in-story, whereas Addy's is a cowrie shell her grandmother brought from Africa strung on one of her brother's shoelaces to remind her of her family; but Josefina's doll is part of a family Christmas tradition from before her mother died, and Addy's just happens to be her Christmas present.
- Infant Immortality: If you're young enough to be considered a child in whatever time period you're in and the main character knows you by name, then you're pretty much guaranteed to live in the historical series. Averted with Marta in Kirsten's series, though, and Marie-Grace is stated to have a younger brother who died in a cholera epidemic.
- Informed Flaw: Brad is described as a 'little pest' to Molly, but he never does anything in the books to antagonize or even annoy Molly.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Molly's big brother Ricky teases and plays pranks on her quite a bit, especially in the first book. But he's a good brother deep down, apologizing for his behavior and giving her useful advice sometimes.
- Karma Houdini: Blair and Missy in Lindsey's story get away with everything they do to April. Blair even wins the Perfect World Collage contest.
- Laser-Guided Karma: In Samantha's movie, Eddie Ryland gleefully tattles on her and Nellie for sleeping in the boathouse together. Later, Nellie steals Eddie's money jar, which Samantha dumps into the church's collection plate. He can't even try to get back at her because later that day, Samantha is headed for New York with her uncle and his new wife Cornelia.
- Miss Frouchy, too. In the book she simply disappears from the plot after Samantha rescues Nellie and her sisters, but in the movie Cornelia and her friends manage to get her fired for several instances of fraud, abuse, and mishandled funds.
- Loads and Loads of Characters: Think of all the notable characters in all of the girl's series that you could apply tropes to. Your head just exploded. As for dolls, there's 10 historical dolls, 5 historical best friend dolls, 11 GOTY dolls[1] and counting, and 57 My American Girl Dolls. Most fans just try to buy the ones they really like instead of getting them all.
- Live Action Adaptation: Some of the Historicals, namely Samantha, Felicity, Molly and Kit got to appear in their very own films. As for the contemporary girls, only Chrissa Maxwell and McKenna Brooks made it in front of the camera so far.
- Ludd Was Right: Samantha's grandmother believes this, anyway.
- May-December Romance: Fandom seems to center on three main pairings as favorites: Felicity/Ben, Josefina/Patrick, and Kit/Will. The first two pairings have an age disparity of six years whereas Kit/Will has only five, but the May December Romance inherent in the pairings causes some fans to love these pairings even more, and Felicity/Ben is extremely popular within the fandom.
- The Merch: From historically accurate underwear to doll-sized feelies, the dolls have everything.
- Merchandise-Driven
- Missing Mom: Josefina's mom died a year prior to the first book. This becomes a plot point in Josefina's Surprise. Marie-Grace's mother has been dead for four years at the start of Mare-Grace's first book.
- Mr. Fanservice: Why Kevin Zegers was cast as Ben Davidson in Felicity: An American Girl Adventure and likewise for Max Thieriot as Will Shepherd when the AG movies went theatrical in 2008 with Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. This trope also appears in the books, where readers have admitted to crushing on male characters drawn beguilingly handsome such as Kit's older brother Charlie from her books.
- New Media Are Evil: Rebecca's parents and grandparents hate movies and movie actors, always telling aspiring actress Rebecca that it's "not a respectable job for a lady" and at some points trying to forbid her from seeing any movies. (Though the latter may be due to her age, as when she turns ten her sisters say she can start going with them and no one objects).
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Lindsey, over and over and over again. Although it's not just Lindsey — April indirectly gives her the idea to put smiley-face stickers on the neighbors' trash cans, which lands her in hot water with them, her mother, and the police.
- Not the Intended Use:
- In-universe with Kit's mother Margaret who used fabric from feed sacks to make Kit's birthday outfit.[2] Truth In Television as housewives repurposed flour sack fabric into articles of clothing since the early 20th century. This led George P. Plant Milling Company and other firms to sell flour and feed packaged in dress-quality sacks especially during the Great Depression and World War II when fabric was in short supply.
- In terms of doll maintenance and repair, benzoyl peroxide, normally used and sold as acne treatment, is often if not always used to get rid of ink and marker stains off a doll's vinyl skin.
- Official Cosplay Gear: There were girl-sized outfits and accessories that matched the outfits available for the Historical Characters. Now this is generally only applied to their nightclothes and the modern outfits. The BeForever reboot changed this to outfits inspired by the characters rather than directly based on their outfits.
- Orphanage of Fear: Nellie and her sisters get sent to one of these. Thank goodness Samantha helps them escape and they all end up adopted by Samantha's rich family.
- Parental Abandonment: A few, like Samantha, the orphan. Addy is also a partial case of this, as only she and her mother make the initial journey north. In Addy's Surprise, she is reunited with her father.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Many examples! Julie plays basketball, Ivy does gymnastics, Kit plays baseball, Nicki does skateboarding, Isabel plays tennis, Maryellen and Molly both do roller skating, Felicity and Kaya both do horseback riding, and Caroline does ice skating.
- Pimped-Out Dress: The holiday dresses, since these are supposed to be formal outfits.
- Plenty of Blondes: Is there ever! Kit, Elizabeth, Julie, Caroline, and Isabel.
- Pretty in Mink: Some of Samantha's outfits.
- Proper Lady: Elizabeth. This is also how Grandmary is trying to raise Samantha.
- Raised by Grandparents: Samantha is raised by her grandmother, whom she calls Grandmary.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni:
- Kaya's outgoing and hot-blooded Red and Speaking Rain's quiet and reserved Blue.
- Felicity's outspoken Red and Elizabeth's calm-natured Blue.
- Cecile's talkative Red and Marie-Grace's shy Blue.
- Samantha's passionate Red and Nellie's practical Blue.
- Kit's tough Red and Ruthie's gentle Blue.
- Molly's impulsive Red and Emily's proper Blue.
- Julie's headstrong Red and Ivy's practical Blue.
- Sarah's outspoken Red to Courtney's socially anxious Blue.
- Isabel's extroverted Red and Nicki's introverted Blue.
- Retcon: This is dramatically seen with Elizabeth Cole — Felicity's best friend — being changed from a brown-eyed brunette to a blue-eyed blonde. All the images and text of Felicity's stories were updated to make it like she'd always been blonde.
- A more minor example is Emily. She was originally portrayed as having a bob-like hairstyle, she was later reillustrated to have shoulder-length hair following Molly's movie.
- Rule of Three: The first three girls were released together: Samantha, Kirsten, and Molly.
- Shadow Archetype:
- Edith Eddleton to Samantha. They are both wealthy, upper-class girls, but Samantha befriends Nellie and her sisters while Edith looks down on them for being servants.
- Blair and Missy to Lindsey in a similar fashion — Lindsey is a good friend to April and helps her feel better, but Blair and Missy get their kicks out of bullying her.
- Shown Their Work: At the end of each historical book is a "Looking Back" section that goes into some detail about the time period, and helps to place the character in the time. Kaya and Josefina had cultural panels involved in their creation as well, which is why Kaya is the only doll with a closed mouth (showing one's teeth is considered offensive to Nez Perce).
- Spirited Young Lady: Felicity Merriman. In contrast, her friend Elizabeth Cole is more of a Proper Lady.
- Strictly Formula: The central books always followed a pattern of 'Meet ____' (introduction), '___ Learns a Lesson' (school), '___'s Surprise' (Christmas Episode), 'Happy Birthday, ___!' (self-explanatory), '___ Saves the Day!' (adventure), and 'Changes for ___' (winter, New Year's, or some sort of closure to the story). The books broke the pattern with Kaya because Native Americans obviously didn't have things like schoolhouses or Christmas, and all dolls released after her have followed a similarly loose formula.
- This also counts as Idiosyncratic Episode Naming.
- Title Drop: Occurs in the last line of Really, Truly Ruthie.
- Token Minority: Josefina, Ivy, and Kaya all have unique ethnicities. Also seen in people's collections when people will have one or two minority dolls. This mostly consist of limited edition dolls or Just Like You #26, who appears biracial black. There have only been two Jewish dolls: Lindsey (who was only available for a short time) and Rebecca.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Note that the tomboy is always the star of the series.
- Kit and Ruthie: Kit dislikes the color pink, flouncy clothes, chores, and dresses, and prefers wearing pants and overalls, enjoys playing baseball, reading Robin Hood books, does newspaper writing, and dreams about being a reporter, while Ruthie enjoys playing princess, reading fairy tale books, dancing, wearing dresses, and baking, and dreams about being a movie star.
- Felicity and Elizabeth: Felicity is active, adventurous, and outspoken and would rather go outdoors to do horseback riding, roof climbing, and long walks, while Elizabeth is calm, giggly, and reserved, and would rather stay indoors and do sewing and tea parties.
- Julie and Ivy: Julie is very sporty and headstrong and has a passion for basketball and doesn't mind joining in on what boys do, while Ivy prefers baking and making bracelets, even though she also has a sporty side for gymnastics.
- Nicki and Isabel: Nicki wears more casual outfits and caps, prefers dark colors, listens to rock music, and has a passion for skateboarding, while Isabel wears more skirts and dresses, prefers bright colors, listens to pop music, and has a passion for fashion.
- Molly and Emily: Molly has a tomboyish wardrobe, is energetic and impulsive, and enjoys camping and skating, while Emily has a more feminine wardrobe, is calm and gentle, and enjoys tea parties, gardening, and admires English royalties.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Several main characters could be considered as "tomboyish" during their time periods, but they may like traditional "feminine" things too:
- Felicity is very outspoken and feisty and would rather do horseback riding and take long walks than do sewing or anything else that was considered "ladylike" during the American Revolution time period, but she comes to enjoy Miss Manderly's tea and sewing lessons, and she feels thrilled about wearing a blue dress to the ball at the governor's palace.
- Nicki is the more tomboyish Hoffman twin in comparison to Isabel, because she doesn't really care for most of the "girly" interests Isabel likes, but her favorite color is purple (which could be considered a feminine color), her favorite show is The Powerpuff Girls, she lets Isabel dye her streaks purple for a special occasion, and she wears a nice dress to the Millennium celebration.
- Kit is spunky and tough, keeps her hair up to her shoulders, plays baseball, prefers wearing pants and overalls over dresses and flouncy clothes, balks at the color pink (despite that her default outfit is pink), and used to dislike fairy tales. However, she soon realizes that her best friend Ruthie was right that fairy tales about the fact that fairy tales can cheer you up and make you feel better about things, and she writes a story based off of her called "The Story of Princess Ruthie," and gives it to her as a Christmas gift. Kit also wears a red Christmas dress and a little red hair bow (which is a gift from Ruthie) and she cherishes her doll of Amelia Earhart, a pilot she admires.
- Julie is a basketball player who's teammates are boys, but she also enjoys making bracelets and baking with her best friend Ivy, and she's happy about dressing up with her for Lunar New Year.
- Maryellen is a girl who plays the same games for friends play without getting her dresses dirty, not to mention that some of her best friends are boys, but she also loves fashionable looks such as bangs and poodle skirts.
- Caroline is an adventurous sailor who enjoys sailing, fishing, and ice skating, but she also enjoys embroidery and sewing and is skilled at it.
- Molly is a girl who enjoys camping, hiking, and skating, but she is also a skilled tap dancer, and she feels pleasure for dressing up and having curly hair for special occasions, such as Halloween, Christmas, her birthday party she shares with Emily, and a school stage performance where she gets to dress up as Miss Victory.
- Kaya'aton'my is an adventurous Action Girl and Outdoorsy Gal, but she also adores cute animals like puppies, horses, and baby wolves, and she wants to learn how to be proud and respectful to her Native-American tribe.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Lindsey stops Blair from tormenting April, so Blair pretends that Lindsey attacked her on the way to school. It only partially works.
- You Mean "Xmas": Up until they created Kaya, each of the American Girl characters had a Christmas story as a part of her book series. Since Kaya obviously wouldn't have celebrated Christmas, living before the Nez Perce had much contact with Europeans, they gave her a story about "giving" as her obligatory "holiday" book.
- You Go, Girl!: Julie's efforts to joint the basketball team serve as a kid-friendly representation of second-wave feminism.
- ↑ Gwen and Sonali were released along with Chrissa
- ↑ Birthday Dress and Headband