When it comes to the American Girls Collection, a lot of the fandom was introduced to the brand when younger, only read the first book that came with their doll or haven't read the stories in years, have misconceptions about the brand, or mix-and-match events between the movies and books. So there's a lot of "facts" the fans or public "know" that aren't actually true.
Character and Story Misconceptions
- Felicity hating wearing dresses and anything feminine focused such as sewing and cooking is a common thought. She spends her first book complaining about having to wear skirts and stays, and wishes she could wear breeches like a boy (and does to train Penny in secret), and in the movie there's a scene with Ben where she says it's much better and more freeing to be a boy (which Ben refutes, being an apprentice and thus under her father's control). But—while she's not a fan of dresses or sewing—she comes around. Her first interest in her gentlewoman lessons is learning how to serve tea, and she struggles but does her best to improve in dance and sewing (even topping her sampler with a red cardinal rather than a crown). Notably in Felicity's Surprise she shows excitement over a fancy blue dress shown on a display doll, and it's her interest in having such a fine dress for one of the first times that spurs her mother to ask for the pattern to make it. (Even though historically, a well off housewife would not have the skills to make that kind of dress at home or a pattern to do it with.) She doesn't complain much about dresses after this, even if she's not always a fan of what's expected of her.
- Many people think Samantha spoke directly to factory owners about the risks of factories to children after seeing them in action. She didn't. She recited her essay at a city-wide speech contest—and only changed her essay from being about factories as a sign of current progress after Nellie, who had actually worked in one, corrected her on the conditions there. Hence the "lesson" part of Samantha Learns a Lesson. In the movie Samantha does see factory risks firsthand when she goes to find Nellie and tell her about Bridget being sick—but still only speaks in the contest and not before any factory owners. In the movie she is disqualified for changing her entry last-minute, while in the books she wins first place.
- Samantha spoke up for feminism and the right to vote at a rally! Again, no. First of all, she was ten, and what little she knew about voting was through her aunt Cornelia, who's the one who speaks at the rally. Samantha stumbles upon the rally in the park after chasing Cornelia's puppy, Jip, through New York City when he got loose (thanks to her and the twins not listening to what Cornelia said to do). She was surprised to see Cornelia there, and after the rally was over Samantha was lectured along with Cornelia's twin sisters for the immature behavior that led to Jip getting loose in the first place. The conflict about women's voting isn't Samantha's—it's more between Cornelia and the more traditional Grandmary (who sees voting as not women's business), and at the end, Grandmary is convinced by Cornelia's speech that women should in fact have the right to vote.
- Molly performed as Miss Victory only in the movie; her collection emphasizes this by releasing a stage and movie seats as part of the movie collection and showing her in the Miss Victory outfit. The last single-volume of Changes for Molly shows her on the cover in the performance, even. But that was her tryout, not her performance. In the original books she earns the role after performing with curly hair and no glasses, but doesn't get to perform—after trying to pincurl her wet hair, she gets sick and has to stay home. Another peer, Allison, performs in her place. Molly doesn't even go to the show—she's sadly left at home by herself while the rest of the family goes to the show as they all have parts. (Which means she's there at home when her dad returns.)
- Addy is often labeled as a "slave", and the franchise is disparaged and looked down upon for marketing a slave doll—especially to a dominantly white audience by a white creator. Even some mocking media, such as the SNL skit, lean into the idea that Addy is the "slave" character and thus is uncomfortable to discuss alongside other characters. Many fans even think that any other black-focused time in history, such as the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s or the Harlem Renaissance, would have been a better era to start with in the collection rather than starting with the "slave days". But this is a wrong, short sighted interpretation. Being enslaved is just Addy’s origin story; she and her mother escape in her first book, and Addy spends the majority of the series free—followed by the freeing of all her other family members, one by one. Furthermore, the board that came together
to create the character for the company was made up of prominent black historians and they discussed focusing on such other black-focused historical periods—but eventually came to the conclusion that said eras would ultimately trace back to the reality of African American enslavement and have to address it, thus it should be tackled first. (After all, why did black people migrate from the South to Harlem—and how did they get in the South in the first place?) Notably, the company has never marketed anything from Addy's enslaved time or the active escape other than the handkerchief and half-dime she brought with her—unlike Kirsten who has her immigrant dress to demonstrate life for her before becoming Americanized, Addy's clothing and collections start once she's free and never look back. Even her meet dress is the dress gifted to her once she reaches the safe house and is all but free. - Addy's fancy holiday dress was purchased by a well-off woman, Mrs. Howell, for her daughter Isabella; she brings it back damaged claiming that the dress was sewn badly in front of Ruth, who spent weeks by candlelight working on the dress. (Mrs. Ford stands up for Ruth and refunds Mrs. Howell, but only because she's displeased; Isabella put on weight and busted out of the dress's original measurements putting it on, popping the seams.) The original illustrations from Melodye Rosales show Mrs. Howell and her daughter as light-skinned, and readers may assume she's white because the Howells live on Society Hill in a fine house with a maid. However, she's the same skin tone as characters like Harriet (who is very well off), Mrs. Dunn, and other light-skinned black people; part of her disparaging the dress is because Ruth is darker-skinned and poorer as working class and she's insulting Ruth's skills to her face. This was alleviated in the new illustrations by Dahl Taylor, who show the Howells and many other light characters as medium skinned (even though it removes the colorism aspect, which is still present in the text.)
- Nellie O'Malley is often assumed to be an Irish immigrant who was born there and came to American with her parents. Nellie was actually born in the US, as were her two younger sisters—her parents were the immigrants. The six-book series wasn't completely clear on this, but it was clarified later in the mystery The Stolen Sapphire when Nellie states her late mam said she'd always wanted to take Nellie back to her home of Ireland to visit—her being Mrs. O'Malley, not Nellie. While their ship is stopping in Queenstown on the way to London, Ireland was not considered a proper tourist destination at the time—the ship is stopping more to drop off mail and Irish passengers returning from America, so Nellie only expects to see Ireland from the boat. At the end, however, Grandmary and the Admiral divert their stop to go to Ireland and allow Nellie to visit her family's homeland for the first time in her life. At best, Nellie was so small when she immigrated from Ireland that she has absolutely no memories of the country at all.
- Samantha was often described both by fans and the company to start as a "Victorian" character. However, her stories take place a few years after the end of Queen Victoria's reign (with the books starting in 1904) in the early 20th century, thus it's more accurately The Edwardian Era (if using English eras for the US). This was later updated and she is now called either "turn of the century" or "America's progressive" era (but sometimes still gets called Victorian).
Product and Brand Misconceptions
- Many people, when they talk about the brand, talk about the dolls "designed to look like you" and think they were personalized by the company—and for years purchasers complained on the official Face Book page and other social media about not being able to find a doll that looked exactly like a child they intended to gift the doll to. But American Girl didn't offer custom-design dolls until 2017, as the Create Your Own line. The "modern" dolls that many people remember as or think are "designed" to look like the recipient from the mid-90s are a set pool of options, which the company has stated aren't modified from however they're designed at release. There's often more options for white female children—the first twenty dolls were mostly light-skinned with the same face mold. Even after the release of Create Your Own, the main line—called Truly Me—are still a separate line that can't be tweaked. And even the Create Your Own are from a select set of options—options that are not or no longer available cannot be selected, so if you wanted a certain color of blue eyes before it was discontinued or a specific hair style, it can't be picked and has to be changed. The "dolls made to look like you" error often is "cited" in news articles, either due to writers misremembering or people writing about their childhood who legitimately think that the doll they received was designed like them rather than selected from the pool. There's also the possibility of people mixing their memories of customized dolls with the now-defunct MyTwinn company. That brand was marketed on ordering dolls to resemble the purchaser, including having purchasers send in copies of photographs to have the artists pick the doll's features and face shape and hand paint features. The brand existed in the late 1990s, but only sold larger, 23" tall dolls until the 2010s, and the body shapes on the 23" dolls was different. Considering many brands sent catalogs to the same target audiences (if your child wants one kind of fancy doll, they may want this other one!), so a person could easily misremember the marketing of MyTwinn as applying to AG too.
- Kit is often mistaken for being the last Pleasant Company doll released and thus people think she can be found as a "Pre-Mattel" doll. While the start of her creation was under Pleasant Company, the company was transitioning to being owned by Mattel starting in 1998 when they first purchased the line and Kit was released in 2000, after Mattel wholly owned the company and had made subtle changes (Specifically, Rowland resigned in July and Kit was released in September). Kaya is especially egregious to consider as PC as while the mold may have had the PC stamp on early designs, she was released in 2002—two years after Pleasant Company no longer truly existed. This is because the face molds weren't changed or adapted immediately and Kit—who has the same face mold as Samantha, Molly, Kirsten, and Felicity—may have the Pleasant Company stamp on the back of her neck. She's also the last character to follow the original Strictly Formula book-titling format, which only adds further to the misconception.
- Collectors often assume that Kit's first edition meet outfit skirt (with its floral-print design) is made out of feedsack cotton, since her story is set during The Great Depression and the print simulates it. However, this outfit is seen in the first book on her before her family ever starts to struggle financially and is something she had before. The reason for this mistake is twofold. First, her birthday dress (among others in her older collection) was stated to be made out of feedsack obtained after the family starts raising chickens, and it has a floral print; people retroactively apply this to every outfit she has with floral print. Second, people may not realize that the historical reason feedsack print was so popular during the era was because when companies learned that more and more people were making clothes from feedsack including the middle class, they began to print the cloth for flour, sugar, or feed bags with fabric designs that mimicked popular prints available and labels that came off in the wash, advertising that a single bag could make a child's dress. (Though feedsack clothing existed as early as the late 1800s as explained here, it was socially limited to poorer people such as rural Appalachian children. Kit's middle class, stay-at-home suburban mother—who came from wealth—would have thought it a scandal to send her only daughter out in feedsack clothing—as it is, she's not pleased, but makes herself come around.note ) Commercial fabric prints didn't mimic feedsack—feedsack prints mimicked commercial fabric!
- Many people assume that either Marie-Grace is the main character and Cécile is the secondary Best Friend, or vice versa. This is untrue—they were both given top billing and split the six-books series evenly, with both getting introductory meet books. Marie-Grace did get one more mystery book than Cécile, however.
- Quite a few people who disparage BeForever claim that American Girl cut the original six-book series down to to two, thus getting rid of 2/3rds of the stories (and taking out all the illustrations and the more detailed historical Looking Back sections, which is a fair complaint). But the two volumes under Beforever have all six original books in them: the first half is in Volume One, and the last half in Volume Two, with transitonal paragraphs between books often added. This can be seen not only when the books are read, but in Maryellen's books—she was the first character released under BeForever, but a six-book structure can be seen underlying in her two volumes with the same structure as others. (Melody and Nanea don't have the same divisions, but their books were written as whole volumes, while Maryellen was in development before the change). It's the re-illustrated books that came out in 2019 (after BeForever was depreciated) that are abridged, and have stories cut out, removed, or reduced—the most egregious being Samantha, who has her entire first volume rewritten and her first book cut down to nearly nothing in it, the third Holiday book removed and many events replaced with two of her short stories. Characters released after BeForever do have the shorter two-book set, but this is considered their whole story even if much shorter than prior characters. (So their books don't say "abridged" on the back.)
