References to the American Girls Collection in other media.
Comic Books
- In the semi autobiographical graphic novel Be Prepared, Vera attends a birthday party where the birthday girl, Sarah, and her friends are fans of the parody "American Doll" line. Sarah has "Complicity", a reference to Felicity. In addition there’s "Milly" (a version of Molly) and unnamed but referenced versions of Kirsten and Samantha. The inequality of the poorer, Russian-background Vera and the richer WASP girls is both shown when the girls give Sarah various accessories for her doll (while Vera makes hers a drawing) and that Vera is the only girl who doesn’t have one of the dolls at all to play with, so feels excluded.
- In the Emmie And Friends series book Remarkably Ruby, Ruby and Mia are seen fighting over—and breaking—a doll that looks like Courtney Moore down to the meet outfit.
- In one chapter of Ma Fille, the children's playroom has a Rebecca Rubin doll in it.
- The Simpsons: Team L.A.S.H. has the Fictional Counterpart "Historical Cuties" doll line, complete with characters from various eras and included books.
- In Jack and Jill, Jack's daughter Sofia is often seen with a "My Tiny Me" doll in matching outfits, parodying the modern Truly Me doll line by American Girl. Jill and Sofia are also seen early in the film shopping at a "My Tiny Me" store, also a parody of the American Girl store.
- Iris from Harmony (2016) used to have two American Girl dolls, including Samantha, who had nail polish painted on her mouth and cheeks.
- In the Goosebumps book Egg Monsters from Mars, an unspecified American Girl doll is the prize for winning the egg hunt at Dana's little sister's birthday party.
- Sierra from Every Shiny Thing remembers having a Target-brand American Girl doll (My Generation) named Cynthia back when her parents were together.
- In Too Bright to See, the dress Bug has to wear at Uncle Roderick's funeral is described as making him look like Samantha.
- The Baby-Sitters Club (2020) has Mary Anne Spier, before she remodels her room, have a black modern doll among her decor.
- An episode of Shooter has Bob Lee Swagger's daughter Mary play with a BeForever Julie doll, the apparently purchased as she shares the same name as Bob's wife.
- Ted Lasso: In "Do The Right-est Thing", Rebecca and her goddaughter Nora stop outside a British Girl doll store (which is both a parody and a subtle reference to the British-brand historical line A Girl for All Time) and snark about how all the dolls have tragic backstories. Rebecca admits that Americans do the "historical doll" concept better than the British.
- Several American Girl dolls can be seen in an episode of Wansapanataym during the arc "My Hair Lady", as shown in this behind the scenes
reel. - The Last of Us (2023) in Episode 7, "Left Behind," has shots of an abandoned American Girl store with dolls scattered across the floor and neglected in the long-neglected displays. There are anachronisms, however, as the scene is set in 2003 but has dolls of Kira and Makena (released in 2021), display names for Julie and Rebecca who were not out until 2007 and 2009 respectively, and post-BeForever branding, when the rebrand was not released until 2014.
- Saturday Night Live did a parody of the Barbie (2023) teaser movie trailer using American Girl dolls. The girls are called "bigger, younger, and sadder" and the characters used reference their historical stories—albeit not accurately. It can be seen here.
- A parody of an American Girl Store called "American Princess" is featured prominently in The Last of Us DLC "Left Behind".
- The Gender Role Doll in Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned possibly alluded to American Girl, especially with its educational-themed premise and character dolls with extensive backstories. In keeping with GTA's brand of social satire directed at contemporary American society and crude humour, the two dolls in the Gender Role Doll collection are portrayed with negative stereotypes, with Kyle as a redneck drunkard and Stacey as a subservient Dumb Blonde. Even the dolls' face moulds are more or less similar to a typical American Girl or baby dolls.
- It is speculated that Molly Schulz in Grand Theft Auto V is a veiled reference to Molly McIntire. Both Mollys are brunettes and wear glasses, and while that may be dismissed as a mere coincidence, the book A Spy on the Home Front has Molly McIntire spend time with her friend Anna Schulz and her family. In addition, Devin Weston's surname may have been taken from the novel, as Anna's father Fritz works at a garage in Weston, Illinois.
- Arthur has had two fictional versions:
- The Season Ten episode "World Girls" revolves around Muffy and Sue Ellen being fans of the titular dolls, but coming into conflict with what they consider the purpose of the brand: Muffy, a recent collector with money to spare, believes that collecting every doll (and their entire collections with every item and keeping them pristine) is the point without caring about blending things, while longer collector Sue Ellen who only has one doll believes that reading the books and connecting to the characters and their cultures is the point. The plot has the duo (and a reluctant Francine) going to a recently opening World Girls store together, World Girls World. Sue Ellen tries to find the yak-weaving loom for the character she adores, Pema from Tibet, and learns that Pema wasn't popular enough or sold well enough to remain available and her entire collection has been discontinued. Well-off Muffy goes from character to character around the store with her butler, purchasing any item she doesn't already have and becoming overwhelmed as more items and characters she doesn't have yet are released as she walks around. (Meanwhile, Tomboyish Francine, who previously thought the brand a waste and cynically disparages the costs, learns about a doll based on (the real life) Babe Didrikson Zaharias, and finds interest in the line through the character's focus on breaking into the male-dominated world of sports and golf.) When the girls try to go into the on-site hospital to hopefully find the discontinued loom for Sue Ellen, they instead enter the warehouse and on-site factory where more dolls—including unreleased ones—are being produced much faster than Muffy can keep up with little change between the dolls. This shock leads to Muffy deciding to slim down her extensive collection to only the characters she cares about and in the process finds the loom among her items, gifting it to Sue Ellen—who then sees that it was inaccurately colored, and modifies it to be book-accurate while the others make accessories of their own. Notably, the brand's focus on various cultures is also similar to the short lived 1990s Global Friends dolls line, which had smaller all-vinyl dolls but focused on characters from around the world and their cultures with the characters interacting with each other.
- The Season Fifteen episode "Muffy's Classy Classics Club" has the Pretty Pioneers, a toy line set in the 1800s where each doll comes with a story book—clearly a reference to the American Girls Collection. Muffy, having forgotten her lesson from the previous episode, has again purchased all the dolls and books available and wants her new book club to read the books together. It's an even more unflattering portrayal; while World Girls has informative cultural books that Muffy just didn't bother with, this time the dolls are noted to look almost exactly the same aside from their outfits (even having the same generic hairstyle and bland face) with no variance in culture, and the books are subpar (Muffy's friends either find them boring or unintentionally hilarious), poorly researched and historically inaccurate. Muffy's father even says outright that the books are just part of the marketing and written in order to sell more dolls and their story-relevant accessory.
- Bojack Horseman (Season 6, Episode 3 "Feel-Good Story") has the parody "Every Animal Girl Company" founded by two best friends, a Black human woman and a giraffe woman. The dolls are diverse in being both human girls of various races and animal characters, and the two women say they started the company to address dolls with unrealistic beauty standards (a frequent criticism of fashion dolls like Barbie) and to "empower girls". They get nervous when asked about the dolls being made of recycled materials, then let Dianne know that the brand was recently sold to Toys Galore (a subsidiary of MegaCorp WhiteWhale) and saying the sale is empowering and exciting including the shutdown of the Chicago factory to move overseas. This is referencing Ms. Rowland's selling of Pleasant Company to Mattel for several million dollars.
- An "American Princess" parody similar to the one in The Last of Us can be seen in The Simpsons episode "The D'oh-cial Network".
- The Bob's Burgers episode "The Laser-inth" has the Belchers dine at the Special Girl store, where Linda's friend Gretchen works as a doll hair stylist and can book them for a discount. As with the real-life American Girl store, the Special Girl store has all the trappings and paraphernalia of the doll line it is parodying. Louise discovers a doll is being discontinued and thus destroyed, and the group conspires to save her from destruction. Louise, who rarely finds interest in girly lines and items, finds herself caring about the character of CIA agent Francine and eventually brings her home after swapping her with more popular Sabrine to "rescue" her (with Tina's assurance she can have the doll, despite the fact she thinks all dolls are creepy.)
- A Robot Chicken sketch has Molly, Samantha, Addy, and Marie-Grace share tea and discuss their backstories. Addy stuns the white girls by introducing herself as a former slave, then Marie-Grace, who lived in the South before Addy's time, nervously withdraws from sharing her backstory. (Which is only done for the joke, since Marie-Grace never owned slaves and is best friends with another black character, Cécile.)
