Doing a Trunk or Treat on Friday where I'm doing an American Girl Club and I just carved my pumpkin! Well, my mom did most of the work, she's good with the carving.

Please don't take this personally if you like AG Sisters but Wellie Wishers were such a better way to market a section of AG to elementary aged kids than AG Sisters because they had a good message to younger kids on empathy, building friendships, and learning how to cope if things don't go your way. Plus they had that identical wholesome, childlike youthful look of typical American Girl dolls with the two buck teeth. Even Hopscotch Hill dolls never had the excessive makeup that AG Sisters have. In my opinion, AG Sisters do not even have that wholesome childlike look to that of WW if they are also being marketed towards the in between demographic of regular AG dolls and Bitty Babies. Yes I know that newer 18 in AG dolls still have somewhat excessive make up with the extra painted lashes but hey, they still have the two buck teeth. Marketing to the early elementary school age does not have to be putting excessive make up on the dolls faces and making them all pink and such. Younger elementary kids don't always need dolls with excessive makeup. IMO it would have been better to market to the in between by making the dolls with the two buck teeth and keeping those fixed plastic eyes. WW look a lot more marketed towards the elementary school aged children than AG Sisters. Also they really look much more elementary school aged I will say. AG should really stick with the WW molds to make more sisters for the regular 18 in dolls like the 2022 GOTY.

TLDR: reading meet addy for the first time and i thought u was prepared for the themes but generational trauma said otherwise.

for context i’m Black, 21f and first got into AG about a year or two before beforever era. i never had a historical 18 inch doll growing up (my friend gave me her unboxed mini kaya so i had the doll but no book). i had jly 46 and all my friends had either a jly too or a girl of the year.

i’m doing a research project on the historic line rn for college so i’m reading a lot of the books with for the first time since i was a child or the first time ever. i went to a tiny school growing up and each classroom had their own library (aka bookshelf lol) so i read some of the historic books through there. i think i only read meet samantha, every molly book, one or two of kits, and meet josephina (all the ribbon editions). and since then through social media and the fan wiki i’ve learned the gist of all the other characters.

i’m reading the first edition of all the meet books and i decided to start on addy’s because i had never read any of her books. i had a vague idea that it would be generally darker than some of the other books. i was genuinely shocked when i started absolutely sobbing every chapter. perhaps its generational trauma or perhaps its built up midterms stress being funneled through these books, but either way the way this book pulls at your heart strings is genuinely so difficult to get through. i’m trying to write notes but i can’t see through my teary eyes.

it’s not even just the actual words on the page. it’s reading them while imagining reading this as a 9 year old, or to my 9 year old baby cousin. it’s so heartbreaking. it legitimately hurts.

This past Saturday when I was going to AG place chicago, I asked one of the employees who worked there about what happened to the GOTY display and they said they don't have it anymore, they were not entirely sure what happened to it. But I'm pretty sure if you have an AG store in your home state, they may still have the display.

Found Felicity my first day of vacation! 🥳

I was so happy to take Courtney to see the Fraggles live! Courtney wore her new shirt and had her Fraggles with her.

I believe I've already done one of these, but I just love my 80! ❤️I think she looks fantastic in light pink. I really need to get her some more outfits 🤔

The girls are ready for Halloween!

Josefina wears the Cinderella outfit from Emily Rose (Amazon). Very nice quality; very full skirt with satin lining and even a white tulle sewn-in petticoat. Bodice is lined as well. Silver shoes with a blue jewel on toe. My only complaint is that the bodice is too long for my AG dolls. Josefina is very slightly taller/ longer torso than the others, and it still seems too long to fit correctly.

Samantha wears a non-AG poodle skirt and pink cardigan I bought many years ago,that also came with a sheer pink scarf (tied around her ponytail). The saddle shoes and socks are also off-brand and I use them with other outfits at times.

Claudie is in the AG Jack o’lantern costume from a few years ago. No notes, it works and fits well. My only complaint is that I don’t think it would fit my PC Samantha.

Charlotte (TM 33) wears Maryellen’s cowgirl outfit. The skirt waistband is pretty tight. My doll was bought new in (I think) 2021, so she’s not one of the older, chunkier dolls. That’s my only complaint with this outfit. The shirt buttons with real buttons.

Nanea wears a Wonder Woman costume from Amazon. This one was a bit disappointing (it’s not Emily Rose). It came without shoes/ boots, there’s no finishing to the single thickness metallic knit fabric that makes up the arm cuffs and headband. Still, it’s a costume, not intended to be worn by a child all day. Also after buying it, I regretted buying a costume that could only be worn in warm weather (yes I’m weird that way!). It’s often warm here for Halloween, but can be cold and rainy. Of course, Nanea trick-or-treating in Hawaii shouldn’t have to worry about getting cold!

Melody of course is in the Emily Rose Jasmine costume. This is another high-quality outfit from Emily Rose.

Jack-o-lantern treat containers came from Big Lots or the Dollar Store.

this is my custom addy (her wig isnt glued down so she’s usually my wig model) idk what to do with this wig. i’ve had it for awhile and forgot why i got it lol. does it remind you of any people or characters?

My doll’s new dress from PrimroseDollBoutique on Etsy arrived today! I absolutely love the quality of this dress and the way it SPARKLES ✨

My girl is ready for Halloween in style 🎃💅

I've wanted JLY 21 since I was a little kid and I'm so excited to have her, however, she's a bit more TLC than I expected from the listing—it mentioned "frizzy hair" which I was fine with because she's an early 2000s doll (she has the PC stamp + the early 2000s box) and the pin curls were my main priority, but there's a dryness problem on her ends + two of the pin curls are much rougher than the other side. So, I'd love some hair restoration advice. I've read a couple articles but maybe people on here have tips I haven't seen yet.

Also, she was advertised as having "shine marks" and what was actually on her face was some kind of spilled shiny stuff (maybe makeup?) that came off with water and scrubbing but left behind a little shine. I'm not really worried about working on those further, I'm happy with the results, but she has two HUGE scuffs on the side of her face. Since the scuffs aren't near her cheek blush, is it safe to try to buff them with a magic eraser?

Last year someone gave me their childhood doll, a white bodied Samantha. At the time I cleaned her up, tightened her limbs etc. I wanted to keep her original wig but I was also so scared of ruining it so it took me a while to get around to curling her hair. It’s not exactly like Samantha’s factory curls, but I’m happy with how she turned out!

Fallout doll update!

Amelia's undercover Milk Maiden outfit with her favorite companion, Red Vines!

I still have to sand and paint all those pieces I posted earlier, but, when these two commissions came in (the outfit and the brahmin), I had to share this as well.

Outfit is designed by me and made by lovefromlola on Etsy. It includes a light under dress, green over skirt, a striped dirdle, a mustard dirdle, a yellow flower apron, and a green cloak inspired by a nun's attire.

Boots that aren't seen are from Queen's Treasures

Brahmin was designed by me and made by apothecarytoothfairy on Etsy

*Disclaimer: the Brahmin is made from two discontinued Garnet, Caroline's pet calf, plushies. I ensured that there was plenty of Garents to go around before pursuing this commission, as I didn't want to take an ultra rare item from collectors.

My little kid heart is exploding rn :))

I'm thinking about getting her but im curious as to peoples thoughts on her now she's been out for some time and probably a lot of the newness has passes.

The queens treasures Im considering getting a couple of their cats

My mini me project is finally finished. She was so fun to restore! Limbs tightened, stains removed, and rewigged! It was a fun first-time restoration project. :)

I got Kaya and her meet dress in a trade for some miscellaneous items. A little work and less than $50 more, I have my final result. I don't think she looks like the same doll.

NEW limited edition flannel Mommy and me PJs, exclusively for Hanna Rewards members! But unfortunately no doll sized PJs of these!

Thoughts?

I tried to find information on the sub about this with no luck, but I still hope I'm not beating a dead horse. Nellie has really grown on me, but I'm terrified of spending 200+ dollars on her in good condition only for her to slowly orange over time. I know a lot of defects usually happen from being stored improperly for a long time, so if she's chilling out in my living room for several years do I even have anything to worry about? Thanks in advance!

I love her so much. She’s a pleasant company Molly who had an unfortunate haircut… I wasn’t feeling the baby bangs so I bought her a new wig which is actually Rebecca’s. I love her curls. I think I’m going to call her Jeanie as Molly’s middle name is Jean… but open to suggestions ❤️

I’m not sure if anybody else has had similar issues with the American girl dolls that you buy at Sam’s Club the ones with the chair and the long hair looks I got one of them finally because this is the closest one to me as I don’t live near an American girl doll store and first things first is that I love the chair it sticks to the table. We all love that in the chair goes backwards so that you can wash their hair in like a sink. That’s what we like.

But the doll itself was a little disappointing. Mine didn’t have the long hair in fact, hers went down to her back, but it wasn’t like the long hair looks that we see online. I’m OK with the wig not being centered. I mean it bothered me a little bit because it was centered in the box in the photo but I can live with that but what I don’t like is that the refs were falling out and I just took her out of the box. I didn’t even cut any string. I was able to like wiggle her out.

I’m not sure if anybody else has had issues with this, but I don’t understand why the quality slipped. I’m not gonna return it because I don’t have a membership and this is like one of the best salon chairs I’ve ever received. I’m just gonna change the dolls wig, but I’m just so surprised that they would let this be sold, especially since this is a doll that is meant for kids to play in their hair.

I found this doll at ouac and for 30 dollars and I'm now aware that I definitely overpaid. she was wearing clothes so I didn't see her body until I got home, I thought this would be a rewig and a limb tightening but what I found was an our generation body with 1 authentic AG leg (the tan leg lol). I've taken her apart and cleaned her but I'm not sure if I want to hunt down an authentic body or restring and fix this one. Aside from the issues with her body the previous owners did their own rewig and and they used several types of glue fortunately it was mostly hot glue and easy to remove but what's left is a hard glue that won't budge. I used a knife to scrape off a lot of it but on the part near her face I'm not sure what to without making her worse. Any advice would be helpful. Also if you have any guesses on who she was that'd be appreciated too.