Marketing American Girlhood

As I was flipping through the articles in the textbook, the reading about American Girl dolls caught my eye and I chose to read and write about the messages in this article. The article is entitled “Marketing American Girlhood” by Elizabeth Marshall and it starts on page 131. For those who are unfamiliar with American Girl, it is a brand now owned by Mattel that includes a line of dolls called BeForever. Each doll in the BeForever line comes with a story and a link to some historical event, such as the Great Depression, Civil War, or American Revolution. There are specific clothing items and accessories that belong to each girl which must be bought separately at the American Girl store or through the catalog. Marshall describes the American Girl company as not just a product but also an experience. Some American Girl stores include a cafe, a movie theater, or a salon. The brand is massive and expansive and remains one of the top consumer toy catalogs in the United States. The stores have also expanded into Canada and Mexico.

The American girl brand was founded by a Wisconsin teacher who “wanted to give girls an understanding of America’s past and a sense of pride in the traditions they share with girls of yesterday” (pg 131). While this may have been the intent of the company at first, Marshall claims that “American GIrl is less about strong girls, diversity, or history than about marketing girlhood, about hooking girls, their parents, and grandparents into buying the American Girl products and experiences” (pg 133). She talks about how the historical fiction stories are edited to present “palatable” versions of historical events that are filtered through a white consciousness. Although the first line on the company's website is that they believe that "character is everything", the girls are not active participants in the historical event of the time and the stories focus on how girls should engage in good behavior and not express their individuality. Marshall claims that “each of the historical fictions takes place in the past and in this way allows issues such as racism, colonization, and war to be presented as things that America has overcome” (pg 133). Rather than empowering young women to take action and think critically about gender and racial discrimination and social activism, American Girl displays these issues as things of the past.




I found Marshall’s claims enlightening and it got me thinking about my experience with American Girl. I owned the Molly doll and my sister had Samantha. Before reading the article, I wouldn’t have been able to name the time period or historical event that each girl was made to represent. I know I read the books but the messages and stories did not stick with me. What I do remember is the excitement of getting to go to the store with my mom and sister to pick out a new accessory for my doll. When Marshall interviewed her students about their memories of American Girl, they also mentioned picking things out from the catalog and enjoying the dolls because they came with all kinds of “cool stuff”. This just goes to show that Marshall is correct in her argument that American Girl is “a persuasive curriculum of consumerism” (pg 134) and is using history to sell and appeal to parents and grandparents who want an educational toy for their children. Like Disney, this is another example of why we need to view media and toys through a critical lens.