#dark american girl dolls

[adancedivasmom]

Okay, this is kinda funny. 😂

[trailerheaven]

my customized blythe doll - do not repost

[lolitalucia]

[rubbish78]

My Nadja of Antipaxos cosplay 🧛‍♀️

📷: angelfnts

[americangirldollwho]

[esotericd0lly]

i need a fucking cigarette

[kylejsugarman]

[sweetlolitah]

I’m obsessed with this song

[porcelaindemoiselle]

Immortalized in my own solitude ⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅

[purplevampiredoll]

alice liddell 🔪🫖🥀

[strwbrryvagabond]

wanted to get on here and yap about American Girl for some reason today

I'm far from a brand loyalist, and honestly, I was shocked I didn't grow up with the off-brand dolls you could get at Walmart or Target since I grew up poor until recently when my mom informed me that I would save money up for months and months at a time so that I could buy the dolls, and my parents only even actually purchased one for my birthday once we started to do a bit better financially, and after they saw how much I loved and took care of the dolls

I bought accessories for them myself as well, both from the actual company and from other brands like Target and Walmart ones, and even paid my mom to order me a bunk bed for them off of Etsy or something because I was so distraught that they didn't all have their own beds.

Anyways, I know brands are bad and stuff, and American Girl is not without faults and controversies, but tbh those dolls really shaped me as a kid, like I intentionally bought Rebecca Rubin as my first doll when I was a kid after seeing her in a catalog that we got sent by mistake because she was Jewish and looked like me. I had never seen a doll or character, or pretty much anything at that age who was Jewish like me and looked like me, and she wanted to be an actress, and at the time, I also wanted to act

I took that doll very literally everywhere, half the pictures of me from that age, she's tucked under my arm in a different outfit, her hair as well taken care of as I could manage for being so little. I accidentally messed up one of her curls while trying to fix her hair, and I cried for like a solid half an hour until my mom helped me fix it. even after I got other dolls, all of which I still loved and took care of religiously, Rebecca was the one who came everywhere with me

I'd already been a big reader before that, which is a whole other post, but I devoured those books, and I totally blame them for my current love of learning history and historical fiction. and the different dolls were all depicted as activists and feminists, and do not get me wrong here (I say on the 'taking things out of context' website) they were far from perfect with their diversity and activism, like oh jeez they did some very questionable things sometimes, but for the early 2000s and 2010s? revolutionary

the store closest to me closed a little before my birthday last year. I didn't know that it was even happening, and honestly probably still wouldn't have known if I hadn't been shopping with my friends at that mall like two weeks before my birthday since that was the only day we could all make work. Despite not having touched my dolls in a while, everything was super on sale, and I had been planning on taking Rebecca to college with me, so I figured I might buy her an outfit or something.

while the store was pretty ransacked, I was shocked and, no joke, teary-eyed over how many things they had for different cultures, different religions, and how many little girls I saw in there with big starry eyes looking at a doll that looked like them

I ended up buying a Channukkah outfit, and one of the friends I was with convinced me to, against my nature, let them buy a Lunar New Year outfit for me as well, which almost made me cry again. What really did it was seeing one of the previous Girls of the Year, Corrine Tan. Oh my gosh if they had had her when I was a little girl, she would've gone right beside Rebecca with how obsessed I was with her. I don't think I've mentioned it here before, but as a kid, I LOVED Mulan, and when I went to Disney World and the dress up boutique they had, I was DEVASTATED that they didn't have a Mulan costume. I latched onto her so hard for a very similar reason that I latched onto Rebecca so hard; because even though she wasn't the same ethnicity as me, Mulan was Asian, and so am I. I wore out I think three burned copies of that movie I watched it so often

I'm just weirdly sadder than I expected that American Girl is closing so many stores and not making as many sales I guess. I'm really fighting being a brand loyalist right now, because there are about a million other brands that make super similar dolls that I'm sure little kids all over loved, it's just always stuck with me that they at least seem to care about representation in the stories they make for these dolls

I mean, it clearly impacted me growing up, and I think it was for the better. I remember reading Addy's book being one of the first times I was exposed to the idea of children being slaves because they obviously didn't talk about that in an elementary school in the 2010s. I really just wanted to get all of my thoughts out, I've been thinking about it a lot recently since I took Rebecca to college, and I've now been hearing stories from girls who see her in my room about what doll or what toy shaped them as a child. Very excited to dress her up for Channukkah when it comes around, and tbh I've been looking for more outfits for her online. I just want her to be something I take with me throughout my life I guess. I mean, I took her everywhere when I was little, so it kinda feels wrong not to take her with me on this super big part of my life.

yeah anyways uh, if you had one of these dolls go... idk kiss em on the forehead or something. remind the toys that shaped you that you love them for what they did for you and all that. yap session over

[trailerheaven]

my blythe 𝜗𝜚 do not repost

[lolitalucia]

🍼 ≽^•༚• ྀིྀ≼

[sweetstgal111]

i hate the boys in my town with a burning passion

[shakespearefreak]

🎂 Happy Birthday, Samantha! 🎂

(Even though we actually celebrated her birthday a day early because the weather forecast said it was going to rain all day on the 26th, I somehow STILL managed to be a week late posting this, eep)

For Samantha’s birthday this year, we went back to Olbrich Gardens for another picnic! 🌸 (Initially, we were going to be joined by someone from one of my doll groups on Facebook, but because we rescheduled due to the rain, she wasn’t able to come after all. 😕 Ah well, next time.) Sam and Nellie attracted some attention: at one point, a passerby told me that while I’d been lost in taking the perfect photo of their picnic, a rabbit 🐇 had gotten quite close to us until their group had approached and accidentally scared it away. A little later, a very nice older fellow stopped and asked me if I was telling a story. I said yes, surprised and pleased he’d understood so immediately what I was doing, and he asked me questions about what the girls were doing, and gave me some really helpful photography tips when I expressed frustration at how my earlier photos were turning out. It was very cool.

This time Marley managed to get a shot of Samantha sitting on the pillar inscribed with her creator’s name!

After walking around a bit, we found a grassy spot and set up the picnic. There was strawberry cake 🍰 with vanilla icing, a small dish of tea cakes, and a large pitcher of ice-cold pink lemonade (which was very welcome on the warm day!). Even Jip had a rawhide bone 🦴 to gnaw, though you can’t see it here. Nellie raised her glass in a toast: “To Samantha — the most caring, generous, and wonderful person I know, and the best friend anyone could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!”

Samantha felt her gift through the wrapping. “It must be a book!” She sounded more excited than some children might be at the prospect of a book as a birthday present; she loved to read, and was eager to see what the title would turn out to be. 📗

“Peter and Wendy! Oh, I love this one!” Sam cried out happily.

“I know,” Marley returned with a grin. “It’s one of my absolute favorites too.”

“I can’t wait to re-read it! I’m going to start tonight,” Samantha said. “Thank you so much!”

Jip came over to investigate what all the fuss was about. Samantha stuck the white gift bow on his head over one floppy ear, giggling. Jip put up with this with unaccustomed patience for a few moments, then shook his head vigorously, flapping his ears and knocking the bow to the grass, to the amusement of everyone.

True to her word, as soon as Samantha was in her nightgown and slippers, she snuggled up with her teddy bear (last year’s birthday gift) in Marley’s bed with her new book and began to read. As Samantha followed the adventures of Peter Pan, the Lost Boys, and Captain Hook, Marley was lost in their own (somewhat darker 😂) novel, The Dark Half by Stephen King.

When Marley looked over a bit later after finishing the latest chapter detailing Thad Beaumont’s Jekyll-and-Hyde situation with his “dark half” George Stark, Samantha was slumped over, still holding her new book loosely in one hand, fast asleep and dreaming of Neverland. ✨

(Also, yes, I know the book should be the other way around; I didn’t realize that until it was too late to fix it! 😅)

BONUS: A few doll-less photos of the Gardens:

[belladonna-undead]

are you afraid of the dark? .·:*¨ ✘O🧺✘O ¨*:·.