AG Complaint Department: The Top Five and Bottom Five A*G Events in the Past Ten Years of the A*G Wiki

Ten Full Years!

Where the sweet hell did June go--oh right, A-Kon work, Pride, swapping doll eyeballs, raiding the corpse of Toys R Us, Memorial Day, and family business. Don't beat yourself up, Neth. Just, you know, go take review pictures. There's lots of stuffs you could be covering. Just set up your photo spot and take the damn pictures, woman.

*dusts off cookies*

There's new summer stuff out! Woo, releases! And I have several opinions on it, good and bad. I plan to post about it soon--I wasn't able to get complete pictures of the stuff until the end of the month, because that was the earliest I was able to get to the store. I'm aiming Sunday or Monday's post.¹ Today though, is a super cool anniversary for me in the AG fandom.

Guys, gals, and non binary pals, today is the ten-year anniversary of what's been called the best database for American Girl Info since its 2008 conception, the American Girl Wiki.

Lemme set the scene for the launch. Picture it, Seattle Area, 2008. I'd been officially banned from AF Playthings that March, though I hadn't really visited in weeks at that point and was trying to get my stuff down from the site at the time of my banning.² I was overseeing training at my then-job--which mostly consisted of shadowing over someone who'd done all the main education and was now doing live work with assistance. Since it was a niche section, those of us that normally did the work were not doing it so they could get as much practice as they possibly could. So since I'd been doing the work for two and a half years, I was being paid to sit by my trainee, listen to their calls out, walk them through steps, and answer simple questions quickly so they didn't have to ask the supervisors. I needed something to do between questions and call listen ins, so I was surfing the net trying to get some AG data on upcoming new stuff and characters.

Look it was that or bike back and forth on the long path through Solaceon Town hatching eggs in Pokemon Pearl. Smartphones were not as widespread as they are now and I'd already done some sketching. 

But I couldn't get any data on anything that wasn't locked behind forums or on slowly updated personal sites--and what data that existed was primarily about the items and buying them. While AG is a merch driven thing and so it made perfect sense to talk about the stuff, that was all that got talked about. the Stuff. Very little on any site at all was about the actual characters, there was sporadic history on the line itself, and most of that was heavily coated in the idea that everything that came out before 2000 was perfect and flawless and everything that came out after was Mattel's Hot Garbage trying to turn the line into Barbie. Hell's chicken and fries, there was little to be found about the books. Many places had a list of book titles, but nothing about what happened in them. Not even character parent names.

And it occurred to me: why didn't the American Girl fandom have a wiki-style database? Other toys had them. Lego had one, the Brickipedia. There was an entire one about yo-yos. I'd just been using Bulbapedia to look up some Pokémon data, followed by getting lost on the Muppet Wiki. Hell, there was Wookiepedia--all Star Wars, All The Time.

Was it because someone had never done that themselves? Taken that step out to make an American Girl Wiki? Well, I would be that someone. TV Tropes had the right idea with the The Wiki Rule: There is no area of interest, no matter how narrowly defined, where a person cannot put up a wiki for it and attract at least a few editors with similar interests. So, even if I spent weeks alone coding in character and book pages, making notes on Addy's younger sister and Kirsten's father, I could do it.  Plus, it'd give me something else to do with my fandom knowledge. I did have like, almost all the books. All of them. I might hate the people who'd banned me and shunned me, but that didn't mean I couldn't do something for the AG fandom, even if I'd likely never be appreciated for it.

I submitted my proposal for the wiki to the Wikia staff--which, like onions on your belt, was the style at the time. I got approval and was sent the URL and given my admin and founder rights. I started to clean up the main page images, then started creating pages for each Historical Character and Girl of the Year. I created basic collection pages.  That was enough to start making more character pages and some item pages. I searched and scanned images from my books, making references and internal links here and there and coding. I couldn't post links on any forums, but I could promote on AG Over 18 and my own personal journal, and I did. By August  we'd been featured in the Wikia Spotlight. By September 2008 we had 300 pages. By the first anniversary, the Wiki had just over 850 articles.

Ten years later and with two other admins, we're at a touch over 4000 articles--and I often hear across the fandom how useful the AG Wiki is to pull up information and how nice it is that within days of new stuff coming out, there's at least something on it even just a stubble. And to think, I started the AG wiki with just about 100 or so pages, supervising training at Nintendo, and hoping I was able to do something for American Girl fans with my information, because I was getting damned sick of sites that only talked about the stuff and most of that was in forums people could be banned from.

Oh and the moddie line has gone through about three names--but since category changes are hard, we still call the category by a name several years out of date. Edits, whatcha gonna do.
 
We're fairly quick with the updates--and if you're curious about, say, that one-off character in Felicity's mystery? You can probably get some data or add it in yourself--as long as you follow the rules, are over thirteen, don't edit in garbage, pay attention to the rules about descriptions because a single line edit is not a description unless they're just plain white socks, and don't spam the wiki with petitions to bring back flash games from your childhood because AG is not going to bring back flash games from your childhood. Flash is a terrible thing anyways.

I'm very proud of what the AG Wiki is and has become, and what it will be in the future. 

That being said, I have more to say. Since it has been ten years, I decided that I'm gonna babble on about the Top Five and Bottom Five Things AG has done in the past decade since I started wiking. All opinions are, of course, my own. Of course they are, this is my fucking blog. There will also be some honorable--and dishonorable--mentions in there too.

Hop under the cut and getcha read on.

AG Complaint Department: Asinine Assumptions About Addy Walker

Happy Birthday Addy! Now let's get people to treat you right.

For those who are good on their AG knowledge, yesterday was Addy's Birthday. Unlike most of the other American Girl Historical characters,¹ Addy did not know her birthday at all; she was born into slavery and Mr. Stevens didn't write her birthday down. So she picked her tenth birthday as the official end of the Civil War: April 9th, 1865, and celebrated with ice cream, pie, a new dress, freedom for all, and her family and friends. Addy was a lot of firsts in the American Girl Line: the first one not to use the classic mold (thank gods), the first character of color, and the first one I fell in love with. Y'all wouldn't even be hearing my bitching and squealing if Addy Walker hadn't come along in the line. Well, I might have picked up Kirsten because I had a thing for Laura Ingalls, but I was raised in consciousness and I remain so. So I got the black girl first. Addy--here known by the full name Aduke FirstArrival Walker--is my number one girl and always will be; GotY will come and they will go, but Addy will be here for me always, even if they archive her.

Alas, too many people do her wrong, and they have since I first set toes in the American Girl Fandom. I've seen a lot of shit, I've seen a lot of shit go unaddressed, and a lot of shit needs to stop. 80-90% of it is based in racism, classism, and bigotry. And that's me being nice, because to tear it down and kick that ass, about 100% of it is based in at least some subtle, unaddressed racism or bigotry. And unlike my ripping down of the fuck ups with Kaya, I'm coming from a place of my own culture and knowledge,

So sit down, shut up, and learn some goddamn things so I don't have to roll my eyes at seeing your terrible Addy shit attitudes ever again.

AG Complaint Department: #‎AGDoCGotY‬: Because Representation in AG Lines Matter

If I don't stand up for myself, who will? If not now, when?¹

So, here we are in 2015. 2014 was a good year and a bad year, in so many ways. Wonderbread is out, and Grace Thomas--SnarkNamed Vanilla Buttercream--is out, with her Paris Vacation and $500 Bakery that almost no one will be getting for multiple reasons, the least of which is that it's $500. I'm going to blog about her things after Saturday when I go see things myself face to face and can take my own pics, along with the new stuff. December was an up and down month, and I plan to do a lot better at keeping up here. One is to give this blog and all my online places a lot more attention.² A post a week is my goal again. But I ramble on. I have a point for this post, and it may not be as long as other posts, but I want to get this message out at the start of the year and keep it up all year and beyond.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The Limited Edition Doll line is flooded with a lot--a lot--of white Girls of the Year. I can't say it or blog or push back against it enough. Grace makes four in a row since Kanani. And before Kanani, the frontline girls were Nicki, Mia, Chrissa and Lanie--four other white girls. There hasn't been a girl of color at all since Kanani. There's not been a Girl of the Year, frontline, specifically named as not half white, since Marisol. That's ten years--ten years--of little to no representation. And even worse, there's been the last few with friends of color or in high PoC locations--Chipotle Mayo and Wonderbread were in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Washington D.C., respectively. And Grace has continued the pattern of a white main character with a PoC best friend: Gabi to Saige, Sonali to Chrissa (at least she was released), Luisa to Isabelle, Toulane to McKenna, and now Emma (I think that's her name) to Grace.

For Mama's sake, she's RIGHT THERE.

The Best Friends Line is dead, so we can't even get hope that the girls would come out as side characters to the main like Sonali did. We get nothing.

I am so irritated by this. I'm tired of nothing. I'm so damn tired of nothing, or flickers, or dregs.

We can't just be getting Girls of Color every four years, if that, and only with the hints of color when they do. Stories know no race. Yes, AG has pointed out the diversity of the My AG and the Historicals, and even hinted at a new AA girl in 2016. But that's not the line they hype every year. They hype the hell out of the Girl of the Year. They push and push and push--and then they give us nothing but white girls. If AG really means for us to believe that these stories are about contemporary girls in contemporary times, then they need to reflect everyone--not just white girls.

And I am going to hashtag the shit out of getting the word out about AG's need to highlight and give voice to other cultures and people. American Girl, give us a Doll of Color for Girl of the Year.

Good thing I've got social media to back me up. 

This is the tag I'm pushing:

#‎AGDoCGotY

It's short, simple, and gets the point across. If you want to use longer or more clear ones then use #AGGoTYDiversity. Or both. The point is that we want to point out all these options, all these looks, for a Girl of the Year that isn't always white.

More help and details under the cut. 

AG Complaint Department: The Ten-Year Rise and Fall of the Best Friend Line

So long, girls. The Era ends with you.

Have you been living under a rock for a few months in the AG community? I haven't, even if I have no need to post something every day on this blog. This is not Tumblr¹ and I'm not a news blog cause I don't need to be. I've got stuff coming up that y'all will like--the gang is up to another girl--and tons of reviews and shit. But I'd like to address the end of the Best Friends line before the launch of BeForever at the end of this month, so that on occasion my articles can seem timely.

If you've had a pulse on the AG community for any time since about January to March, you'll have heard whispers of both Samantha's return and the retirement of Marie-Grace and Cécile. Many people saw the end coming through whispers, catalog scans that didn't include the others, and jabber from personal shoppers. Finally in May, AG officially stepped up and said that Marie-Grace, Ruthie, Ivy, and Cécile are going into the Archives. This is in preparation for the launch of BeForever--a rebranding of the Historical characters to focus on the main AG characters and appeal to girls again. This includes new clothes, the return of the emphasis on girls being the same in essence through history, using new ways to appeal to old ones--aw yiss, apps and nets--and rumors that include removing illustrations from the books to appeal to older children.² This does not include their best friends or the NOLA Girls. There's several articles that have been published on news sites and around discussing how this removes the only black character that hasn't been a slave and the only Asian-American character in the lineup. I'm not going to knock them in any way. They're right in saying that with Ivy getting booted, we don't have a Asian American character represented in history anymore--and that Cécile is the only well to do pretty princess we've had that was black. But neither girl really got a chance to hold down the fort herself, and the best Friends Line was a poor way to put both of them in. 

For the most part, the Best Friends Line did not do much for AG's bottom line or their appeal to the historical characters, and the one time it touched the moddies it tanked hard. While the Best Friend Line had its appearances of successes, it also had its problems--lots of them. I do kind of like the idea of best friends and two girls sharing an era, and a lot of my historicals have theirs. Edith has Dorothy, Kimmy has Tyanna, Addy has Sarah, and Felicity has pretty brunette Elizabeth. I'm even debating finally creating Charlotte's stepsister/close friend from Caroline.³ And the most technical sense, I have several of the Best Friends: Nellie, Cécile (though she's not a best friend, she's a split collection--more on that later), Kimmy ("Ivy"), and Sonali. A lot of people will talk about the good of the line. But I feel like the AG community and the purchasing population at large didn't really feel the Best Friends Line, and that it going down is going to overall be a good thing.

If you haven't clicked onto this, this is all my perception. I'm not a marketing mogul, I've never worked for AG in my life, and I majored in English. These are just my opinions as someone who came into AG at the small start of the Best Friends Line, and saw how things came--and now, how they're going, along with things one of the members of the forums has observed and I'm alright with passing along. You're not here for numbers. You're here for my opinions, education, snark, and to learn better about the kyriarchy and how to tear it down. 

Let's start the same way AG did: with Samantha and Nellie.

AG Complaint Department: I'm a Mattel, I'm a PC Part 1

Marisol's a "Mattel", Josefina's a "PC". I don't care.

If you're part of the AG Fandom--and honestly, 90% of the people reading this blog are part of the AG fandom, it's a niche topic I'm talking on here--then you've probably had to deal with a lot of Pleasant Company nostalgia on message boards and among collectors. To paraphrase Douglas Adams and make a long story very short, "In 1998 Mattel bought American Girl from Pleasant T. Rowland, Founder of American Girl, for seven hundred million dollars. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded by nostalgia goggle collectors as a bad move."

Spend any time around some boards and you'll pick up the vibe. Pleasant Company love and Mattel Hate is everywhere. Many collectors will talk wistfully of  the days when Addy's Meet Accessories came with authentic gourds and Felicity's eyes were a soothing green and Samantha's hair was apparently so fresh and curly you could just fluff it all day. Many people will pay more to have a PC doll or accessory set rather than get a Mattel one. There are multiple posts around the internet telling you how to tell a PC doll from a Mattel in the same way people try to tell authentic coins, stamps, or vintage items. Some people say that PC stuff is automatically worth more than anything Mattel made. In fact, many people call dolls and items made before Mattel purchased the company PM--or "Pre-Mattel", as if the ownership by Mattel has tainted our precious 18 inch semi-historical dolls.

If a person prefers PC stuff, that's one thing. I'm not going to bitch too hard about that. But many of them shit all over Mattel's releases and turn their nose up towards anything not PC, and in the process come off wholly, willfully ignorant. I recently came across a post on a blog (I won't link) that stated the following without a hint of irony:

Let's face it, anything Pleasant Company is better quality. Those of us who collect PC can see the difference. Kit's candy making set would have had a metal not a plastic double boiler with plastic candy molds. And Kit would not wear a PINK dress, still they insisted on giving her a pink polyester chiffon dress. 

I find this hilariously stupid for the big glaring reason that Kit, released in 2000, was released wholly by Mattel. Yes, random blogger, I'm sure that the Historical Character that was never released by PC would have totes released her stuff the way you're saying.

Not everything PC has released has been better. I don't deny that Mattel has done a lot of weird, unusual, badly planned, and altogether shitty things since they got the company. But so did Pleasant Company and Pleasant Rowland in the twelve years before Mattel stepped in, and I'm not about to let the early years of the company off the hook for their actions.

This is going to be a side series--basically, I'll just go into four to five things about Pleasant Company I don't like with each post, because there's no way I can get this in one post.

AG Complaint Department: Fucking It Up With Kaya, AG Style

Kaya can be modern and not be a stereotype.

So if you have been surfing my blog and have seen my header, you will notice that it's Kaya up a tree, with her hair in pigtails and in an outfit I'll probably review on her, the Earth Day outfit. When I first thought about getting Kaya--and I absolutely was going to get her, because Dolls of Color rock--I assumed that she was going to be as historical as any other Historical I had. All my other historials had, after all, stayed in their time periods. And then a buddy of mine who is Native goes, "Why do images of Native people always stay stuck in the past?" And I got a smack awake--one of several I've had in my life. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't until college or so that I started really learning about Native people properly instead of "the stuck in the past" way mainstream history does. I had studied Pocahontas, I knew about Sacagawea, and I'd read Island of the Blue Dolphins in middle school and of course learned the little I had in school--but the approach in American history still sticks Natives in a past narrative. Having Native friends--really open, honest ones who weren't and aren't afraid to call me on my shit--is one of many ways how I opened my eyes. I'm no expert on Native people and I'd be the last person to claim expertise, but I've been taught a thing and as an anti-racist and anti-bigot¹ I am passing the learnings onto you.

Kaya is the only canon Native American in the AG line, released in 2002 (and at the time, put Felicity in semi-retirement). She's billed as the First American Girl--as is her right, contrary to some shit people say. And because of this, AG collectors tend to fuck up seven shades with her and her collection. Shit, AG has fucked it up. This post is a not-even-remotely complete list of the multiple ways that people fuck up Kaya's presence. I plan to just pick a few to rip into--mostly because I've seen them recently.

Learn, and stop doing this shit.

Rambled Opinions and General Snarkiness: First 2014 Releases, WonderBread the Ballerina, and Super Bitching

I hate you, bitch.

So as I said yesterday, I was going to make up for three days off of posts here by spending an entire post bitching about the new shit, especially WonderBread up there. And a good pagan keeps her promises. This time, I even took the delightful time out of my busy schedule of writing and bitching and exhaustion to go to the store and look at the shit myself. Okay so I always go to the store the first day I can in the new year to see the new shit. This also involved introducing my bro to the wonderful snarkybits of AG. I even took some pictures--not a lot, mind, because seriously, fuck this bitch, but some of this hideousness just isn't properly experienced until you look at it directly. I may also be irrationally pissed that the Seattle location put her on an entire wall that was moddie stuff.

Jump below the cut, and prepare for a lot of cussing and bitching. Nethie ain't happy, my droogs.

AG Complaint Department: Girl of the Year: Fifty Shades of White

 

Notice a pattern? I sure do.

American Girl, soon after Mattel wholly took over the line from Ms. Rowland, tried a new line that, at first, was an add on to the American Girl Today line. They offered a limited edition, contemporary girl of the time with a book and local problems and issues that could relate to girls of the actual era. In 2001, they released  Lindsey Bergman, a Jewish (in mostly name and quirks only) girl who wanted to improve the world but always seemed to get in tons of trouble in the process. Lindsey was out for almost two years, and she was a very poor seller. The 2003 girl, Kailey Hopkins--an environmentalist who wants to save the ecosystems of her local tide pools--did not fare much better. But when Marisol Luna--a dancer dealing with cultural shift and moving--came out in 2005, she took off running, and AG realized they might have a good thing going. Since then, AG has majorly pushed the Girl of the Year--they release a new girl and her collection on January first and officially retire her December 31st, thus making the scramble to get her come with a due date. They have kept the pattern going for now eight years, since 2005. And so it becomes a buzz among the AG news sources and fandom at the tail end of the year--what's the next one going to look like? What's her story, morning glory? What are we getting? Who is she?

Well, Girl of the Year 2014 has leaked, and well...I have feelings, and not good ones. I'll be nice enough to put it behind a cut, since not everyone wants to be spoiled. But still.

AG Complaint Department: Archival is Not Character Death

Good-Bye, Molly--you have served us well.

So as many people in the American Girl fandom know, by this holiday season--if not sooner--Molly McIntire and her English girl, Emily Bennett, will be packing up their items in Molly's plaid suitcase, waving a fond farewell, and tap dancing into the American Girl Character Vault¹. They'll be joining the "kicked upstairs" ranks of Samantha (1986-2009), Nellie (2004-2009), Kirsten (1986-2010), Felicity (1991-2011) and Elizabeth (2005-2011), and you will never ever ever see her again. Ever. Ever. Ring the bells, rent the clothing, ashes and sack cloth and lamentations.

Awk, I hit the Sarcasm Lock button. *unstick*

But on the serious, the wails are everywhere. Molly is the last of the Original Three releases, and with her retirement nothing that Saint Pleasant Rowland started the line with remains. (More on that in another post.) Miss McIntire's loss (along with Miss Bennett) is yet another line-up on the chopping block of Mattel's evil path to making money hand over fist and appealing to the fly by night dabbling of this dim generation of children and vapid parents, all in a nefarious plan to turn American Girl into 18 inches of Barbie. Thus continues the evil path of retiring every historical, never teaching about history ever, and pushing the horrors of gardening, gymnastics, and art loss in public schools while we teach to the test. (But my standing up for the issues faced by the GotY is another post.)

I shall continue on my happy path of being the voice of dissent. While I'm not exactly delighted that Historical Character Archival is a thing, I'm also not going to call this the death of American Girl Historicals nationwide anymore than I did when we lost the others. Lamenting that Historical retirement and archival means the death of history is melodramatic, and acting like children can't learn about history without the dolls and the little items is really laying the whining on thicker than the chocolate frosting on Molly's birthday cake. I refuse to think that retiring the Historicals--any of them--means that Mattel is dismantling history character by character, or that children will never be able to learn about history without holding Molly to their bosoms and dressing her in her holiday dress with its little silk ribbons. The dolls are not the only facet of American Girl, much less history.

Below the cut lies my reasons why. Read them and be educated, or read them and rebut them, or read them and be annoyed, or read them and stomp off in a corner. I'm just one person on the net here, I don't know what you want.

AG Complaint Department: Never Too Old for American Girl - Or Anything Else!

Addy, Michi, and my mom's Cécile.

So, back on track with things on the blog: ranting, raving, reviews, and magazines.¹ But first the ranting. Well, more like fussing and talking, as it were, on a topic that is pretty dear to me.

In this picture are three lovely dolls. To the left is my Addy, to the right is Michi Taylor, and in the center is Cécile. But Cécile's not mine². This pretty girl belongs to my mother--I gifted her to my mom when I went to AG Houston, along with her starter accessories. When I told some people this, they were a little shocked that my mom wanted an AG doll. Why would grown people want dolls? Shouldn't we want things like babies, or cars, or booze or houses or other mature, adult things? Isn't doll collecting a sign of immaturity and not growing up?

Fuck no. AG dolls might have a lower limit in my eyes, but they have never had an upper limit. Children can be too young for dolls and toys. But people can never, never be too old for dolls.

AG Complaint Department: Sorry, Nostalgia Kiddos, But AG Was Never "Radical"

Wait, people think American Girl was radical back in the day? Surely you jest, Uncle Gard!

So there's been this article that's been at the edge of my AG sphere for a few days: American Girls Aren't Radical Anymore. To sum up the article snarkily: American Girl started out as SUPER RADICAL FIGHT THE POWER CHANGE THE WORLD with their stories and historical characters. But then Mattel stepped in and watered them down into 18 inch Just Like You clones, mini-Barbies and wimp girls of the year who at most stand up for the environment or art or gymnastics or whatever the hotness for the year is while kicking the Historicals out the door like so much past flippery-dip, and they have the catalogs to prove it. This article is circling around places such as Tumblr and creating that lovely flood of nostalgia that is likely prompting teenage and twenty-something year old girls all around to dig Molly and Samantha out of dusty closets and brush them up and read their books again while making snuggle cuddles.

That's nice. But now is the part of the evening where I sit you down, unsheathe the truth claws, and pop everyone's nostalgia bubble.

AG was never, ever, ever as radical or pushing against society as this article (and some follow up articles) seem to want to make them out to be. The Historicals are dolls with some educational flavor in the books. While several series did brush over some "sensitive" topics, they never go that deep, push back that much, and they don't hit as hard as nostalgia goggles let people think they do. The topics are watered down and glossed over for the palate of the average middle to upper class girl, and not much past that. I should know--I've read the books many times.¹

Normally I don't do posts back to back, but this wailing and gnashing of teeth over AG is getting on my last damn nerve. Get behind the cut for the realness.

AG Complaint Department: Some Children Are Too Young for AG Dolls

The American Girl company was initially created--so the story goes--to fill that empty niche at the time between the baby doll and the fashion doll. A companion that wasn't either focused on mommying or on dressing up. And with some history in the process, to get your learn on. Sure, we had Skipper among the fashion dolls, but she was a teen (and also small of waist). There was no doll the same age, generally, of that 8-12 year age range with an 8-12 year old body shape. I have to admit that Pleasant Company was hella successful in that task, seeing as now there's tons of 18" Companion girl dolls all over the market and new markets tend to pop up all over the place to try and challenge AG. (Some have even folded; Life of Faith is one of the bigger companies to fall.)

However, when American Girl was created, there's no getting around that they were intended for the 8+ crowd. Hence the whole books and encouragement of studying history and craftwork and stuff, and the focus around a girl of the era turning ten at some point in their series. They still stick to that, even. And society does, in many ways, encourage kids to skip past childhood--or, to paraphrase C. S. Lewis¹, try to rush girls to get to a certain age and then expect them to dawdle there as long as possible. The fact that someone tried to come up with the term "pretween" says some shit right there. Don't get me started on a store called "Forever 21" or I'll get completely off topic. So with this age skewing, the span for dolls seems to be from age 1 to age 8, and after about third grade you're just too old for dolls. Which is another rant altogether.

So yes, the age for doll play seems squashed in our society. Still. There should be a lower limit for getting a doll for a child--especially an expensive, high cost doll like AG--and that's because they don't treat things right.

"Gently played with" my black ass.

Braid Spray and the Ingratitude of the AG Fandom

Tara and Abbi know damn straight how braid spray can make a girl look good.

As a woman with 25 AG gang members--and many other dolls and ponies and other things with silky hair that can go rogue--I tend to invest time into their hair care regiment. And one of the centerpieces of my hair care is a big old bottle of braid spray. Not that the AG community at large really appreciates that I introduced this into the fandom. So this post is part basic care, part backstory, and part bitchiness.

AG Complaint Department: Racial Diversity in Collections and How It Doesn't Happen

More diversity in a group of three modern dolls than in some people's collections of thirty-plus.

As I've said, I have twenty five American Girl dolls. (Or 25 dolls roughly in that generic AG size. Three are from other brands but I don't give a damn that they are.) It's not the largest collection I've seen, but it's a pretty good size.

And somehow, in those twenty-five dolls, I've managed to have a gang of girls that has more diversity than most collections I saw on boards before my unfortunate bannings. Hell, I had a diverse collection back when I only had a max of six dolls by year's end. And yet some people either can't or won't figure out a decent diversity to their collection, and it really drives me up the damn wall.