When Fact Is Stranger than Fiction: Hair in American Girl Stories and Dolls

Abstract

Due to its unique nature and commercial success, the American Girl collection offers an interesting case study regarding hair and its contexts in children’s literature and toys. The company’s founder, Pleasant Rowland, made her intentions explicit when she said she set out to develop “books and dolls that would bring history alive…that would provide girls with role models, showing that the essentials of growing up haven’t changed very much, in spite of the differences in the world in the last two hundred and fifty years” (qtd. in Morgenson 124). Given these goals, what aspect does hair play in the role models offered by American Girl dolls and books? How is hair described in the books? How is it crafted for the dolls? An exploration of the American Girl books, website, and catalog reveals a complex relationship between the texts and the toys, suggesting a case in which fact may be stranger than fiction. Overall, the books deemphasize the protagonists’ hair and appearance, unless they play central roles to the plot or themes. The dolls, in contrast, emphasize hair as an important appeal to engage young readers/consumers. This gap offers a puzzling variation of role models, depending on which version of the character young readers meet first.