Hello and welcome to my doll newsletter! I'm Eva Seyler, I write historical fiction and play with dolls.

I got my first American Girl doll, Kirsten Larson, at the age of six, for Christmas in 1989. I feel like everyone who was of a certain age back then knew the joys of perusing the Pleasant Company catalogues. Their clean, elegant layout and the beautiful scenes posing the doll with her six books and the accompanying outfit and accessories were iconic on their own, not to mention the satisfying formula of the series-es.

Meet Girl. Girl Learns a Lesson (a school story). Girl's Surprise (a Christmas story). Happy Birthday, Girl (a springtime story). Girl Saves the Day (a summer story). Changes for Girl (a winter story).

Each girl had a symbol, a colour, and a year ending in 4. Kirsten, 1854, a deep golden-brown heart; Samantha, 1904, a burgundy sideways thing that looked like a lacy beet but was probably supposed to be a heart; Molly, 1944, a navy blue star. These conventions continued up through Kit, released in 2000 - the first historical girl to be released after Mattel bought the company and, in my opinion, the peak of perfection. (I love the 1930s, what can I say.) Kaya, the first Indigenous character, came after Kit. She kept the year ending in 4 but because she didn't have a birthday or Christmas the titles of some of her six-book series deviated from the original formula. This trend continued with Rebecca, the 1914 Jewish character whose holiday story was about Hanukkah, and Julie of 1974. Then Caroline came along as an 1812 character and shattered the pattern for good, followed by 1853 girls Marie-Grace and Cécile, who were the last dolls to have the six-book arc. After that the dolls came with two books, equivalent to the six, until the 90s twins (how is 90s historical, I refuse to vibe with that) who each got single journal-format books.

As a child I never limited my dolls to their own canonical historical time. Kirsten and later Felicity wore clothes from all the available dolls of the time, including a few of the then-modern outfits released in the late 1990s. My dolls' personalities were not defined by their book-canon characters any more than their time; we shared a rich and intimate inner life. They were my children, my sisters, my confidantes, my friends, all in one eighteen-inch package. My daughters were given dolls in 2012, and although they played with them for a while, they were never attached to them in the way I was from age six to the present day. When we evacuated in 2020 because of wildfires, my box of dolls and their things was one of the things that was non-negotiable as far as taking with us. It would be harder to do that now, but I know that what I would prioritise would still be my childhood items. Everything else could be replaced, but nothing can replace the sentimental value of those things that have been so precious to me all these years.

This year two long-time dreams came true. I got an Addy from facebook marketplace and a Kit from ebay. It snowballed from there. I wanted to make dolls of some of my characters.

Here's a brief introduction video to all my dolls:

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Feel free to like the video, and I hope you'll subscribe to the channel! I'm hoping to do a video introducing my George and Louise dolls next.

As for this newsletter, there are several directions I could go. Shall I...

1. write reviews of all the historical American Girl books
2. write reviews of the historical dolls' collections
3. show you my personal collection in more detail

Please let me know what you'd like most to do first!

Best wishes,

Eva on behalf of Mira et al.