In ‘An American Girl Anthology,' dolls still teach us how to be girls

Boston Globe

23-05-2025

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Hysmith — who earned her master's in gastronomy and food studies from Boston University in 2014 — met Orlovsky-Schnitzler at UNC Chapel Hill, where they were both part of the school's American Studies department. There, Hysmith worked toward her PhD, while Orlovsky-Schnitzler completed her master's thesis in folklore, and spent time at the Harvard Schlesinger Library as an undergrad in 2016, where she researched the NOW (National Organization for Women) archives and '[pretended to be] a Harvard student.'
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The two had gone their separate ways, with Hysmith moving back to her hometown in Texas while Orlovsky-Schnitzler moved to the West Coast. It wasn't until 2022, when Orlovsky-Schnitzler gave a talk at the American Folklore Society Conference on American Girl in the digital age — specifically
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After witnessing the enthusiastic connection between audience members and American Girl, Orlovsky-Schnitzler was inspired to give voice to the important but 'historically disparaged,' topic of dolls and culture. With the help of Hysmith, the two scholars set out to curate 'An American Girl Anthology,' resulting in 17
essays written by a group of 16 contributors, including Hysmith and
Orlovsky-Schnitzler themselves.
Topics range from American Girl's both problematic and admirable representation of ethnic and religious minorities, to community-created head-canons — or aspects about the dolls sprouted from the interpretation of fans —
The collection debuted May 15 and Orlovsky-Schnitzler and Hysmith will celebrate the anthology's release at
Orlovsky-Schnitzler and Hysmith sought out academics to contribute to the anthology through social media.
HANDOUT
Q.
How did you go about selecting whic
h essays y
ou wanted t
o include?
J
:
The diplomatic and correct answer to say up front is that we love all of them. [To solicit submissions]
we did what you do now, we put out a call on Instagram.
KC
:
And we made a cake that had words on top, saying, 'We need your essays.' And then it just was off to the races. So many people [reached out]. We would get emails that were frantic — and there were typos — just because people were clearly so excited to write about their feelings, their perspectives on American Girl.
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Q. What are the most interesting or complex things you learned from your contributor's essays?
KC:
For me, it's always the doll [face] mold.
J:
[For] Kaya, the Indigenous doll, the company made a new mold because they learned that the Nimíipuu people did not show their teeth because that was seen as a sign of aggression. And all the dolls, as you know, have a kind of slightly open mouth.
They had a little spectrum of doll molds to represent different ethnicities. But when it came to Nelly O'Malley, who's meant to be a recent Irish immigrant to the United States, she had the same face mold as Rebecca Rubin, the Jewish American doll. It felt like there was a lumping of these immigrant groups.
KC:
Also the fact that [founder]
Pleasant Rowland was just really disappointed with the offerings out there for girls, doll-wise. She had grown up with Barbie, and was really frustrated by that, and so set out to do a lot of research to figure out what she could do differently. She combined her training as an educator and this new businesswoman work ethic to create this whole universe.
Q. The 'Barbie' movie brought the word 'girlhood' to the mainstream. How do you think American Girl represents girlhood differently?
J:
Barbie, she's an adult woman. She's had 150 jobs, and she's a pro at all of them. And we love that! She's a doctor. She's president. She can be anything. American Girl dolls are meant to be around nine years old when their stories start. They're not great at math. They have troubles with their siblings. They aren't always sure how they should be treating other people. They just have a different lens.
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KC:
And a lot comes down to 'What is girlhood?' Which is a lot of what we talk about in the book. Is girlhood just for girls? Or people who identify as girls? Does it have an age? Because, my grandma's just a girl, but so is my nine-year-old kid. There's no right or wrong answer, really, is the takeaway. There's just lots of different ways to think about it.
Q. I wanted to talk about the cover as well as the close-up of those iconic teeth.
KC:
We talk about the American girl teeth in the book a couple of times, and it's so iconic [and] instantly recognizable. But it's also just a little bit creepy.
We also can't put just one doll on
[the cover]. We don't want to say American Girl is just white. That's part of the criticism, right? But we really struggled with how to do that. We figured the best way was just to focus on teeth.
J:
And that
[photo]
is my childhood doll.
Q. Wait — it's your doll, specifically?
J:
Yeah.
KC:
She has a tiny little smudge — a chip in her tooth.
Q. That's such a full-circle moment.
J:
She was with us [at the book launch]. We actually had everyone who brought dolls to the book launch — which several people did, and I hope they bring them to Porter Square.
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Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler and KC Hysmith will be in conversation with Sarah Biskowitz, cultural activist and manager of the
, May 23, 7 p.m. 1815 Mass Ave., Cambridge.
. RSVP required.
Marianna Orozco can be reached at