Melody Ellison's Release Date!

It's here! It's here! It's finally here! After months of patiently waiting, there is now a release date for Melody Ellison, the next doll in American Girl's Historical/BeForever line!

Okay, so no one from AG has officially said that there is a release date, however Melody's Summer Block Party events have officially been posted on the site! 

Ta-Da! If the events coordinate with the release of Melody, which we have no reason to believe they won't, Miss. Melody will finally arrive August, 26, 2016! I'm giddy! My oldest and I have been looking forward to this for months, counting down even when there was no date to count to, and now it's finally here! An actual date that we can look forward to. I am almost excited enough to pass over the annoying little footnote in the event description...

...almost...

Hey, AG, putting For girls ages 8 and up at the bottom of your events is just ignorant. Boys like AG too. In fact, you have a huge fan base out there consisting of little boys who pour over catalogs, skip happily into stores, count down to doll releases, put accessories on their Christmas lists, etc. Yet you continue to not only ignore them, but to insist that your events are not for them. Is their money not as good? Does it not bother you that there are numerous accounts of encounters in your stores where young boys at these events have been denied the opportunity to participate in crafts or other extras by your employees because "American Girl isn't for boys."? No one is asking that the name of the store be changed to American Kid or anything, but at least acknowledge your entire fan base. 

Who else is excited for Melody? And who has a little boy looking forward to the release? 

AG Rewards

I blogged about some of American Girl's recent trademarks back in May. One of these was something called "AG Rewards". I remember commenting at the time that Mr. D wouldn't be too terribly thrilled about something like that. 

Well, it looks like it's time to break the news to the poor man.

When going to americangirl.com/REWARDS it appears that the ability to sign up isn't live quite yet, but these announcements are going out in new catalogs, so we can assume that it will be soon.

What an amazing thing to pop up shortly before Melody's release! (Any day now, AG. Any day.) 

Who else is excited?

~Mrs. D

Kaya Photographs and Musings

Kaya is, in my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful American Girls that has ever been released. She is also one of the most underappreciated. (Right along with another of my favorites, Addy.) I think it's a shame that American Girl, over the course of 30 years and 14 Historical/BeForever dolls, has only represented one Native American. I suppose I should be happy they haven't retired her, but it's horrible (and very telling) that a company priding themselves on telling the stories of American girls has steadily ignored the stories of the original girls of our country.

They wouldn't always be pretty stories to tell, but much of American history isn't. That was supposed to be the point. Telling history through play and stories. Not all history is happy, but there is a very age appropriate, yet honest, way to tell those stories that won't forever scar your children but will teach them what needs to be taught. Look around, people. Our failure to teach the unpleasant portions of history in order to "shield" our children has resulted in an alarming repeat (and continuation) of some of our darker periods. Is one doll company going to stop that? No. But someone has to start. 

In the mean time, I find it saddening that people either can't, or refuse to, see the amazing beauty in Kaya's character, doll, and stories. I think she's stunning, her stories are amazing, and I think this little girl will be getting her very own, more lengthy, photo shoot very soon. In the meantime, here are a couple of photographs I snapped today just because I had both Kaya and my camera at hand and was itching to use it.