Isabel Hoffman
"Isabel" redirects here. For the doll, see Isabel Hoffman (doll). For the 2014 Girl of the Year, see Isabelle Palmer. For the Girls of Many Lands character, see Isabel Campion.
Isabel Hoffman is the twentieth Historical Character, representing the early 2000s and the turn of the millennium. Isabel was released in 2023 along with Nicki Hoffman.
Personality and Facts
Isabel Hoffman is a nine going on ten year old girl living in Seattle, Washington (twenty minutes away from downtown proper and a short distance from Lake Washington) just before the year 2000 (the turn of the millennium). She is six minutes younger than her fraternal twin sister, Nicki, but one inch taller. Her middle name, Jane, was picked by her mother to honor one of her favorite authors, Jane Austen. The family is interfaith--Dave is Jewish--and celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas.
Isabel prefers pink, pop music, bright colors, flowers, glitter, smiley faces, and sparkles; she is the "glitter" to Nicki's grunge. She likes to wear dresses, sweater vests, and sparkly things. She is more dependent on Nicki than Nicki is on her (even though Nicki is shyer and has less friends), and often feels they should be more interconnected than they are as twins. Isabel is scared of anything to do with heights including roller coasters and tall buildings; whenever they visit the Space Needle, they most often go to Fun Forest (an amusement park nearby underneath) so she doesn't have to go to the top of the Needle. Isabel is very unorganized and most of her things are scattered about in a mess, as compared to more organized Nicki.
She can be loudmouthed and is bad at whispering, and Nicki says she makes as much noise as five friends. She can't sit through a movie without talking the whole time and gets excited about everything. She's not as good at keeping journals as Nicki, and while she collects craft supplies (such as stickers) in a shoe box, she doesn't keep them put away. She can be very headstrong--along with believing she knows what Nicki and her both like, she believes her friends know what they like and there's no changes, and when things change or she can't convince them to remember how things were, she gets distressed. She later comes to terms with the fact she made choices without fully consulting others in their belief they would agree regardless, for both her friends for their dance plans assuming they would continue with their Spice Girls style and with Nicki in attempting to redecorate the room without asking her. She doesn't always know her left from her right and has to hold her hands out in L shapes to remind herself. She never turns down a triple-dog-dare.
Nicki and Isabel often state that they can read each others minds or know how the other is feeling, and call it "twintuition." However, Isabel is more inclined to use the idea of "twintuition" to push that she and Nicki should do things together (even if Nicki is not interested in them) and to persuade her to go along with Isabel's ideas, because as twins they should share the same brain. However, she always knows when things are bothering Nicki. The girls share a secret handshake they made up when little of linking pinkie fingers on one hand and high-fiving with the other, and say "twinx" when they mean "jinx."
Isabel is more outgoing and initially has more friends; she is friends with three girls her age, Quinn, Tori, and Tiffany. She's been making up dances since second grade with her friends.
She is much less worried about the upcoming Y2K concerns (Nicki says Isabel thinks it's a big joke) and thinks the future will be cool with closets to pick out her outfits, TVs people can walk in to be part of the show, and personal robots to answer any question in the world. She is also more focused on the upcoming Millennium Celebration being thrown in Seattle, especially after Quinn's dad gets them a spot to perform. She likes to dance to bright, bouncy music especially music about girl power. Her favorite group is the Spice Girls, and when her and her three friends play, she likes to be Baby Spice and often tries to persuade Nicki to play Sporty Spice to complete the quartet. She also prefers Backstreet Boys over N*SYNC. She collects Beanie Babies--including the memorial Princess Diana bear--and has a Tamagochi and an Easy-Bake Oven.
Her favorite color is pink though she likes all bright colors, her favorite animal is a cat (she adopts her kitten, Buffy, as a Hanukkah gift on the first day) and her favorite show is All That. She likes to snack on Cheez Balls. Her favorite sushi is the tuna roll. She likes Baby Bottle Pops as a candy treat, and her favorite flavor is strawberry. Her style, according to an American Girl Magazine quiz, is "Shooting Star." She is not very organized or neat. She enjoys playing the Rollercoaster Tycoon and Carmen Sandiego video games. She does not like raisins disguised as chocolate chips, green peppers, scary stories (but Goosebumps are okay) or scary news. She fears break-ins. Isabel's AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) name is GlitterGrl9.
Family and Friends
Family
- Robin Hoffman: Isabel's mother.
- Dave Hoffman: Isabel's father.
- Nicki Hoffman: Isabel's twin sister.
Friends and other Minor Characters
- Kat: A new friend into vintage clothing.
- Olivia: A Black girl and new friend who plays tennis.
- Quinn: Isabel's best friend and initially part of her friend group.
- Tori: Isabel's close friend and initially part of her friend group.
- Tiffany: Isabel's close friend initially and part of her friend group.
Books
See: List of Isabel and Nicki's Books
Other Media
- Main article: Isabel Hoffman (doll)
Collection
- See: Isabel's Collection
Trivia
- Isabel (and her twin Nicki) are similar to Cécile Rey and Marie-Grace Gardner, in that the characters share the same historical time period; however, they are twins, rather than representing an interracial friendship.
- While Isabel and Nicki are advertised by American Girl as covering the 1990s, the story starts three weeks before the year 2000, more accurately making the characters represent the early 2000s and turn of the millennium (to which the latter month of 1999 can be contained in). This is similar to Samantha Parkington initially being advertised as Victorian when the series is more properly Edwardian, or Kit Kittredge being given the 1934 year label when the series starts in 1932.
See also
References
- ↑ American Girl comments on Instagram.
- ↑ Nicki: My Journal and Isabel: My Journal
| American Girl Historical Characters | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1760s | 1770s | 1810s
Caroline Abbott ♦ ★ |
1820s | |||||||
| 1850s
Cécile Rey ★ |
1850s | 1860s | 1900s | |||||||
| 1910s | 1920s | 1930s | 1940s | |||||||
| 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | |||||||
| 1980s | 2000s | |||||||||
| ★ Archived / ♦ Part of the BeForever Collection | ||||||||||