Bootlegs

File:Bootleg WellieWishers dolls.jpg

A pair of bootleg WellieWishers dolls with minced trademarks.

A bootleg or a knockoff is a product similar or identical to a product of one company, but made by another without the authorization of the original manufacturer. Despite American Girl's reputation as a relatively niche franchise outside of its home market, there still exist clones and counterfeit versions of the dolls. Bootlegs are not to be confused with compatible or other 18" doll lines such as Our Generation dolls by Battat, whose clothes and accessories are intended to be cross-compatible with their American Girl equivalents but are otherwise distinct from the latter.

Examples

Some of them, such as the "Sweet Fashion" dolls (as seen in the picture), closely mimic the dolls they are imitating down to the packaging (albeit with the names changed presumably to skirt around trademark laws).

Others simply plagiarize the American Girl face molds and give them a different packaging. An example is the now-defunct "My Lookalike Doll" line, which was previously featured in the British version of the Japanese reality TV show Dragon's Den, as well as those from a company identifying themselves as "Trish Scully", whose store listings use generative AI for its promotional images. The "Trish Scully" dolls appear to be recasts of existing American Girl face molds and are thus nearly identical, but are otherwise of inferior quality to the original dolls.

A more brazen case in 2025 is of reports surfacing on social media about counterfeit Wednesday Addams Collector Dolls being sold at Walmart's online store and other shopping sites by third-party sellers for a deeply discounted price. The dolls in question closely resemble the authentic Wednesday doll (down to the box, accessories and faux certificate of authenticity) but the doll itself is of noticeably inferior workmanship; the box, while mimicking the original, is filled with strange blurbs in broken English instead of Wednesday's character bio and has the "MATTEL" wordmark replaced with "HAPPY" instead.

Legality

Even when considering their viability as a cheaper alternative for lower-income individuals and/or in developing countries, bootleg dolls are still considered to be of illegal origin (especially when considering the manufacturing backgrounds and concerns around illegitimate products, where labor conditions are dubious at best and downright immoral at worst). Also of concern are the materials used in the manufacturing of bootlegs as they may not be compliant with US safety standards and may use toxic materials such as lead and cadmium.

In 2021 American Girl filed suit against a certain Zembrka (American Girl, LLC v. Zembrka, DBA www.zembrka.com; www.daibh-idh.com) for the alleged sale of counterfeit dolls through their now-defunct websites which closely mimicked those of American Girl.