History of the Modern Line
This page documents the history of the modern unnamed character line, covering American Girl of Today, Just Like You, My American Girl, and Truly Me.
1995: American Girl of Today
The American Girl of Today line launched in Fall 1995. Twenty differently designed dolls were originally released. The idea was a modern parallel of the cultivated Historical Characters, with purchasers encouraged to create their own characters that were part of history, with the tagline "You're Part of History Too!". Each doll came with a set of six blank books and matching writing guides written by Valerie Tripp, intended to guide a budding writer through story creation and themes for the character embodied by the physical doll.
Several released outfits, accessories, and items were intended to mimic the Historical Collections with Meet, School, Holiday, Birthday, Summer, and Winter like collections.
As this was the start of the line, this was the first use of the Classic Mold and Addy Mold in the line and the debut of the Asian Mold.
Mini Grin Pins
Outfits often came with sheets of miniature Grin Pins stickers, to mimic the Dress Like Your Doll outfits that came with the full sized Grin Pins. They were on a small sheet with the logo on the back of the package.
American Girl of Today Starter Collection
For a period, starter collections could be purchased similar to those of Historical Collections. The starter collection consisted of the following items (but no included doll) for $195:
There was also a full Birthday collection that included multiple components for a birthday celebration, similar to the Birthday Collections of Historical Characters.
1998: American Girl Today
The line name was slightly renamed to "American Girl Today" in 1998. The dolls now came with only one blank book (the "meet" book) and the initial writing guide. The meet outfit began to change more frequently, roughly every two years, to reflect style changes.
Initial releases of the Girls of the Year were released under the American Girl Today logo.
2000: Mattel Ownership And Writing Book Removal
Soon after the release of dolls in the Urban Outfit, the writing books were phased out.
2001: New Mattel Dolls
The first Mattel Doll, #21, was released, which was the first new doll in the line since the initial launch.
2004: First Doll Retirements
For the first time, dolls in the American Girl Today Line were retired: #9, #10, and #20. As #19 had already been modified to have green eyes in 1999, this removed every grey-eyed modern doll from the line, and all grey-eyed dolls available at the time except Molly. This has retroactively been assumed to be because the color was more prone to the silver eye defect.
2006: Just Like You
In 2006, the line was renamed "Just Like You."[1] The dolls were re-marketed as avatars or friends of those who would be purchasing them, rather than emphasizing the idea of a modern child's place in history. The targeted child was encouraged to see the new character as a buddy or playmate that was much like them, and enjoyed the same activities, hobbies, and personality traits they might.
This change in marketing led to several miscommunication issues about the line that still persist, as multiple purchasers and customers misinterpreted the name and/or wrongly assumed that dolls were customizable, could be customized for the user, or could be/were designed to resemble a child recipient. Many people complained that dolls did not come in enough variety to represent the recipient, especially children. American Girl firmly emphasized that the theme behind the name was that the creation of the doll's personality and interests and ties to the modern era were to be just like the target-age child, not intended to match the doll's specific looks.
Outfits started to come with miniature books; these were often either original fiction short stories, factual small books, or excerpts from American Girl Magazine.
The release of Just Like You 28 was the first use of the Josefina Mold in the line.
2007: Bangs Adjusted
In 2007, the bangs of many of the dolls began to be modified to finer, wispier bangs. #7, #14, and #19 were the first to have modified bangs; in 2008 #2, #4, #5, #12, #13, #16, and #17 were all given finer bangs.
2008: Earrings and Ear Piercing
When #27 was initially released, she came with attached silver star earrings. In 2008, her earrings were removed and any Just Like You Doll could be modified at purchase to have pierced ears. Dolls came with a package of six studs and danglers to mix and match, the Silver Star Earrings.
The release of Just Like You 30 was the first use of the Jess Mold in the line.
2009: Large Release of Dolls
In 2009--after releasing new modern dolls in relatively small amounts--twenty new dolls were released simultaneously in September of that year. This took the number of dolls that had ever been available through both the American Girl of Today and Just Like You line (including all retired dolls) from thirty-two to fifty-two and was the largest single release of dolls since the start of the line until the revamp in 2022.
This also included the first use of the Sonali Mold in the line with Just Like You 46 and Just Like You 47.
2010: My American Girl
With the launch of Innerstar University, the line was renamed My American Girl. The dolls were still marketed as companions or friends, but with less misinterpretation on the idea of a doll being just like the targeted child in looks (even though this was never the intention of the line) or being a representation. The website helped encourage the consumer to design any character by personality traits, and focused more on independent character creation. Doll items such as clothes now came with charms to collect (see details below) and information and codes for joining Innerstar University.
Meet Outfits were not available for a separate purchase directly due to the outfits coming with included Innerstar codes.
Charms
See Also: Visual Chart of My American Girl Charms
At the same time the line was rebranded to My American Girl, charms were offered with most outfits, replacing the miniature books that had been included.[2] Nine Personality Traits were noted, with specified logos and colors:
- Brave: Dark Magenta Star Logo
- Confident: Turquoise Round Flower w/Leaves
- Fair: Magenta Converging wavy lines
- Kind: Light Green Heart
- Loyal: Pink Butterfly
- Proud: Three Orange Shooting Stars
- Real: Periwinkle Star w/ Converging Half-circle Arches
- Smart: Dark Orange Starburst
- Strong: Purple Flower
Charms came in four styles:
- Rectangular Charm in assigned color with text of personality trait in white[3]
- Heart Charm with trait logo in assigned color and coordinated color background
- Square Charm with trait logo in coordinated color (same as used with Heart Charms) and in assigned color background
- Round Charm with white background, logo in assigned color, and assigned color border.
The combination of charm style and personality trait made for thirty-six unique charms. Charms came on small tri-folded pamphlets, with the charms on small cards (thus allowing a generic card for all charms). The paper names the charm, and has a quote from a child age 8-12 about the personality trait. Charms were marketed as items to be added to the necklace that is included with meet outfits, much in the style of Add-A-Girl necklaces from the 90s. They were also considered visual ways to define a doll's personality.
Starting in 2015, outfits no longer came with charms and American Girl stated on their official Facebook page that they would start to be phased out.[4]
2012: Bald Dolls and Hearing Aids
For the first time, modern bald dolls became available, as well as hearing aids as a permanent modification to any modern doll. While bald dolls initially had to be specially ordered directly from customer service or on site at stores, hearing aids were able to be applied at purchase including at American Girl Place locations.
Bald dolls were later made available on the website starting in 2017.
2015: Truly Me
The line was renamed Truly Me and meet outfits were once again made available as a separate purchase for a brief time. Innerstar codes were no longer bundled with meet outfits with American Girl discontinuing support for Innerstar University by that November.
Dolls now came with a Truly Me activity set (officially the Me-and-My Doll Activity Set); a box that includes idea cards for imaginative doll play, doll crafts, recipes, and quizzes, and advice for children.
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Activity Box.
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Some of the activity cards.
The default earrings for piercing became the Stars and Hoops Earrings.
2016: Toys R Us Availability
Dolls on a limited basis became available at Toys R Us American Girl locations. At the same time, the Me-and-My Doll Activity Set began to be phased out.
2018: Boy Dolls and Added Tones
In 2018 after the release of the first boy doll, Logan Everett, four male dolls were released into the Truly Me Line: #74, #75, #76, and #77. The dolls were given modified face molds with slightly thicker jawlines and closed mouths, and painted with thicker brows. They came in unique, more masculine meet outfits. With their release, more masculine outfits were offered.
Also, new dolls expanded the range of tones with new tones of a very light light tone, lighter medium, and "darker" dark tone. The tones are still called dark, medium, and light.
2019: Friends: Making Them and Keeping Them Book
Truly Me dolls now came with a paperback copy of Friends: Making Them and Keeping Them. For a brief time--from August 2019 until May 2020--the price of dolls across the line (and brand) dropped to $98.
2020: Uniquely-Colored Hair Dolls
Starting in 2020, dolls started to be released with unique "dyed hair" colors, capitalizing on the current trend of children and adults dying or accenting their hair in bright colors. This was initially launched with #86 and #88, followed later by #87.
2021: Street Chic Dolls
In March 2021, three new dolls were released as part of the Truly Me Street Chic Collection. The dolls are dressed in more urban-style fashions and like the three dolls before them, they had uniquely colored hair in bright dye-like colors. The dolls also had unique meet outfits that only came with individual dolls, though all three dolls shared the Chic and Stylish Accessories as meet accessories. These dolls are:
- Just Like You 89 in the Cool Camo Outfit;
- Just Like You 90 in the Skater Dress Outfit; and
- Just Like You 91 in the Girly Graffiti Outfit.
In 2022, a fourth doll, Just Like You 92, was released in the Zebra Dress Outfit and with new meet accessories, the Seriously Stylish Accessories.
2022: New Default Earrings, Piercing and Ineligibility for Refunds; All-New Truly Me
The default earrings for piercing became the Shooting Stars Earrings. American Girl also stated that any dolls purchased with pierced ears would be ineligible for refunds (along with all Create Your Own dolls).
In September 2022 the line was majorly revamped for the first time. All older versions of dolls other than the four Street Chic dolls were retired and no longer available for purchase in stores; some remained available in limited quantities on the website. At the same time, twenty-five new dolls were released, including two new boy dolls and two re-released bald dolls.[5] The release included the return of the previously retired Marie-Grace Mold, along with the first uses of the Nanea Mold, Joss Mold, Makena Mold, and Corinne Mold in the line.
Feminine dolls were all given painted top and bottom eyelashes, with the exception of the bald dolls; multiple dolls also had unique and fantasy hair colors.
Along with the doll revamp, five new meet sets and accessories were released. The five versions of the meet outfits were specific to each doll; however, the other meet outfits and all accessories were available for separate purchase from all dolls. The two boy dolls were available in unique versions of the meet outfits.
Friends: Making Them and Keeping Them was removed, with the new book included being All About Us: A Special Book For Special Friends, a journal book to be use by the purchaser. This was removed with the release of the Star Squad Outfit.
2025: Styled by You Experience
In 2025, the Styled By You Experience was launched at all American Girl Place locations. This allows a purchaser to select a doll from the available Truly Me selections, a outfit from the Truly Me line, and either two accessories or a single pet. Purchasers are encouraged to debox the doll in-store, redress them in the newly purchased outfit, and take a picture for social media. The purchase cost also comes with the American Girl Doll Carrier, an additional certificate of authenticity filled out by the purchaser, and design tag.
2025: Long Hair Looks Collection
In July 2025, three new dolls were released as part of the Truly Me Long Hair Looks Collection. The dolls have exceptionally long hair to the knees, a unique meet outfit among them, the Long Hair Looks Outfit, and each comes with individual multiple hair play accessories.
References
- ↑ This Wiki was started in 2008, when this was the name of the line. Rather than have to systematically change the name of hundreds of articles and dozens of dolls with every new name change, we continue to use the obsolete name. See Categorizing The Modern Line on our Article Policy for more details.
- ↑ Charms were generally not included with singular items (such as t-shirts), Purchase With Purchase items, underwear, or shoes.
- ↑ These charms are square, but with a hole in the center and text on all four sides; thus the charm displays rectangular.
- ↑ Reference, Facebook post.
- ↑ Several dolls were re-released with the new look. For ease of record with the new numbering system, they were given new pages here.