Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Dear American Girl: WTF?


So... not sure about you... but I may or may not have COVETED American Girl dolls as a kid. My favorite obviously being the pioneer one (kirsten, i think?) and I wanted all of her pioneer clothing, from her bonnet & matching dress all the way down to the chickens in the live action catalogue photoshoots. I loved reading the little books about the historical characters. Raged with jealousy over the dolls my friends owned and festered with confusion as to why, weeks after their purchases, the dolls mostly sat tallying dust bunnies in the corners of bookshelves. I was so convinced that were I to have an american girl doll, I would take MUCH better care of her. I could not BELIEVE the injustice of not getting one. But I'm starting to reconsider the hostility I spent on my non-AG doll-purchasing-parents.
Did you know that American Girl recently came out with a HOMELESS DOLL?
It's not because they have decided to raise money to fund programs for the homeless. It's because they want your $95 bucks a pop. that's it. nothing more. Her dad left her. Her mom lost her job. Now they shack up in a car. Okay okay, now the 7 year olds will know about how hard some of their peers have it. It's possible. But is encouraging children to demand expensive wads of plastic from their parents really a way to raise awareness about poverty?
methinks not.

tacky? tasteless? What do you think?
who comes up with this crap?

2 comments:

Jennifer Bone said...

Truly inconceivable who could think this was a good idea!

M

P.S. Secretly, I always wanted to get you one of those dolls, but could never quite bring myself to pay the $$$. Oh, well...

Red Prairie Press said...

ha!!!!!
thank you for being a responsible parent.