Wednesday, January 29, 2020 // The Statement
2B

Managing Statement Editor

Magdalena Mihaylova

Deputy Editors

Emily Stillman

Marisa Wright

Associate Editor

Reece Meyhoefer

 Designers

 Liz Bigham

 Kate Glad

 Copy Editors

 Madison Gagne 

 Sadia Jiban

 

Photo Editor 

Keemya Esmael

Editor in Chief

Elizabeth Lawrence

Managing Editor

Erin White

G

rowing 
up in the late 2000s, 
the best six days of the year 
were when my American Girl 
Magazine arrived in the mail. When I saw 
it on the counter under a stack of bills and 
advertisements, I ran up to my room and 
carefully opened the table of contents like 
it was precious candy. There was always a 
free poster, a craft, a quiz, an advice col-
umn and a featured reader smiling on the 
cover.
Many issues included interviews with 
the cover girls, who earned their face 
in print by volunteering at a commu-
nity garden, starting a jewelry business 
or organizing a clothing drive. I dreamt 
of being published in the magazine and 
entered writing and photo contests to do 
so, having photoshoots with my stuffed 
animals and trying to fit the vocabulary 
word “tchotchke” into a short story. I even 
started a business making collars for Web-
kinz stuffed animals in hopes I’d become a 
success story in the next issue.
Unsurprisingly, I spent more money on 
my business cards and bracelet beads than 
I made in actual revenue. Yet even though 
I never found my face on the cover or my 
story in the magazine, I set a foundation 
for my future pursuits in photography, 
writing and entrepreneurship. The maga-
zine undeniably shaped who I am today.
When I got older, I tried reading Girls’ 
Life, Teen Vogue and even Tiger Beat, 
which stressed me out with its loud colors 
and celebrity gossip. I read these maga-
zines for a few years, but I never cherished 
the moments spent with their pages like I 
did with American Girl Magazine. I guess 
I just didn’t care about which $90 hand-
bag matches which $200 cheetah-printed 
boots or if Maybelline mascara is less 

clumpy than CoverGirl — I 
didn’t even wear makeup or 
care about clothes until I got 
to college.
I recently discovered that 
American Girl Magazine stopped 
production in 2019. I had carelessly 
thrown out my issues around the time of 
high school graduation, but still searched 
my room in hopes of finding them. After 
no luck, I bought four 2009 issues on eBay.
I mourned the loss of the magazine not 
because I wanted to try its recipe for “fruit 
pizza” again, but because it represented a 
world where regular girls — not celebri-
ties — graced the cover of a mainstream 
magazine. It’s difficult to find anything 
similar to American Girl Magazine today, 
or even a magazine targeted at young girls 
whose covers don’t advertise “does your 
crush like you?” but rather “plan a spooky 
party.” 
Though the magazine is gone, the 
American Girl brand still thrives through 
their popular dolls. The franchise began 
producing dolls in the 1980s, years before 
the magazine began in 1992, and are now 
accompanied by books that gave each 
character a backstory. The dolls and their 
stories have been applauded for their 
diverse narratives that encompass how 
the average young girl lived during a spe-
cific time period, which is a demographic 
often left out of textbooks and elementary 
school classes. 
Historical characters included Addy, 
an African-American girl who escaped 
slavery; Kaya, a girl from the Nez Perce 
tribe living before white colonization; and 
Josefina, a Mexican girl living in Santa 
Fe while it was still Mexican territory. 
Recent dolls emphasize today’s diversity 
more than historical narratives, exempli-
fied by Joss, the 2020 doll of the year who 
is a surfer with a hearing aid. Customiz-
able “Truly Me” dolls are also available 
with various skin tones, boy and girl gen-
ders and accessories such as an insulin 
pump. 
I had two historical dolls of my own, 
Kirsten and Elizabeth, and loved their 
books so much that I went on to also read 

the other dolls’ stories. Much like the 
magazine, the books teach girls to be clev-
er and powerful without focusing on the 
presence of men. But owning the dolls is 
undeniably a privilege, with the doll and 
book alone costing upwards of $100, while 
the magazine was more accessible at $20 
for an annual subscription. 
American Girl Magazine was important 
not only for its accessibility but because it 
was a separate entity from the products. 
It wasn’t just another platform advertis-
ing the dolls, but a way to bridge the gap 
between the dolls’ historical narratives 
and modern narratives of girls doing good 
work today. This is arguably needed more 
than ever in an age where young girls are 
more vulnerable to toxic pressures than 
ever before.
As someone born between millennials 
and Generation Z, my childhood was influ-
enced by the digital world, but not defined 
by it. Today, girls from eight to 12 years old 
spend around six hours a day with enter-
tainment media — and while my child-
hood entertainment meant Webkinz and 
Club Penguin, today it means Instagram 
and TikTok, where girls as young as 15 put 
on makeup and tight clothing and perform 
for followers.
What other options do they have? If a 
young girl wants to read a girls-oriented 
magazine, she must choose one with a 
photoshopped celebrity on the cover often 
littered with tips about how to be appeal-
ing to men. If she wants to make a DIY 
craft, she will probably seek out a You-
Tube influencer to teach her, persuaded 
by their “authenticity” when they are like-
ly also performing for social capital.
Of course, there is still good work 
happening 
for 
girls’ 
empowerment 
online: Teen Vogue now publishes politi-
cal articles in addition to content about 
fashion and makeup, and Barbie releases 
animated vlogs covering feminist topics 
such as girls’ tendency to apologize more 
than boys. Competitors of American Girl 
are now trying to fill in the gaps in the 
digital world. 
Plus, American Girl still produces 
informational content — many will 

remember the books “The Care and Keep-
ing of You” which teaches girls about 
their growing bodies and “A Smart Girl’s 
Guide to Boys” which, despite becoming 
a meme (as a conversation starter, it rec-
ommends “I wish they’d teach us more 
about Vikings”), encourages curiosity and 
equality in relationships. More recently, 
the company released another guide to 
the digital world about how to safely navi-
gate the Internet. 
Yet, there is something deeply person-
al about a physical magazine that I wish 
girls today could experience. There was 
a sense that you were the only one read-
ing the issue and it was made for you spe-
cifically. It was sent to your house. You 
owned it and the information in it. That 
medium, in and of itself, was empower-
ing.
It is natural that American Girl is 
changing as American girls are changing. 
But while the instant gratification of the 
Internet can jumpstart imagination with 
information, young girls also don’t get 
downtime in between ideas. Consump-
tion becomes more appealing than action: 
When girls can stay in that media environ-
ment forever, they never have to sit back 
and work with what they’re given before 
the next issue arrives. 
I am anxiously waiting for my own cop-
ies to arrive from eBay. When they do, I’ll 
probably run to my room and pore over 
every word. Maybe it will feel more pre-
cious than before, knowing once the print 
issues are gone, all traces will be lost. But 
even though the magazine faded away 
before it could reach the girls of today 
and tomorrow, I know they will be clever 
enough to grow in the digital world. 
In fact, if they are anything like the 
American girls throughout the rest of his-
tory, I know they already are.

American girl needed American Girl Magazine
BY HANNAH BRAUER, STATEMENT COLUMNIST
American

statement

THE MICHIGAN DAILY | JANUARY 29, 2020

Girls

