Buying an American Girl for your kid is a “woke” decision?

Valeria Martinez

Firstly, to understand if the American Girl brand is woke or not, we need to define what
woke means. Woke is a common term in the digital edge to refer to a person, company, or group
that is aware and well-informed in the sociopolitical and cultural field, especially around minorities
and marginalized groups.

We can tell that American Girl is an up-to-date version of Barbie. Indeed, American Girl
was made to create a realistic relationship with girls. From the way they're constructed, and the
way they share stories, you can tell that they are kid oriented. On the other hand, we have Barbie
representing the glamourized part of being a girl, encapsulating individual beauty standards from a
very immature age.

Barbie is more aesthetically pleasing to a mature public, but it has a cost from a little girl's
perspective. Barbie is from excellence, the type of "doll" that comes to everyone's mind when it
comes to speaking about this kind of product. But what is the problem with Barbie? Can Barbie be
inclusive as American Doll?

We cannot talk about inclusion in the American Doll storyline because they are only given
pieces of information necessary for little girls to understand America's history. They must include
the terrifying chapter full of racism because it's part of their story. In my opinion, American Doll
wasn't inclusive at the beginning. Their vision was subjective and oriented to a specific public,
white girls with parents with a certain income. Their purpose was marvelous, but they managed it
roughly. They did not objectively portray American history. By a couple of decades, their dolls were
mainly white. The story had changed, and the table had turned.

Marketing is a powerful tool to call a company "woke" Through this decade, American Doll
has been improving its content, stories, and doll line. They are more inclusive. They do not only
stay in the "historical" field. They portray plenty of realities where girls can feel related. From
migrants, the black community, and Native Americans, American Dolls changed the way they were
portrayed. The individualism of the "white-blonde girl" is not part of their speech anymore. By
knowing this and understanding the physical features of the American Dolls, which is way more
realistic, we can see that is not one-body-type oriented. Barbie perpetuates the old stereotype of
how a girl must look. Mattel needs to deglamorize Barbie's perception and storyline.