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I e-mail these a while ago to them...
Dear Hannah,
Thank you for writing again. We always enjoy hearing from you. You are
so well informed about American Girl, and you have so many creative and
insightful ideas and observations! Thank you for taking the time to
continue to share with us!
We have a Product Development Department that is constantly working on
new and exciting products for our various collections. As you can
imagine, we have many ideas that have yet to move off the drawing
boards
and into development.
Your comments and insights, however, help us to determine if we are
meeting the needs and interests of the girls we serve.
You have some wonderful ideas and you are such a talented writer! We
hope that you continue to hone that skill and branch out to share your
writing to other young readers.
Thank you for your interest. We hope you will continue to enjoy our
books, dolls, and educational products for many years to come!
American Girl? Customer Service
Phone: 1-800-845-0005 or 608-831-5210
Fax: 608-828-4790
Available Monday - Sunday 7 a.m. - 10 p.m. Central Time
Original Message Follows:
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Hiya AG!
First of all, I am wondering what you guys are going to do for your
big 20th anniversary? I think special products would be good.....not
only an AG Place thing, but something everyone can have (if they can
afford it) to celebrate!
I also think that you should start to follow Pleasant T. Rowland's
path a little more. Here is something that was once printed on the back
of the cataloge:
Deep in the basement of a small museum lies a tattered, water-stained
doll trunk. Open the dusty lid and the long-ago childhood of some
lucky
young girl comes instantly to life.
Tucked gently inside is a beautiful porcelain doll?dearly loved and
much played with. Dressed in blue silk and surrounded by marvelous
accessories, this doll and her tiny treasures were the cherished
possessions of their owner?possessions so special that they were put
away until some faraway day when her own little girl could delight in
them.
I discovered this trunk by chance more than a year after I had begun
working on the American Girls Collection. It served as a powerful
reminder of why I had begun the collection, and what I hoped it would
accomplish.
At an age when girls are old enough to read and still love to play,
they need books and dolls that capture their imaginations. The stories
in the American Girls Collection come alive with beautiful dolls and
period doll clothes. The doll accessories are replicas of real things
found in times gone by. They are quality pieces?not plastic
playthings?and are made for children over eight years old to treasure.
I hope the American Girls Collection will be dearly loved and well
played with and then passed down to other generations of girls
tomorrow?a reminder that growing up in America is, has been, and can
always be an experience to treasure.? ?Pleasant T. Rowland
See how meaningful she is? I think it would be GREAT if you changed
some little things, like stop retiring everything! I personally LOVED
the short story books! So you took them away with the outfits! I
personally looooved some of those dresses! I also think that you
concentrate EQUALLY on all of the dolls! Like, can you remember when
Kirsten got a new outfit last? I think it was around 2004 or spring
2005. Can you remember when Samantha got a new outfit? Oh, of course,
it
was only a couple days ago! I think you should focus on Addy, Josefina
(gosh, when did she get a new outfit last? I can't even remember!),
Kirsten, and Kaya (somewhat). Plus I think you should stop trying to
make new doll lines. I think I know why Girls Of Many Lands failed.
When
a girl wants to buy a doll she wants to play with it, not just look at
it! Girls of Many Lands were to look at and collect, but not to play
with or dress. Plus they had weird mouths. AG Minis didn't sell very
well either, I think because
they were so expensive and there were no dolls at all! The Hopscotch
Hill Schools seemed rather cheap and plasticy to me. They didn't
interest me at all. Yes, they were cute and I bet fun to play with-but
just not what girls want. I think you should do what Rowland did, take
a
while and look for something good. Look for the best. Why settle for
something that will last a year when it could last twenty? I think you
should make a line of dolls that are in the regular American Girl Doll
"look" (18 inch, cherub face, ect.) but be from other countries. Like a
chinese doll or a polish doll.....whatever! It will make girls learn
about other countries and have the same effect with the original Molly,
Samantha, and Kirsten!
You say that the books are the heart and soul of the American Girl's
Collection, so why are you suddenly making outfits
from...........nowhere? I never heard of Kit's Homemade scooter before!
This is why you should have kept the short stories! They let you have
the freedom to make any outfits you wished, but followed the Pleasnat
Company Custom! Think about it..............
I've been playing with American Girl Dolls since 2001, when I was
eight years old. My first doll was Samantha. She was my best friend
ever, not just a plaything. I never grew out of her-and don't plan to!
She now has sisters, Kit, Kirsten, Elizabeth, and Addy, but nothing can
compete with your first American Girl Doll.
Thank you.
Hannah
As you can tell, when I write, I write a lot.
Oh, the other letter wasn't really interesting, so I am only doing this one.
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Hannah, I love your letter! I think you pretty much covered what all of us AG fans out there are thinking. I hope they start listening, great job! [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]
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Great job Hannah!! Great letter!! You worded it wonderfully!! [img]biggrin.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]
I agree 100% w/ what you wrote!!! I hope they do something about it!!!
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Wow, great letter and great response. AG only ever gives me the standard response. I try not to write too much, cuz I think they hate hearing from me.
