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American Girl Dolls debuted in 1986 when Pleasant Rowland introduced the Pleasant Company and the first three 18 inch dolls in the collection—Molly McIntire, Samantha Parkington, and Kirsten Larson. Each doll represents a different time period in American girl life. Molly’s stories take place in 1944 during World War II. Samantha is part of a wealthy family in 1904 and her stories explore issues such as women’s rights and worker’s rights at the turn of the century. Kirsten’s stories are from 1954 and covered European immigration and pioneer life in the midwest. Over the years other historical dolls were released, Felicity (1774), Addy (1864), and Josefina (1824) rounding out the “original six”, with many more released, the total number of historical dolls now reaching almost 25.

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American Girl Rerelease of Historical Dolls

American Girl reissued three of the original dolls in their original outfits on May 2, 2024-Kirsten, Josefina, and Addy. The dolls were also released with their birthday outfits and classic white covered books. American Girl had previously released Kit in her original outfit in summer 2023 and Molly in 2022. Molly and Kit were also released with a mini collection of extra outfits and accessories as well. Of note, Kit’s books were released with her original cover artwork, but Molly’s were released with later cover art, not the white covers that the original six dolls had. For the 35th anniversary of the company in 2021, they ran a limited release of the original six dolls with classic outfits, these dolls sold out after a few months of being available. It seems American Girl is heading down a path of reissuing more historical dolls—but they are so cryptic it’s hard to be sure. Even with them trying to keep things quiet, there are a few hints out there.

Welcome back Josefina, Kirsten, and Addy! Mini dolls held by Kirsten, Nanea, and Claudie.

American Girl Doll Leaks

American Girl tends to be very hush hush about upcoming releases. Generally, they have a new release of products every month. They don’t want customers to avoid buying the current release in order to save for the next if they already know what’s coming. (Another reason they often throw down big sales right before a new release.) American Girl fans have found several ways to sleuth out info about potential releases. Of course, even the most informed fans still can get release info wrong. Here’s some ways we get hints about what might be released:

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1. Easter eggs in American Girl videos and posts.

Lol at American Girl leaking their own upcoming releases. Just kidding, I’m pretty sure they do it on purpose, fully aware of what they are doing. The new classic historical outfits made several appearances on IG and TikTok before being released. As did the new Create Your Own boy outfits.

2. American Girl comments on social media.

I personally think their comments on social media are more reliable than those of AG customer service or store staff. Although, like I mentioned, their comments tend to be very cryptic, such as “wait and see” or “might be limited quantities” or my personal favorite when they make comments on questions about new releases like “we have no idea what’s coming next”. Sure, no one in the company knows what’s being released next??

3. eBay Grey Market

There are a few eBay sellers who sell what seems to be brand new American Girl brand products but that are not associated with American Girl. These items all ship from China. I have personally ordered from these sellers before and products seem to be legitimate. I assume that these products are overstock or slightly defective items that are from AG manufacturers. AG keeps replacement parts on hand for customers for a few years after the product is sold (these can be purchased only by calling their customer service line) and my thought is that these sellers may be given the items once AG is ready to offload any extra parts they no longer want to keep on hand. More recently, they have been selling some products before they are even for sale from American Girl. This was the case with the daisy chain head crown that comes with Kirsten’s Birthday Outfit that gave AG fans a big hint about her release.

4. Investor Relations Meetings

In the 2023 Mattel investor meeting, collectors were delighted by a big slide showing Kit Kittredge in her classic meet outfit and the speaker implying something about “exciting new releases”. I think Mattel may have learned their lesson on this one as the news flew all over social media and the 2024 investor meeting was a bit of a leak flop—other than a preview of the Girl of the Year 2025 logo and release date.

5. US Patent Office

Who knew the US Patent Office would help AG collectors out so much? Usually a year or two before a release AG starts patenting the names of their new characters. AG superfans then get to work figuring out what era or culture that name might be from as was the case with Claudie Wells. Pet names also often give hints about what type of hobbies the doll may be interested in. Of course, this information is always theory until the dolls are officially released but lots of people had Claudie figured out pretty early.

6. Well informed AG accounts.

There seems to be a few social media accounts out there that somehow have leak information before anyone else. I figure they either work internally or have internal AG/Mattel connections. I recommend taking anything with a grain of salt and don’t run out and make rash AG purchases based on hearsay. A few years back, a well intentioned FaceBook user made a comment that Nanea was going to be retired and I saw several comments of people running out to get her. She has yet to be retired, but her collection is diminishing—so may be on the way to being “cubed”, meaning having a limited collection of only the doll and her accessories.

7. American Girl Customer Surveys

American Girl will occasionally email out surveys to limited customers to get their opinions on potential new releases. These surveys often provide a preview of items that may be released in the future. The new boy Wellie Wisher doll, Bryant, was in a survey as well as the Birthstone outfits and new Truly Me line.

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So What’s Coming Next for American Girl?

Based on American Girl trying to keep everything on the down low, we’ll never know for sure until they actually release new items, but we do have a few hints!

Upcoming Berry Release Event on June 2, 2024

AG invited Berry Members to an exclusive event at their flagship stores on June 2nd. In the description of the event they mention they will have exclusive look at new releases. So we know something new is coming that day or shortly after for online sales.

AG Website Redesign and Rebranding

AG’s tech partner, Pentagram Design, released a blog post and social media posts detailing out the new American Girl website with so much future release eye candy for AG collectors. It looks like we’re getting lots of throwback items and classic pattern references in home decor. My guess is this will be part of the June 2nd launch, but I’m really hoping for more historical doll releases as well—like Felicity and Samantha in their original meet outfits.

Hints from American Girl’s Comments

American Girl has dropped a few hints on instagram about possible future releases. It seems to me that they are saying there will be more historical items available.

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Products on the Grey Market

These are pure speculation, but the products on eBay seem to be indicating some possible releases. Some of these items have been retired for a very long time. Here’s what I’ve seen on eBay.

Historical Items:

Cookies from Addy’s Lunch
Caroline’s bonnet
Felicity’s green riding jacket
Cecile’s parrot
Kirsten’s flower crown

Girl of Today items:

Twilight Outfit (2000)
Paisley Dress (2005)
Denim Jumper (2003)

These items very well could be old items that are no longer going to be sold by American Girl but there’s always the possibility they are either testing out new products or planning to release something. Given how long ago some of these items retired, I’m hoping it’s a sign of things to come. Addy’s lunch was last available in 2017, Caroline retired in 2015, and Felicity’s riding habit was retired in 2010.

Totally Speculative Predictions About New Releases

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Based on all the information and my greatest hopes and dreams, I hope more of the original six historical dolls are on their way. If AG were to listen to me, they would release Felicity and Samantha in their original outfits as well and then release special outfits with the original white covered books throughout the year—saves the day outfits this summer, school outfits in the fall, winter story outfits before Christmas. There’s a slight possibility for Cecile and Caroline based on the grey market items but my personal opinion is that those two won’t be rereleased. They do sell well on the secondary market, so it might be a decent investment for American Girl. It looks like they may be considering more Girl of Today limited rereleases as well, although these would not be the outfits I would pick. More 90’s outfits pleeease!