This afternoon my youngest daughter and I eagerly swooped down to the basement for some time with our American Girl doll collection. Today she chose Kit and Molly as the student and teacher for school time. Kit got an A+ on her Math test, plucked the violin (while Molly played the flute) during Music class, read about animal needs in Science, and looked at an old map of the United States for Geography. After school, Kit and her friend Blaire started to dress up for the prom… but a spider on the wall abruptly ended the fun. We’ll be back there again soon with our imaginations at the ready.

My obsession with American Girl dolls began in my younger years as I read all of the historical girls published books. Every month or so a catalog would be delivered in the mail. I circled so many items but knew our family couldn’t afford those prices for simple playthings. At 37 years old I perused E-Bay one day and found Samantha and huge set of her clothes, books, and furniture. Not so secretly I knew this purchase would open the floodgates for me, making up for all those years I’ve longed to own these dolls. My two young daughters have been used as justification for building a vast collection.

First off, I navigated to the best websites for information about the different dolls and sets.

http://www.agplaythings.com

https://americangirl.fandom.com/wiki/American_Girl_Wiki

I printed every page with descriptions and pictures of the girls and their accessories. That binder I made became a perfect checklist to satisfy my addictive personality. Many nights were spent combing E-Bay and Facebook purge posts in all the groups I joined. Naturally I sought to complete Samantha and her best friend Nelly’s collections first because I loved their story most. I’m somewhat embarrassed at the sheer number of dollars I have invested in these toys. But, my dream idea centers around an even more user-friendly online space with pics of each tiny piece tagged with traits such as color, type of object, who it belongs to, etc. The existing wiki offers a search function but it’s not to my standards. Also, the site shows generic stock pictures and not individual pieces within each outfit or set. Thankfully my husband spins up webpages and databases like a wizard. Stay tuned as I start this major project soon!