American Girl Then, American Girl Now
Introducing my new co-edited book and a historical recipe!
It smells like ginger peach tea and some stringy classical music gently pipes overhead. I’ve already sighed heavily over the leather bound journals, thumbed through the magazines with the fold-out posters of Devon Sawa and JTT, and skimmed the small, dark YA shelf stuffed with sultry titles I don’t quite understand. I make my way, ever so aloofly (or as aloofly as a 10 year old can be), to the final row at the back of the children’s section of my local Barnes and Noble. That row, tucked back in the corner where no one else could see — especially other kids my age who might give me grief for liking books arguably appropriate for our age — I could run my hand along the thin, off-white spines of dozens and dozens of American Girl books. The definition of a perfect afternoon for then pre-teen me, I would gladly sit on that hard, dusty carpeted floor reading about Samantha, Kirsten, and Felicity. And at the end of the row were the cookbooks filled with recipes for the very foods that illuminated the girls’ stories: lemon ices, pound cake, shortbreads, St. Lucia buns. Looking back now, I realize that secret shelf was actually a trap set to lure unsuspecting young girls into a lifetime of history and cultural studies. Well played, Pleasant Rowland, well played.
Now here I am two and a half decades and two history and culture graduate degrees later and I’m pleased to say the tables have turned and I and my dear co-editor Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler can put our own book on that shelf.
Together with our amazingly brilliant and multidisciplinary contributors we’ve created An American Girl Anthology, which explores the Pleasant Company (American Girl’s parent corporation) and the social and cultural impact the dolls and broader American Girl universe continue to have for generations of American consumers. This book has everything: deep dive essays into the AGIG community, reports and reviews on the AG library, interview with AG meme makers, heartfelt analyses of the role of AG in our pasts and presents. And for the food folks, an essay by me and my dearest friend and fellow food scholar Esther Martin on all things food in American Girl.
The book comes out Spring 2025, but is now available to pre-order! I hope you’ll take a look or at least share it with someone you know who loves American Girl (statistically you’re bound to know at least one*). Learn more about the book and all of our lovely contributors at the University Press of Mississippi website and stay tuned here and over on our dedicated IG (@anamericangirlanthology) for more AG themed behind-the-scenes.
*I’m sure such a statistic exists somewhere.
I don’t want to give away any secrets from the book, so I thought I’d leave you with one of favorite finds from the research for my AG food essay. A testament to the lasting power and influence of the American Girl cookbooks, this wacky find is from 2017, when a Tampa Bay Times reporter tasked herself and her (hopefully consenting) friend to a spooky season cooking challenge featuring Pumpkin Empanaditas using a recipe from American Girl Josefina’s cookbook.
I’ll let you click the image below to read the article, but my favorite part is when the writer explains “These empanaditas really taste like something from the 1800s…” Food history in action!
Pre-order An American Girl Anthology: Finding Ourselves in the Pleasant Company Universe at the University Press of Mississippi or at your favorite local bookseller!
Thank you!!
Wow, I thought this was just going to be an American Girl-focused post—which I already loved, having read every single book as a kid while holding tight to my Samantha doll. But you wrote an entire book about it? That’s amazing—hat’s off to you! I’ll be grabbing a copy as soon as it comes out this spring.
I am almost certain that I made this recipe ca. 1999 and it was…fine? Also a chile colorado situation that I remember being very good. Long live Josefina’s cookbook!