American Girl Dolls

My daughter has been big on dolls and fairies her whole life --- her imagination and creativity is incredible. She still enjoys them at age 12, but as she got older most of the doll lines because too young for her. It also became less "cool" amongst her friends to play with dolls at a surprisingly young age, which I found very sad. Kids really do move too fast away from childhood (boy, how old does that sound?).

In any case, the American Girl company has really done a fantastic job of creating products (dolls, books and magazines) that appeal to a slightly older person and aren't ashamed to encourage imagination and story play. Each doll represents a girl from a particular era, and is accompanied by interesting books about her life --- real books, not crappy ones.

When she was nine, we went to Chicago with family friends to celebrate her birthday at "American Girl Place", an enormous store, restaurant and theatre all dedicated to the American Girls. It was really quite a neat experience.

In any case, I applaud any company that takes an positive approach to encouraging imaginative play at all ages. I'm the last one to ever criticize consumer culture, but the literal and passive nature of most kids entertainment is just a bummer.