My American Girl = Gymboree: The Youthening of AG

We were going to let our photo contest reminder post 

sit at the top of the blog for awhile.

Then we got an email from American Girl.

The newest release at the end of June

told us that AG was going in the direction of Gymboree.

Now Gymbo carries items for girls up to 12, but really -- 

How many 12 year olds are wearing Gymbo????

If you are 12 and wear Gymbo, 

please feel free to tell me I am wrong in the comments section.

To us the style of clothing now being offered says young girls -- like 8-ish.

And this new email from American Girl confirms this.

Suddenly the girl models are looking much much younger.

Hence -- the youthening of AG.

Now that's all fine and good to market to 8 year olds --

But what about the 14, 15, 16 year olds 

who still want to use their dolls, dress them up, and gasp -- 

even buy stuff from AG?

Apparently they are SOL.

For those of you who are 8 year olds, 

that means Sorry Out of Luck.

For those of you who are 16 year olds, 

you know what that actually means.

And yes, there are still 16 year olds playing with AG.

Just go on Youtube sometime and check out the AG vids.

Or flickr, or instagram.

You can tell some of these girls are in high school.

And of course some of them are in college.

And also there is a growing part of the AG fandom 

which is now post-post-college.

I won't say any ages -- 

but we exist and we grow stronger by the day.

Like a parasitic disease. ;-)

Many Moms have larger AG and doll collections 

than their daughters.

Especially those who started collecting back in the 80s like us.

When dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.

Now if you want Gymbo - 8 year old's outfits -- that is fine and dandy.

But we don't.

We didn't see a single thing we are dying 

to have in this new release.

At first we thought it was some sort of malaise on our part.

We just weren't that into AG anymore or something.

But no, that wasn't it.

It was the clothing styles.

And we went on the Gymbo site, 

and saw them again there.

(That is one powerful walking stance.)

All that is missing is that bizarre belt.

Not to say we are disgusted by this shift.

But it is telling of where the company is going.

And we are disappointed by it.

And so we are going to be buying our AG goods 

from Etsy and not from AG.

Etsy is just the better option now.

Usually it was, maybe 75% of the time.

But now it is more like 95% of the time.

But anyways, we'll talk more about why Etsy is awesome later.

For now, see the My American Girl emails through the ages.

Or the last 6 years.

You can tell that the girls have suddenly gotten much younger.

And in comparison to back in ol' 2008,

there is a huge difference in the age of these girls,

 and also how they have been styled for the camera.

Today, 2pm -- July 29, 2014.

July 24, 2014

July 1, 2014

^ This image also appeared with this one below on June 5, 2014.

So that email showed a sort of mix and match of age groups.

And also that Isabelle, the GOTY, 

and her style was geared toward older girls.

Meanwhile most of the MyAG stuff was put on younger girls, 

more of the age that used to be shown with Bittys.

And of course the Bitty stuff is being shown with even younger girls.

But back to MyAG line images....

May 8, 2014

"Oh Dad, your Dad jokes are so funny!

You are buying me another doll today, right Dad?

Have I told you that your jokes are hysterical?

Because they are!"

April 3, 2014

(AG stores are beginning to look like arts and crafts sweatshops.)

Even the May 8th and April 3rd girls above 

seem older than, say the July 24th girl. 

See below.

(She really is psychotically staring at that doll.)

And jumping further back, even just last year many of the girl models 

seemed older, for the MyAG line.

11/13/13

9/12/13

And then a quantum leap back to 2010, 2009 and 2008 

for those of you wondering what these emails looked like 

when they first started bombarding your inbox with them.

4/22/09 and 4/20/10

9/22/2009

8/4/2009

2/24/09

1/27/09

9/30/08

And today's email again.

What are your thoughts on this shift?

Do you see what we see?

Or is it just crazy us?

Thanks for visiting us today!

________

Please check out our current photography contest:

http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/2014/07/2014-july-photo-contest-announced.html

Entries due August 1st.

And our Summer Fashion Design Challenge:

http://thedollwardrobe.blogspot.com/2014/06/summer-fdc-theme-announcement-entries.html

Entries due August 15th.