American Girl released their first Asian American Girl of the Year doll this year, and my daughters were thrilled. They’ve been dreaming of an Asian doll for years. A was doubly delighted because the character, Corinne, lives in Colorado and is a skier. We live in Colorado too, and A adores bombing the hill on her snowboard. Corrine has a little sister, likes to sit by the fire and eat s’mores, and has a dog. A is the little sister, likes the firepit and s’mores, and has a dog. Corrine, in the book that comes with the doll, is harassed about her racial heritage in regards to the pandemic, and so are my kids.
Corrine is beautiful. I love the hair especially. Here she is on our back deck in the Colorado snow. I don’t post pictures of my girls online, but when she’s in A’s arms, they look very similar, and there was indescribable joy on A’s face when she finally had a doll that looked like her. Yes, Corrine is half-Asian, so doesn’t have fully Asian features. I would love to see more representation with lines of dolls with a wider array of features so every child could have a doll that looked like them.
A immediately strapped Corrine into snowboard gear and ran her down the hill across the street, and they’ve been inseparable ever since. She’s been enjoying reading the book as well. The content is heavy; her parents are divorced, but she has a delightful and realistic relationship with her sister. That’s okay; children have hard lives and it’s okay to know that other children deal with the same things they do. She also deals with life during the pandemic, including being told she has “kung flu.”
Corrine was released this year in response to the treatment of Asian-Americans during the pandemic. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/business/chinese-american-girl-doll.html For those of you that feel this is overblown, my oldest daughter told me just this week that a kid asked her loudly in the cafeteria if her family ate bats for dinner. Fortunately, several other students came to her defense and told kid his behavior was inappropriate, and his “joke” fell flat. Yes, it’s still happening. Yes, it has to stop. One of the ways that it slows is by representation. It’s sad that it took the pandemic to finally get an Asian doll. I’ve been looking for years.
I hope the doll sells well. She’s beautiful, just like the children and their stories she represents. We need more of them.
Edge Pieces 