Bringing you something a little bit different today! I wanted to post about a couple of really delightful videos made by YouTuber/TikTokker Babbity Kate, who makes content about about a lot of varied stuff, it seems! Disney Princesses? Bella Swan's Khaki Skirt? Taylor Swift? "Subscribe," said I -- but particularly because I really loved her deep dive on Kirsten Larson, the American Girl character/doll.
Words can't express how much I enjoyed this video! Babbity Kate covers the Kirsten books, as well as the doll and accessories that go along with the books. She talks about the all-important historical aspects, the appeal of the products (doll, clothes, books, and things like the paper dolls and activity books), and some Pleasant Company history. It's a deep dive indeed. She covers short stories I didn't know existed, and even talks about the Pleasant Company catalogues and the experience of reading them, of admiring the dolls in them!
I was super hype when she dropped a Samantha Parkington deep dive a few days ago! Or, at least, part one of a Samantha deep dive!!
(The thumbnail on this one is glorious.)
I find these videos really well-balanced. Although long, I think they are very digestible in smaller chunks due to how she rotates between topics. She will cover a book, then an outfit, then talk about history or another fun but related tangent, then return to covering the next book in the series.
In my opinion, Kate has a good sense of humor. The deep dive videos have some running jokes and I appreciate that, and she knows how to lightly make fun of things. But, very importantly to me, the humor factor doesn't ever outweigh the joy and appreciation of the dolls/books/products. The way she speaks about everything still respects the magic of these dolls and beloved characters. I think the word I'm searching for is "sincerity." Kate's ability to find humor in the books and her ability to point out what historical content is flawed or outdated is never at the expense of sincere enjoyment of the subject matter. The American Girl/Pleasant Company nostalgia is respected, not lambasted. What deserves criticism is touched upon, but as a review, that is never at all the crux of the videos.
Like, I can't say how often nostalgia content accidentally wanders too far into territory where it either overhypes the topic at hand, sometimes undeservedly, or criticizes it too much. Especially if it's something for kids. Reviewing kids' stuff as an adult is a tricky thing to do, I think, and some people don't know how to strike a good balance between critique and appreciation.
I myself, as a child in the 90s, had a major, major American Girl phase! I talked about this a long time ago now, in 2010, here in this post about Christmas gifts I got as a child! I would carry the catalogues everywhere with me. I pored over them just about every day. I memorized the text and looked at every single detail of the photographs. The historical girls (which were the bulk of the catalogue then) held an endless appeal to me. All my life I have loved historical fiction and this aspect of American Girl was a major part of that appeal. I was not interested in the modern "just like you" dolls, when they started doing those. To me, the most interesting and exciting things were the historically inspired clothing and accessories and furniture, and the characters of the historical girls.
Anyway, I had both Samantha and Kirsten, and several dresses and little accessories for each of them! Although I was out of my American Girls phase by age 13 or so, Pleasant Company being acquired by Mattel was still a big turn-off for me. I could see the difference in quality and aesthetics between what Pleasant Company produced and what Mattel produced. But I also didn't pay too much attention, beyond some disappointment at some of the newer Samantha clothing they came out with post-Pleasant Company.
I'm absolutely not up on American Girl! The releases, the changes in branding. Whatever the kerfuffles in the AG community are. No clue about any of that! So, getting a bit of an update from these videos was really interesting to me, as a former collector and someone who loved (and still loves) Samantha and Kirsten. The characters! The outfits! The flavor texts of the old catalogues!
That love and nostalgia was really reignited for me by these videos. If you're into American Girl, have any nostalgia or curiosity about them, or just really like deep dives, I recommend these videos!
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