Girls of the Year
The Girl of the Year line launched in 2001 with Lindsey Bergman, introducing a new format for American Girl: one doll per year, retired at the end of her release year. Each character is a contemporary girl with a modern story, typically centered around a specific hobby or passion—dance, gymnastics, photography, cooking, surfing, and more. Unlike the Historical Characters, whose stories are rooted in specific eras of U.S. history, GOTY characters reflect the world as it is now, giving each year’s doll a built-in sense of relevance and timeliness.
After the GOTY line began to gain traction, each Girl of the Year received two books, a full collection of outfits and accessories, and—starting with Nicki Fleming in 2007—larger items like furniture and room sets. Movies became a hallmark of the line during this era as well, with full-length feature films released for serveral of the dolls between 2007 and 2016. However, Gabriela McBride in 2017 was the first GOTY in several years not to receive a movie, and the movie era has generally not resumed since.
A longstanding criticism of the line in its earlier years was its lack of diversity—many of the first GOTYs were blonde, White, and engaged in similar hobbies. The only African-American Girl of the Year was Gabriela McBride in 2017. Representation has improved over time, with characters of varying backgrounds and stories, though the line has continued to attract scrutiny over the lack of depth and quality of collections in more recent years.
GOTY was originally designed to have limited edition dolls, which would only be available for puchase for the calendar year. However, beginning with Lila Monetti in 2024, they’ve begun to release new GOTY dolls early (sometimes months early), and known to stay late. For example, Corinne Tan could still be purchased throughout 2024, even though she was the GOTY 2022. This was most likely due to the fact that Corinne was a very popular GOTY doll, as AG turned one of their first quarters fully profitable when she was released.
The line was originally marketed as “American Girl of the Year” before being rebranded simply as “Girl of the Year.”
| Name | Story Year | Photo | Doll |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lindsey Bergman | 2001 | ||
| Kailey Hopkins | 2003 | ||
| Marisol Luna | 2005 | ||
| Jess McConnell | 2006 | ||
| Nicki Fleming | 2007 | ||
| Mia St. Clair | 2008 | ||
| Chrissa Maxwell & Gwen Thompson & Sonali Matthews | 2009 | ||
| Lanie Holland | 2010 | ||
| Kanani Akina | 2011 | ||
| McKenna Brooks | 2012 | ||
| Saige Copeland | 2013 | ||
| Isabelle Palmer | 2014 | ||
| Grace Thomas | 2015 | ||
| Lea Clark | 2016 | ||
| Gabriela McBride | 2017 | ||
| Luciana Vega | 2011 | ||
| Blaire Wilson | 2019 | ||
| Joss Kendrick | 2020 | ||
| Kira Bailey | 2021 | ||
| Corinne & Gwynn Tan | 2022 | ||
| Kavi Sharma | 2023 | ||
| Lila Monetti | 2024 | ||
| Summer McKinny | 2025 | ||
| Raquel Reyes | 2026 |
