We had respective things connected our 40th day of American Girl wishlist: The relaunch of Grin Pins; a caller humanities doll with a much modern past (we person consistently suggested thing from the 1960s Chicano Movement); a fewer updated Smart Girl’s guides (please assistance america with our taxes, American Girl!). What we ne'er imagined—even successful our wildest prepubescent oregon existent grown-up dreams—was an American Girl caller for adults. On February 11th, 2026, American Girl announced that they would beryllium releasing their archetypal publication aimed explicitly astatine adults, focusing connected Samantha Parkington.
The question of however to engage—and nett from—a grown-up assemblage is not caller successful the property of the internet. Time is elastic; thing genuinely disappears online, and you tin sink yourself into the hazy nostalgia of your puerility astatine a moment’s notice. During the aboriginal days of the COVID-19 pandemic, societal media strained nether the value of those returning to their parents’ location and cleaning retired the closets of their erstwhile bedrooms. Admissions to American Girl’s “doll hospital” surged; astatine slightest 1 of america (Justine) tin attest to uncovering her formative Molly McIntire doll successful the backmost of her aged closet with rumpled hairsbreadth and a escaped arm, and promptly utilizing her big recognition paper to get her fixed.
In 2025, we published An American Girl Anthology: Finding Ourselves successful the Pleasant Company Universe, successful portion due to the fact that of the swell of reconnection we witnessed crossed our societal media feeds, but besides to fulfill our world curiosities arsenic scholars with titles and credentials who felt American Girl had played a relation successful our respective vocation trajectories. Dr. Tara Strauch, penning for our book, mused implicit the alleged “Felicity Generation”: women raised connected American Girl characters, books, and accessory lines who yet became historians (or pursued higher acquisition and academia much broadly). That American Girl has helped foster an involvement successful the past portion shaping futures is some undeniable and laudable.
An “official” update to Samantha’s communicative doesn’t preclude headcanons. But it does constrictive the scope of possibility, conscionable a little.
Over the people of creating the anthology, we worked with a twelve writers covering topics arsenic divers arsenic Asian-American practice wrong the marque to big collectors and the AGIG (American Girl Instagram) assemblage to the proliferation of “tag-yourself” memes astir American Girl characters reaching the mainstream. One throughline that touched astir each effort was the question of nostalgia. Nostalgia has 2 components: the warmth that you consciousness arsenic you measurement back, adjacent for the briefest second, into a infinitesimal that has passed, but besides a needfully bitter twin–the cognition that the infinitesimal has passed, and you cannot genuinely return.
Ultimately, American Girl inactive has to locomotion a good enactment betwixt being a profitable marque and remaining—and enduring as—a harmless marque for children who are inactive learning to navigate the world. So what does American Girl and Pleasant Company beryllium their fans implicit the property of twelve?
Samantha is, successful our eyes, the logical prime for this somewhat illogical project: she is 1 of the archetypal 3 dolls created by Pleasant Rowland; she has commanded a estimation arsenic the doll with the champion worldly (evidenced by her rumored presumption arsenic American Girl’s best-selling doll of each time); American Girl’s 2026 Doll of the Year, Raquel Reyes, is, according to the company, Samantha’s nonstop descendant. Moreover, though Samantha’s archetypal publication bid sees her face the harsh realities of kid labor, her storyline has (relative to others) astatine slightest somewhat little friction.
American Girl is keeping Samantha: The Next Chapter under strict lock-and-key; astatine clip of writing, nary precocious scholar copies look to beryllium circulating, and only the archetypal 4 chapters are disposable for review via Cosmopolitan.com (there’s thing to beryllium said for American Girl choosing to merchandise this preview via a mag level that erstwhile attempted to straddle adolescence and maturity with a marque caller creation: the Cosmo Girl). Both American Girl and writer Fiona Davis (who has penned 7 bestselling humanities fabrication novels involving New York City and its architecture) picture the publication this way:
It’s 1920, and 25-year-old Samantha Parkington is moving hard to amended women successful New York astir suffrage and promote them to ballot successful their archetypal statesmanlike predetermination that fall. But erstwhile Samantha’s ample inheritance, including her puerility Mount Bedford home, is stolen successful a shocking scheme, she goes from socialite to shopgirl overnight and experiences a precise antithetic broadside of New York City.
Let america authorities what we anticipation is obvious: we did not (and bash not) person expectations of expansive deviations from American Girl’s wide script. Samantha Parkington is simply a trademarked character, and American Girl has a marque estimation they are invested successful preserving and protecting. There isn’t a satellite successful which Mattel, who present owns and manages Pleasant Company, would canonically endorse Samantha joining the IWW. But it is disappointingly wide that American Girl isn’t truly comfy with engaging big readers connected their level (reading oregon otherwise) successful immoderate meaningful capacity.
Despite its description, Samantha: The Next Chapter is a young big novel. There’s thing wrong with this, but it’s simply not however the publication has been marketed oregon peddled. The opening beats are truthful cautiously constrained wrong the established patter and speechmaking level of the archetypal texts that you would beryllium forgiven for reasoning Samantha Parkington is twelve, not twenty-five. In lawsuit you had forgotten Samantha successful doll signifier comes with a heart-shaped locket, it is mentioned instantly (along with her acheronian brownish hair, wherever she grew up, that she’s a suffragist, and, for bully measure, what precisely a suffragist is). Children necessitate exposition; bully children’s lit helps them larn to gully their ain conclusions and admit patterns and connections. Adults should, by immoderate metric, beryllium capable to prime up connected subtext. Especially adults speechmaking done a nostalgic lens who grew up with this aforesaid quality implicit the past 40 years.
Samantha Parkington stood adjacent the back, wherever she could spot everything. She wore her acheronian brownish hairsbreadth pinned neatly astatine the nape, creaseless and practical. She ran a manus implicit it, catching a rebellious curl connected the verge of flight and tucking it backmost successful place. She was twenty-five now, and she had enactment to do…She touched the heart-shaped locket that held photos of her parents and ever steadied her earlier she gave a speech. She wanted to bash her portion to promote women to vote, due to the fact that turnout for erstwhile elections had been disheartening for suffragists. They mightiness person secured the close to ballot for the women of New York but that didn’t mean women knew how—or were ready—to usage it.
One Redditor put it: “I conjecture I don’t needfully caput being pandered to, but I recovered this KIND of pandering…annoying.”
Fiona Davis has undoubtedly delivered precisely the benignant of manuscript American Girl desired, and moreover, felt comfy stamping their support on. We tin lone ideate the dozens of conversations that hammered retired precisely what a twenty-five twelvemonth aged Samantha Parkington could say and do. There’s precedent for this benignant of back-and-forth, and it doesn’t ever extremity with caller material; see the aborted (and overmuch anticipated) Lizzie McGuire reboot, successful which the once-preteen would beryllium navigating big beingness successful New York City. The task collapsed aft Disney, who owns the rights to once-and-future Lizzie content, made it wide to some creator Terri Minsky and prima Hilary Duff that the character’s experiences arsenic a 30-year aged pistillate would request to stay wrong the bounds of a PG-rating. Even Little House connected the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder struggled to render her ain big experiences (marriage, childbirth) for an assemblage that understood her arsenic a perpetual child, which is astir surely wherefore The First Four Years was published posthumously (Justine has ne'er managed to hide Wilder’s terrifyingly abbreviated summation of her ain labour and delivery: “She was being borne distant connected a question of pain”).
Still, successful speechmaking the archetypal 4 chapters available, it is hard to get a wide consciousness of what genre-related guardrails felt astir important to American Girl. Word count-wise, the chapters connected Cosmo timepiece successful betwixt 1,450 to 2,000 words, which is the nonstop scope for a young big novel. While readers aren’t apt counting up words portion reading, section magnitude contributes greatly to pacing and development. Then again, Samantha’s property successful the substance efficaciously kicks her retired of acceptable ranges for a YA novel, which typically features main characters betwixt 12 and eighteen years old. Even much baffling is that American Girl already includes property categories arsenic a method for filtering books connected its website. Selecting “Books for Adults” aggregates a wide scope of books from the American Girl Character Encyclopedia (Ages 6+) to The Official American Girl Cookbook (Ages 21+, due to the fact that it includes recipes for alcoholic beverages), arsenic adults tin work astatine each levels. Further aligning with scholar maturity, the New York Times Bestseller The Care & Keeping of You has been divided into 2 books for younger (Ages 8-10) and older girls (Ages 10+), redeeming much circumstantial details astir “the bumpy roadworthy known arsenic puberty” for the 2nd volume. The sole publication without an property standing (though it does popular up astatine the apical of the “Books for Adults” page) is Samantha: The Next Chapter. Presumably the marque assumes the description—which begins with the words “Adult fans”—correctly emphasizes the perfect reader.
American Girl gave their superior assemblage the skills to grow arsenic readers. So wherefore is their ostensible foray into the satellite of big fabrication so… juvenile?
This publication besides debuts astatine a clip erstwhile the scenery of the big romance genre is experiencing a monumental shift. Readers, predominantly women, are adamant successful their tendency to work books astir pistillate quality maturation and explicit pleasance (known successful the online publication communities arsenic “spice”). Certainly not each Adult oregon adjacent New Adult novels incorporated explicit intersexual content, but American Girl’s prime to align this publication with big readers, alternatively than Young Adult, inevitably raises the question: what kind of big worldly volition this publication contain? The accidental to contextualize 20th-century feminine wellness and hygiene is evident (will Samantha usage a sanitary loop oregon person to navigate accusations of pistillate hysteria?!) and good wrong the brand’s erstwhile publishing scope. While the statement for the caller publication doesn’t notation love, 1 tin presume that a twenty-five twelvemonth aged Samantha, an Edwardian-era socialite nary less, volition inevitably navigate immoderate romanticist facet oregon astatine slightest crook down a strictly-business matrimony connection oregon 2 sent her mode via a meddling Grandmary.
Since their debut successful 1986, American Girl has shrunk their humanities enactment significantly–including paring down the accepted six-book acceptable for each humanities quality into 2 streamlined texts. This has been overmuch lamented by those who came to the marque done its committedness to afloat realizing American girlhood done history.
American Girl gave their superior assemblage the skills to grow arsenic readers. So wherefore is their ostensible foray into the satellite of big fabrication so… juvenile? Beyond the expected restrictions of archetypal intelligence property, determination is thing to beryllium said for the infinitesimal successful which this nostalgic-driven currency drawback finds its audience: galore Americans conflict to work supra a sixth people speechmaking level. This is not thing individuals should consciousness ashamed of, but it does laic stark the quality betwixt the America Samantha Parkington debuted successful and the 1 she (for $175) occupies now. American Girl has ever positioned itself arsenic a spouse successful children’s literacy, intending the books aimed astatine mediate and little grades to beryllium stepping stones to much challenging works with time, maturity, and acquisition level, and filling shelves successful people schoolhouse libraries crossed the federation for their attraction to age-appropriate writing. Of course, determination are plentifulness of grown-ups KC included) who similar speechmaking YA for its themes, penning styles, oregon simply retired of nostalgia. But successful trying to explicitly tribunal big fans successful this peculiar medium, thing is lost.
Over the past fewer years, the American Girl marque has made much explicit overtures to their fully-grown fanbase: successful 2021, American Girl announced the instrumentality of their archetypal six-doll lineup (Samantha, Kirsten, Molly, Josefina, Felicity, and Addy). As portion of the promotion, they besides released a abbreviated publication described arsenic “for adults” successful property coverage, entitled “Everything I Need to Know I Learned from American Girl” (this publication is rated for ages 8+ connected the website). The marque has benefited from some unaffiliated and adjacent big engagement with the company, too: the emergence of Instagram meme accounts (hundreds of thousands of likes for an representation of Felicity Merriman photoshopped onto Paul Revere’s body, shouting “Dick Cheney is Dead”); the quality to acquisition intoxicant astatine the American Girl Place cafés crossed the state (you tin person your bachelorette enactment there!); collaboration aft exhausting collaboration with different taste juggernauts (Harry Potter; Barbie successful her decidedly mature achromatic bathing suit).
Over the people of researching (and touring) our anthology, we encountered dozens of fans who prosecute successful a signifier known arsenic “restorying”—a word that comes to america from the satellite of folklore and societal narrative. For radical who did not spot themselves reflected successful the authoritative storylines of the archetypal characters, restorying allows fans to spot a myriad of “off-script” futures. Within your imagination, Kit could commencement a communist underground zine, Rebecca Rubin could person a much robust engagement with Jewish practices, and Molly could travel retired of the closet (or extremity up successful prison, if you judge the ongoing gag arc from Instagram meme relationship @grandmarys_nightmare). An “official” update to Samantha’s communicative doesn’t preclude headcanons. But it does constrictive the scope of possibility, conscionable a little. Undoubtedly, determination volition beryllium plentifulness of readers who clasp Samantha: the Next Chapter for precisely what it is intended as: a bone, thrown connected the juncture of the brand’s fortieth twelvemonth successful business.
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