Maryellen's Poodle Skirt Outfit

Ah, the 1950s! Soda shops, drive in movies, sock hops...but also of course horrible racism, sexism, and McCarthyism...The 1950s...

The time period that, more than any other, tends to incite the most nostalgia from white Americans. American Girl was inundated with requests for a 1950s doll and they finally delivered in the form of Maryellen Larkin, a charmingly rambunctious kid who gets into all sorts of trouble in the course of her book series. 

Nellie's Irish Dance Outfit of Today

So here I am to continue my series on the Irish American experience and just in time for St. Patrick's Day.

To celebrate it, I've brought in my favorite Irish girl Nellie. She's wearing the Irish Dance Outfit of Today.

A few of the dolls received outfits "of today." In other words, they looked at the culture of the doll in question and then looked to see how that culture was celebrated today. They are basically all dance or celebration outfits. Addy received a hideous African Dance Outfit of Today. Nellie received this. Kaya has received several modern Pow Wow dance outfits because that is how she gets new outfit sets.

Marie-Grace's Skirt Set and Cécile's Parlor Outfit

Back to the NOLA girls (New Orleans, Louisiana for those who don't know what that means). But this time, we're finally meeting Marie-Grace!

Just to be clear, I think Marie-Grace and Cécile were the biggest flops ever released by American Girl (in the historical collection at least-they have some competition in the GOTY line). This wasn't an inherent flaw of either doll or character. Rather it was because American Girl refused to really commit to releasing a second African American doll. Instead they paired her with a white cohort. Instead of having Marie-Grace be a secondary Best Friend like Nellie or Ivy, Marie-Grace and Cécile shared the collection equally. The six book series was basically cut in two, with each doll receiving half the series.

Kit's BeForever Reporter Dress and Reporter Accessories

I am so close to upholding my goal of featuring every doll in my collection on this blog. I am so close-the only dolls I haven't done reviews on yet are Maryellen, Julie, Marie-Grace, and Kit (I do not have Ruthie yet). Today I'm going to talk about Kit.

Ivy's New Years Outfit

Happy belated Chinese New Year! As some of you may know, February 8 was the Chinese New Year-a holiday Ivy celebrates in Julie's books. 

Now I was originally planning to have this post out on the the actual date. I had most it typed out, the pictures taken, etc.

And then I got strep throat. And because my immune system is bad, I got a bunch of other illnesses (whenever I get sick, I always get something else completely unrelated). It has only been in the past couple of days that I have been feeling at all better. And then I had to work a lot to make up for the missed money...in other words, I just couldn't complete the review.

I thought about delaying this post for a year...but Ivy doesn't have that many outfits to review. I don't own her rainbow romper so the only other thing I could review is her meet outfit in the fall (I try to dress the dolls seasonally). I could review a Julie outfit with Ivy wearing it but it still wouldn't be HER review. I don't want to wait 6-12 months for this beauty to grace my blog. So I'm just going to go ahead and press forward.  

Nellie's Holiday Coat

It is still SO cold outside! The one good thing about that is, in my time spent hiding from what, to my Florida mind, looks like a frozen wasteland, I have been able to take lots of pictures of my dolls. Hopefully that means I can stay ahead and keep to my goal of posting about once a week.

Again, we have a new doll on the blog: Nellie O'Malley, the Irish best friend of Samantha Parkington who is center stage in a fantastic (and historically improbable-but hey, it warms my heart) rags to riches tale.

It is hard for a lot of people to understand this nowadays, when Irish Americans have become so assimilated into mainstream white American culture, but the Irish went through a lot to make that happen. The Irish in America were discriminated against, hated, and were not considered white.

A political cartoon showing that African Americans and Irish Americans were seen as equally inferior. They are both drawn to look inhuman.

https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/01/28/irish-apes-tactics-of-de-humanization/ 

My family has been in America for a long time. I don't speak with an Irish accent or eat traditional Irish foods. But I want to stress that the reason I do not is because of specific choices made by other cultural groups that systematically stomped out (not for everyone, but for people like my family) the unique things that made up the Irish culture. Lots of people in America, including myself, have ancestors like Nellie who were treated like garbage because they were Irish and Catholic. Many Americans have ancestors who were forced out of their homes because of horrible practices and the threat of starvation and experienced the Irish Diaspora.

I am going to use my Nellie posts to both talk about her clothing and to discuss the Irish experience in America. I will go way before Nellie and way after Nellie.

Frosty Fair Isle Set

So I hope everyone is keeping warm like Saige!

Look how toasty she looks! Please check out the P.S. on this post to learn about my new picture taking methods!

I'm from the south, where even the hint of snow sends us into a panic. The city I live in might as well be shut down-and yes, I did participate in the mayhem. I went to the store to purchase the obligatory bread and milk as well as a flashlight in case the power went out, bottled water for me and the fur babies just in case, a huge bag of cat food (the apocalypse was surely coming, but my cats were gonna survive!), and Mountain Dew (which I am addicted to, there should be a Mountain Dew Anonymous).