yesterday, i had just managed to get both of my charges into bed and had settled myself down with Half-Blood Prince in preparation for next Tuesday when something on the table caught my eye. I could only see the first three letters of the magazine title, but my mounting excitement was completely spot-on as I pulled out an "American Girl" mag! And not the lame one that just has sleepover ideas and cartoons of tween-aged breast development, no no, the actual magazine with the dolls! Needless to say, there was a narrowly avoided pee-from-extreme-thrill incident. My fingers were trembling when I opened that first page, knowing that Felicity Merriman, redhead, American colonialist and patriot with a Loyalist bff and an overstated love for horses, would be greeting me.

Except, she didn't! Some beezy named Chrissa who is apparently the "American Girl of Today" was staring back at me with vacant, non-historical eyes. Like, who the fuck is this girl? She's from the present! I LIVE in the present, I don't need to learn about it! She's not teaching me about WWII or slavery is she? NO. Her only purpose is one big fashion don't.

It only got worse from there. Felic, Kiki, Addy, Kit & Molly all got the two page spread, normal from what I can recall. But Kaya & Josefina shared a page! What kind of a message is that sending, AG Co, about minorities and ethnicities and power and status? This seems pretty counter-intuitive from the messages you preach in all those "Care & Keeping" books I used to hoard like beanie babies.

You may have noticed that thus far there was been no mention of my absolutely second favorite American Girl (second only to Molly, but really only just because Molly had glasses and so did I), Samantha. WELP, SHE'S GONE. REPLACED! By some Russian Jew named Rebecca Rubin from 1914. WHAT ON EARTH COULD SAMANTHA HAVE DONE TO DESERVE THIS TREASON? She was the ultimate. I mean, come ON! She took us to suffragette rallies with her Aunt Cornelia and her Grand-Mary, and she saved her orphan friends from the perils of turn-of-the-century factory work! She was bad ass! But noooo, let's create some more diversity by bringing this Russian immigrant who is also Jewish into our line of dolls and then RELEGATE HER TO THE SINGLE PAGE WITH THE OTHER MINORITIES.

Honestly, I feel as though the very premise of my love of history has been violated and torn apart in the most brutal fashion. I strongly believe that my history major is a direct result of hours spent reenacting historical situations with my American Girl dolls and their trusty props and books. I learned about the Revolutionary War and the tea tax from Felicity, Kirsten taught me the hardships of prairie living annnnd about St. Lucia, as the only black doll, I think Addy's lessons are pretty self-explanatory; Samantha, though more priviledged than the others still had her demons, and Molly had to grow a victory garden and practice air-raid drills! American Girl is essentially re-writing history by excluding Samantha from their line these days, it's as if they are telling their young girls, whom they so often encourage to be independent, that women's suffrage didn't exist! By taking out Samantha, American Girl is taking out vital information in the history lessons they unknowingly provide for young girls all across America, and I for one am taking a stand against this atrocity.

Rebecca Rubin, I will take you down.