GIRL OF THE YEAR CHARACTERS

In 2001, the Girl of the Year line launched with Lindsey Bergman being the first doll in the line. From 2001-2005, American Girl called the line Limited Edition Characters because the dolls were only out for one year.  In 2006, American Girl changed the name from Limited Edition Characters to Girl of the Year.  These dolls were still only out for one year. After their year ended, the doll and their collection would be retired. In 2017, American Girl decided to change this up a bit, Gabriela McBride was the first doll to become available to customers after her year ended. Gabriela didn't officially retire until the end of 2019. This was two years after the character was supposed to retire like the other dolls before. American Girl is currently still doing this today.

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Since the beginning of the line, each year a new character comes out. Characters usually come out on January 1st of the year, however this is not the case for all of the characters. Lindsey Bergman, Kailey Hopkins, and Marisol Luna came out at different points during their year, but they stayed out for one year. For Joss Kendrick and Kira Bailey, American Girl decided to have her and her collection become available to customers on December 31st of 2019. However with Corinne Tan, American Girl decided to have her and her collection became available to customers on December 30th of 2021. Just like Corinne Tan, Kavi Sharma's release was pushed back earlier to December 29th of 2022. 

Just like the Historical Characters, each character has their collection. Even though the line is set in current time, these characters still teach customers inspiring and important lessons. American Girl has also came out with movies for certain characters and they also celebrate their release at their retail stores just like they do for Historical Characters.