American Girl, a famous brand that makes 18-inch dolls, has many issues.  Their dolls’ skin colors, hair and other looks aren’t very diverse, their accessories are the same kind of items, they’re overpriced, and more.  But the issue we’re addressing in this petition is the lack of dolls that come with eye glasses.  American Girl has made 50 character dolls as of January 2022.  If we’re being realistic, 19 more of the 50 character dolls should have glasses.

Currently, American Girl does not sell any dolls that come with glasses (they only sold one doll that came with glasses in the past, Molly, but she’s discontinued, and one doll whose glasses came with her accessories, Z, who’s also discontinued.  Z’s glasses where not part of her story).  They do sell separate  glasses, but it's an add-on and not part of the characters' identity or story, which isn't the same.  This is disappointing, unfair and most of all, it ruins girls (and boys) with glasses’ self esteem.  If a child sees a cool role-model doll that looks like them, and reads about a charecter in a story that looks like them, they are more likely to be self-confident.  Every child should see and read about a doll that looks like them, no matter what they look like or the essential accessories (like glasses) they use.  

Also, if a child without glasses sees that there are no American Girl Dolls with glasses, they’ll think eye glasses are extremely rare and strange.  Dolls can be serious role models.

To fix this issue, American Girl would need to make about 40% of their dolls wear glasses, since about 40% of girls ages 2-17 wear glasses, according to CDC.gov.

If you sign this petition, you will be helping millions of children with glasses’ self esteem, and millions of children without glasses’ view on people with them.

-Annika and Lydia, age 11