It’s happening.  After years of listening to the pleas of its loyal fans and collectors, Mattel is launching a new line of American Girl dolls that includes the company’s first-ever boy doll. Here at LorettaRose LLC, we have been selling our My Sibling and My Pal boy dolls since 2007, so seeing the news break was a bit of a punch in the stomach at first. To put things in perspective: in the ocean of the doll industry, American Girl is the whale and we are that crazy looking fish with a light bulb growing out of its head that lives in the abyss. You know, that one they always showed in your high school biology class videos? Once we calmed down, we realized that we don’t give ourselves enough credit. American Girl is actually late to the boy doll party because we have been crushing the dance floor here for almost 10 years. If anything, this new launch validates what we have been doing all along, and gives us even more motivation to continue to succeed. In other words, all the people who told us that there would never be a big enough demand for boy dolls were quite mistaken.

We think what American Girl and Mattel are doing is awesome.  This new line not only includes a boy doll, but also a strong representation of diversity, as well.  To see a massive company like Mattel move in this direction is encouraging for the human race in general. The games and toys giant is finally catching on to the concepts of diversity, inclusion, and gender stereotype changes that we have been promoting through our boy dolls for the last several years.  It inspires us to see the overwhelmingly positive media response to what everyone told my mother, our founder, was a crazy idea when she started our company almost a decade ago. We are truly excited to see what the future holds for us, as a small boy doll company, in a world where Mattel thinks it’s a great idea, too!