Beloved, Creepy Doll Line Reaches a New Milestone of Inclusivity

It looks like American Girl is taking strides towards diversity and Asian representation in its doll line-up—again. Last week, the company introduced Suzie Yang, or Z, a Korean American vlogger and filmmaker from Seattle, to their collection. It’s the first Korean American doll in American Girl history.

Online, Suzie’s description reads: “I’m an imaginative filmmaker developing my own take on the world around me.” She already has a handful of stop-motion videos up online, through which she teaches the basics of filmmaking and editing videos.

This marks the first time the company has offered an Asian American character since 2014, when it discontinued its only Asian American doll at the time—Ivy Ling, a Chinese American girl living in 1970s San Francisco. Later on this year American Girl will be releasing Nanea Mitchell, a WWII-era Native Hawaiian girl.

This is great for all fans of American Girl dolls. Personally, I was never really into them as a kid. Maybe it had something to do with my parents refusing to shell out like a hundred dollars on just a doll. Maybe it had to do with the fact that there were no South Asian dolls. But honestly, it was probably mostly the cold deadness that emanated from the vacant, beady eyes of any given American Girl doll. I’m not trying to be alone in a room with that even now.