Quick post about American Girl-related speculations

For some strange reason I always get bitten by the American Girl bug around this time of year.  Go figure, maybe it's something in the water...or the cilantro!  Anywho, back around the time that GOTY Isabelle came out, there was a petition for an American Girl with a disability.  As you may or may not recall, blonde, plain-jane Isabelle left a sour taste in the mouths of some of us here on Blogspot; Nethilia wasn't happy, Miss Emily wasn't happy, and I wasn't happy either.  I mean heck, Isabelle was cute, but she was as bland as unsweetened oatmeal!  Nothing original, not even the concept or Isabelle's pastime.  I figure that it was from the brains of other disgruntled AG fans that the petition was sprung.  By the way, if you haven't signed the petition yet and want to, it's still up and only needs 4,350 more signatures.  I'm not a tremendous fan of Change.org because they like to spam my e-mail inbox with liberal causes that I have absolutely no interest in, but every now and then they do have a cause I'm behind so I put up with the junk mail.

Why do I post all this now, you ask?  Well, this is STRICTLY A RUMOR, nothing confirmed or anything, but the scuttlebutt online is that the new 1950's girl Mary Ellen (folks have FINALLY started splitting her name) may be handicapped.  Think about it for a minute:  the 1950's saw the birth of vaccinations, but the early part of the decade was still plagued with warnings about swimming pools, March of Dimes posters (see below), and children sporting leg braces, wheelchairs, and (God forbid) iron lungs.

Yep, I'm talking about poliomyelitis, better known simply as polio, that oh-so-unpopular virus of yore (or not so yore in some parts of the world).  The virus sickened, crippled, incapacitated, and even killed its patients.  Adults occasionally come/came down with it, but polio was (and still is) largely a childhood disease.  The disease is an ancient one, but it was particularly bad here in the U.S. during the first half of the 20th Century; American Girls Samantha (1904), Nellie (1904), Rebecca (1914), Kit (1934), Ruthie (1934), Molly (1944), and Emily (1944) all lived during this time frame.  All seven managed to come out unscathed, but based on what I've been reading, Mary Ellen may not have been quite so fortunate.  Rhonda F has heard rumors that Mary Ellen sports a weak leg from her bout with polio, though like me, she cannot confirm this.  The National Catholic Register also touches on this, as do several of my fellow bloggers.  If this rumor IS true then I hope she comes with a little brace on her leg or some sort of nod towards her victory over this nasty illness.  Not that I'm glad some people have to wear braces on their legs (even today), but imagine how creative that would be!  It reminds me of the games my sister and I would play with our dolls; there was always someone that the other dolls would help out.

As another little tidbit, I heard it through the grapevine that GOTY 2016 is supposed to look a lot like Kanani, a.k.a. GOTY 2011.  Judging from the pictures that Lissie and Lilly provided, the mini doll doesn't look a thing like Kanani, who was a girl of color.  The mini doll looked...y'all ready for this?  She looked BLONDE AND BLUE-EYED!!!  I hope to our Heavenly Father that GOTY 2016 looks more like Kanani than THAT!!!  Jeez, the mini looks more like Barbie in American Girl form!  Furthermore, even if the doll does look like Kanani, guess what?  IT'S NOT ORIGINAL.  The current GOTY, Grace, looks a lot like Chrissa Maxwell from 2009.  If you don't believe me, check this out!

Grace (right) sports freckles and lip gloss, and her hair is different from Chrissa's in both style and length.  Other than that they're pretty much the same doll.  Same eyes, same skin tone, same head mold.  If Mattel is having to dip into past ideas for their GOTY dolls, then it may be time to hang up the idea completely, or let it sit for a couple of years while they come up with some new ideas.  I was hoping, since 2016 will be an election year, that maybe GOTY 2016 would be the daughter of a politician.  Since all ideas are just speculations as of right now, that could be a possibility...but I doubt it.  I'd better be careful what I wish for, though; since Mattel is out to make a buck they'd give a politically-themed doll a personality that matches what the majority claims to think.  Guess who thinks the majority is a bunch of whackadoodles?  This chick.

All information posted above is not set in stone.  Please do not take what I or my fellow bloggers have said regarding Mary Ellen and GOTY 2016 as 100% factual.  If I hear anything that is rock solid, I'll either tell you myself or link you to the info.  Until then I've got to complete a couple of reviews and give my old Felicity a date with some braid spray.

Yours truly,
RagingMoon1987

CORRECTION!!!  As mentioned in the comments below, Maryellen's name is NOT split at all.  This is obvious now that Maryellen has made her debut, but I thought I'd cover my rear just in case.