2026 American Girl of the Year Doll Raquel Reyes

 Normally I don't post about the new American Girl - Girl of the Year dolls. However, I happened to see an ad for the 2026 doll, carrying a bag that said Piney Point. Hm, Piney Point, I said. That's the same place where Samantha Parkington spends her summer vacation in her book Samantha Saves the Day. Well, that's because... Raquel is Samantha's great-great-great-granddaughter!

You can tell that AG took some inspiration from Samantha's Meet Outfit, with the checked dress and bow, and the necklace with the locket. I wonder if that is supposed to be Samantha's original locket? I regret to inform MoonGirl that Raquel's clothes are mostly pink, with some purple. But then Samantha's favorite color was pink, so maybe that is in honor of Samantha too. Raquel's storyline seems to be that she attends a family reunion at Piney Point. In Samantha's book, Piney Point is where her grandmother owns a vacation cottage, and where her parents tragically lost their lives in an accident on the lake. Samantha is curious about a small island in the lake where she and her parents liked to go when Samantha was a baby. Unfortunately, Samantha's parents perished returning from the island, so Grandmary doesn't want to talk about it. Samantha and her Aunt Cornelia's younger twin sisters, who are staying with her, go to the island, but get stranded. When they are rescued, Samantha tells her grandmother how beautiful the island is, and how it would be nice to honor her parents memories by visiting the island. Grandmary agrees that they should visit together.

I have mixed feelings about this doll. Samantha is my absolutely favorite American Girl doll, largely because she represents my favorite time period in fashion history. I completely disapproved of the changes that they made with the BeForever line. They even got rid of Samantha's original meet dress, which Raquel's outfit here is based on! However, it might be interesting to see when and how Samantha is referenced in the story. Since this is a family reunion, there will be many more descendants there, and we might get some stories about Samantha when she grew up. We may even get some stories about Samantha's friend Nellie and Nellie's sisters, since they are adopted by Samantha's Uncle Gard and Aunt Cornelia, when the girls are orphaned. I also hope that this doll will increase interest in Samantha, and we might get some of Samantha's older items re-released. I already saw that they have re-released Samantha's original birthday dress set, and now they have released a Samantha in her original dress, with accessories. However, the doll is $175! Also, I would like the accessories only, since I have an original Pleasant Company Sam, but not her hat, purse and locket. It would be especially nice since a locket seems to feature in Raquel's story. Here's Sam's page, if you want to check out some other new items I haven't seen before.

Is this the first time that American Girl has made a generational doll connection like this? I'm not really up on the dolls much since Mattel took over, but I think this is the case. I have to wonder why this is so. Maybe the whole Girl of the Year doll has been getting has been getting a little stale? When MoonGirl has revealed GOTY dolls before, she's also added how many fans have said, "Oh, we're getting another doll who is blond/dances/likes pink/etc." This is a fresh idea, and it might bring interest from old time Pleasant Company fans to Raquel. I mean, here I am posting about it, and I usually don't care about the GOTY releases. I will add that Raquel learns how to play pickleball at the reunion, which is a new activity I don't think we've seen before.

Kirsten and Addy have also gotten outfits re-released, and Addy also has a brand new accessories set. It seems like Mattel is trying to drive interest in the older historical dolls again.

What do you think about this new twist to an AG line? If you're a fan of the historical dolls, which doll would you like to see get a descendant? Or would you rather not see it happen again? Do you hope the historical dolls get some more attention?