***UPDATE***
As of October 6th 2020 American Girl has now clarified on their website that all salon services are available only for authentic 18" American girl dolls. While this affects those services this does not affect one's ability to bring a doll of a brand other than American Girl onto the store premises, that is still permissible.
On March 16th,2007 a
blogpost surfaced on the internet that caused one of the the worst American Girl Scandals in history. The post, titled "Fake,out" was written by the mother of a girl named Etta. In a form of satire, Etta's mom tells he story of their trip to the American Girl Place and how one of the stylists was completely disrespectful to Etta's off-brand doll, refusing to restyle the doll's hair. Now of course that was completely disrespectful of the employee, and I hope that person was terminated, but the article sparked the big question. CAN you bring a "fake" American Girl Doll to the store?
As a DISCLAIMER, I use quotations around the word fake because they are technically off-brand dolls. Many American Girl collectors also have some "fake" dolls, and they are well represented in the collecting community.
If you mean bring an 18" doll that is not produced by Mattel into the store premises, absolutely! There's no problem with carrying your OG,Journey Girl or My life doll into the store to look around. Of course what people forget is that
STORES VARY. One store may have a terrible employee while another may have great employees. The problem arises when talking about the
SERVICES offered at the store.
Services currently (2016) offered at the American Girl Store
1.Truly me Design Studio (LA,NY and Chicago stores only.)
2. Ear piercing
3. Haristyling/other packages at the salon.
4. social aspect
Let's look at these one by one
Truly Me Design Studio
New for 2016, this activity allows girls to "design" their own clothes or doll carriers from a selection of pre-disposed pieces and patterns. This can be used by anyone and the materials printed will be sized for 18" American Girl Dolls. If your doll is not American Girl brand there might be some complications in if the clothing for dolls will fit, but the they shouldn't be so much that the clothes won't fit at all.
Ear piercing
American Girl specifically states on their website "
For 18" dolls only" however, off-brand dolls are not allowed to have their ears pierced... I think. If this were true (which it most likely is) I would have to guess it is because of the machines used to pierce doll ears. Target had an ear piercing event in 2015 though, so it's becoming more of a regular thing, and there are some DIY methods available through YouTube.
Hairstyling/other packages
Honestly, this varies by store.
No specific rule outlaws off-brand dolls. And yet, as we see here, some people have very different ideas about how to handle this. All dolls should be welcome into the American Girl store, and every doll should be able to have it's hair styled, American Girl or not. Unfortunately though there are cases like Etta's which result from terrible customer service. If you experience a problem having a non-AG doll's hair styled at the American Girl Place, I suggest you complain to the official American Girl Facebook page or send an e-mail, there may be some compensation for you. I don't however think that all employees will react as horribly as the one it Etta's story.
4.Social Aspect
What's even worse than knowing the doll you have is "fake? Having everyone call it out. The sad part is, an off-brand doll is likely to be called "fake" by both little girls who don't know about other doll brands, or mean mothers who happen to support their daughter's costly obsession. If you would like to take your off-brand doll to the store, be prepared for this. Or if your daughter/son is taking their off-brand doll,
PLEASE, tell them it's an off-brand doll, and tell them exactly what that means. We really shouldn't be calling them "fake", they're just a different brand, not counterfeit, and if your kid likes the off-brand doll, they should be able to bring it into the store. It's a toy, not something to make a big deal about.
Alternate Options for ear piercing
Not being able to get your doll's ears pierced may be sad, but there's a better way to go about it.
1. Our generation ear piercing
Our Generation recently held an ear-piercing event at most Target stores! They also began selling a doll that included pirced ears! (of course it was only a one-time event. And only for Our Generation dolls)
Read the full story at
Living A Doll's Life
2. DIY ear piercing
Plenty of tutorials are on YouTube that allow you to do a DIY ear piercing at home. The best thing about this is, any doll can now wear
HUMAN EARRINGS!
However, this may void the warranty on some dolls, such as American Girl Dolls, which could lead to some policy issues, so
be careful.
As a final note
The blogpost amassed a total of 1,040 comments, but has since fallen into the archives of AG's scandals. (well, maybe scandals is over exaggerating) I do recognize my bias as an owner of 20 American Girl Dolls myself. I hope this post has helped clear up all the answers to this very simple complicated question.
