Gabriella McBride was NOT a dancer

I really love the character of Gabriela McBride. She's an outspoken young girl who isn't afraid to use her voice, even if she stutters. However, the way that this character was portrayed through advertisements and items in her collection is such a slap in the face to everyone who had been hoping for a black GOTY in 2017. One of the first impressions I had of her was the she was a dancer. Many other people had this impression too, which was annoying because we'd already had Marisol in 2005 and Isabelle in 2014. The dancing theme has been so overdone. Gabriela, however, is NOT a dancer. She's a poet, and she has adventures at her local community center writing poetry, despite the fact that she STUTTERS. That is so cool, yet nobody paid attention to it, because she was marketed as a dancer and a poet, and being somewhat dance-oriented just caused people to ignore her. I didn't know she stuttered until long after 2017 had ended. 

Aside from Gabriela's pajamas, two of her four outfits are dance-oriented. Gabriela's Rehearsal outfit and Gabriela's Sparkling Sequins outfit. Her other two outfits are nice, pretty dresses, perfect for reading poetry. My question is why she had to have two dance-oriented outfits at all? On the cover of Gabriela's second book, Gabriela wears the same "sparkling sequins" top, but with a black blazer and jeans. How cool would that have been?!?!? A black blazer, an item we've never had before AG. On her third book, she's wearing a simple blue t-shirt and jeans. Why, oh why did AG have to make these crazy outfits?

This outfit gives you the impression that Gabriela is a dancer or does something sporty and active

This outfit gives you the impression that Gabriela is running for some student council position, a very different impression from being a dancer or sporty character. 


This outfit doesn't have a picture in the books, but it got a lot of criticism for being strange, which I agree with, but most of all it's a dancing outfit. There's a leotard/bodysuit, leggings, shoes that look like dancing shoes. However, Gabriela's story focuses on poetry, not being a dancer. 

It's not only her outfits, her accessories are dance-oriented too. For Example:

This is Gabriella's creative studio set. A recolor of Isabelle's ballet bar, a DANCE item. This was Gabriela's "big ticket" item to. Why not produce a stage so your doll can read her poetry? Or a simple cafe set where she can do smaller poetry readings? There were so many missed opportunities here for a more creative, more original playset. 

Gabriela's Showtime Kit. It's not necessarily dance oriented, I'd want to look good for a poetry reading too, but to make a whole set based on this? What about making a poetry notebooks set, or a backpack set, or something that isn't focused on hair like we've had so many times before?

This is one of the coolest items in Gabriela's collection. Here she's not a dancer, she makes music! I think something like this should have been included in her big creative studio. This looks a lot more creative to me than a blue ballet bar. She's got a laptop with screens of a sound editing program, a microphone and a drum pad. What if she was a music producer? That would have been really cool. 

Now the question is, why complain? 2017 was three years ago, at least we got a black GOTY, and if I wanted to I could make every item I hypothetically offered up. I could make my doll a black blazer with golden buttons and dress her up just like the outfits on the covers and make her a poetry stage with a microphone and everything. But, these are the images that people see before they read the books, if they read them at all. These images don't show poetry, they show dancing. The other two outfits I didn't include don't necessarily give off the vibes of anything, but when little girls see the blue ballet bar and the leggings and leotard, they think dance, not poetry. Dance doesn't play as large of a role in her story as it would look like from her collection. It's not bad to be a dancer at all, and if she wants to dance and do poetry that's great, but the dance theme was overdone. SO overdone, especially in the girl of the year line, that the way this collection came together can only be described as disappointing. I really want everyone to know that Gabriela McBride was NOT a dancer, she was a poet, and that her story is just as valid as every other Girl of the Year story, because many young black girls looked up to her, and are continuing to look for the next black or POC Girl of the Year.