American Girl's 2017 Girl Of The Year - Gabriela McBride (and other new things) *Review*

Thanks to the company that sponsored this review. I was not compensated beyond the review item. All opinions are my own. Others may have a different opinion or experience.

It happens at the end of every year, for the past few years. My girls talk about American Girl and discuss the topic based on one question: "Who will be the girl of the year next?". They can barely stand the suspense and I'm sure to show them video and/or images once they're released to the public. Then, it starts. The squeals are heard all through the house and the excitement in their voices is way too precious to describe as they guess all she will have in her line and what her story will be. 

This year, the Girl of the Year is named Gabriela and she is the very first African American beauty to be given the title of such. Her story is one of dance, creativity, writing, boldness, and overcoming personal struggles. Girls everywhere will love her and enjoy getting to know her through her story.

As always, the details are never lacking in her design. Her outfit is colorful and made of top quality materials while it speaks to her love of dance. My girls especially love her shoes. Also? This doll's hair.... my girls love it so very, very much.
Gabriela comes with the headband and hair ties to create the hair style we see on the cover of her book. Naturally, my girls asked me to put her hair up and headband on right away. Here's a look at Gabriela with her hair up.

And this. My very fair skinned girl embracing this doll and loving her beautiful differences is something that does my heart good. Teaching young people to see all differences in an angle that looks for the beauty rather than fault is so important and this is an amazing way to do that. It invites children to make these differences part of their own life by diving into the book and playing out the things they recall from the story.

**An exciting change is that American Girl will be continuing to release a Girl of the Year (they're working on next year's right now) but they will keep Gabriela's items in stock longer than one year so collectors on a budget have more time to enjoy her and finish their collection.

**And! This year, students will have a chance to connect to Gabriela's story and learn more about spoken word poetry. This is something she learns to use to overcome her stuttering. American Girl and Scholastic have partnered up to create a classroom program they've called Express Yourself. It will teach children how to embrace the use of the arts as a way to express their individuality. Look for it this month (March 2017)

You can learn more about Gabriela McBride by clicking her name this sentence.

**Finally: You can be sure there are many more new characters coming this year. Check out the image below and click to learn more.

~Amy
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