American Girl Doll Logo

American Girl began in 1986, founded by Pleasant T. Rowland, and originally referred to as Pleasant Company. This brand combined a love for American history and high-quality educational materials into a collection of dolls complete with a book series that explores how women and girls lived in different historical periods and the roles they played. 

Eventually, American Girl was purchased by Mattel, and became its own brand, with Pleasant Company names phasing out by around 2004. This logo is the first American Girl specific logo. It was first used around 2000 and was maintained until 2015. The two distinct logos that have followed the use of this one are highly similar in design, utilizing the same color and the same star. The only changes implemented have been in arrangement and formatting of how the words and star are laid out. 

American Girl dolls have expanded significantly since the initial collection, which included three dolls; one doll being Samantha Parkington from 1904, the other being Kirsten Larson from 1854, and the last being Molly McIntire from 1944. Since then, there have been many other dolls released with extensive historical connections and different backgrounds, along with other collections such as the Girl of the Year, which are annual releases of more contemporary dolls with stories of various diverse modern-day issues and challenges.  

The logo itself is something truly iconic of the 2000s. The star and distinctive red magenta color are extremely central to the brand and are easily associated with this. Additionally, this logo is quite simple and is able to maintain consistency throughout different sizes of packaging or items themselves, adding to the recognizability. The related “reach for the star” phrasing of the brand is central to the ideals, as the stories and brand are made to show what girls can accomplish and overcome.