American Girl

American Girl is a specialty retail and direct-to-consumer brand built around dolls, books, and experiences that feature both historical and modern girl characters. The company offers premium 18-inch dolls, Bitty Baby and WellieWishers lines, accessories, clothing, and related content, and sells through its own e‑commerce site, catalogs, and branded experiential stores. In physical locations, traditional retail is paired with services such as doll hair salons, doll hospital services, and hosted events like birthday celebrations, which position American Girl as both a toy store and a destination for family outings in regional malls and urban shopping districts.

The brand began in 1986, when former educator Pleasant Rowland founded Pleasant Company and introduced mail-order historical character dolls and books that explored different periods in American history. A major milestone came in 1998, when Mattel, Inc. acquired Pleasant Company and later launched the first American Girl Place store in Chicago. That flagship proved the appeal of a larger-format, experience-led concept tied to the brand and laid the groundwork for expansion into additional U.S. markets with a mix of flagship and smaller-format stores. Over time, American Girl has broadened its assortment beyond historical characters to include contemporary storylines, customizable dolls, and collaborations that connect the brand to broader culture.

Today, American Girl operates a network of branded stores across the United States, combining retail with on-site food and beverage in select locations and high-touch services that encourage longer visits and repeat trips. As of October 2024, public reporting indicates the company operates 11 full-line U.S. stores, concentrated in major metropolitan areas, high-performing regional malls, and prominent family or tourist destinations. These stores range from large “American Girl Place” flagships to more streamlined “American Girl Store” concepts that still maintain core experiential elements.

Over roughly the last five years, the brand has moved from an earlier phase of rapid footprint buildout into a more measured, optimization-focused strategy. Since 2020, American Girl has closed several underperforming or overlapping locations while keeping key flagships and strong mall stores in place. Recent activity has centered on relocating within existing trade areas, rightsizing store formats, and leaning more heavily on e‑commerce and direct fulfillment, rather than pursuing broad new-market rollouts. This approach has allowed the company to concentrate on high-traffic, high-visibility sites where its destination nature can support both its own sales and traffic to surrounding tenants.

American Girl operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel, Inc., the global toy company based in El Segundo, California. Mattel’s backing provides brand recognition, product development resources, and supply chain and marketing scale, which support American Girl’s long-term presence and multi-channel model. As of October 2024, the American Girl concept continues to evolve through updated product lines, new characters, and refreshed in-store programming. For landlords, brokers, and developers, the format functions as a regional family draw with strong experiential components, making it a distinctive anchor or mini-anchor in top-tier malls and urban retail environments that seek to blend shopping, entertainment, and dining.