Character Matters

This article was originally published by American Girl in January 2018. Visit americangirl.com/explore to read the entire article and explore other articles.

As parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, we yearn to nurture the children in our lives with things that are decent and good. We want them to grow up in a world where compassion, tolerance, and love are used as our first level of defense, not our last. We want them to know the simple truth that what we do and what we say to one another matters because Character matters.

For 35 years, American Girl has made a sincere effort to encourage and protect these important values—values that we know are at risk in a world where conflict and hate have become more interesting than harmony.

Amid this noise and confusion, American Girl has worked hard to be a source of strength, optimism, and joy for ALL girls. The American Girl stories—featuring diverse characters from long ago and today—are written with intention and purpose, teaching girls about loss and love, about despair and hope, about caring and coping, about life and death—about the things young girls worry about; the things all of us worry about.

These are not larger-than-life heroines, but everyday girls who face real problems and who struggle and fail but find a way to persevere. To millions of girls, these characters have become role models—helping them think about their own character and what kind of person they want to be when life inevitably presents them with challenges and disappointment.

Today, more than ever, our children need a place they can turn to that stands up for truth, fairness, and respect and lets them enjoy their childhood for as long as possible. We believe every girl has the right to trust in this kind of simple goodness—a goodness that has the power to change her and change the world.

American Girl is proud to be that place for girls—a place where Character matters.