Today’s Girl

So you think American Girl Dolls are cute (in only a mildly creepy way). And you would love to buy one for your daughter. If, that is, you had an extra hundred dollars lying around. Plus more cash for clothes.

With Belle being newly four, I hadn’t started wrestling with To American Girl or Not To American Girl just yet.

But my mother-in-law solved this conundrum for me by gifting Belle with Constructive Playthings’ counterpart: Today’s Girl.

I have never held an American Girl doll or run the fabric of her outfits through my fingers. So I don’t know how the AG dolls might differ in quality from Today’s Girl. But I can say, the price of Today’s Girl is much closer to right. ($50 for an 18-inch doll and 15-piece wardrobe, as opposed to $100 for a similar AG doll with only one outfit.)

And Today’s Girl is nice. Seriously nice. She and her clothes are well made. Her rooted, brushable hair stays in her head. And her face is relatively cute.

Belle can wrangle most of the shirts, dresses and pants onto “Connie” by herself (a HUGE plus in my book). The shoes, however, pose a small problem. Which is to say, once every 15 minutes, Belle comes running to request that I shove boots or sneakers on Connie’s feet. But, since I’m free to spend the intervening minutes as I please, I’m cool with shoe duty.

Connie has become Belle’s almost constant companion. Belle loves her and I just can’t see a single reason to spend more money on a doll that will end up shoved into bike baskets and fed dirt.

Hence, we’re big fans of Today’s Girl. She’s a good, little knock-off for your real little girl.