Best Friend Characters

The Best Friend characters are companions to the Historical Characters. They do not have their own unique time periods and are considered to share the time period of the characters they are companioned with. Most Best friend characters are prominent characters in the central series of the Historical characters, and show a different aspect of the same time period with contrasting worldviews.

History
The Best Friend line debuted in 2004 with Nellie O'Malley, Samantha's best friend, and the first American Girl movie Samantha: An American Girl Holiday. She was originally going to be a limited edition doll, but the popularity of the doll prompted AG to keep the doll as a permanent character and expand the line.

Except for Ivy Ling, Julie Albright's best friend, each one was released as a tie-in to the movie and her collection reflects this.

List of Best Friends

 * 2004 - Nellie O'Malley, Samantha's best friend
 * 2005 - Elizabeth Cole, Felicity's best friend
 * 2006 - Emily Bennett, Molly's English friend
 * 2007 - Ivy Ling, Julie's best friend
 * 2008 - Ruthie Smithens, Kit's best friend

Elizabeth
In Felicity's illustrations, Elizabeth originally had brown hair and eyes. In the made-for-TV movie Felicity: An American Girl Adventure, Katie Henney, the actress playing her, is blonde with blue eyes. The doll was made to resemble the actress and the illustrations were edited so that there were no discrepancies.

Several collectors, preferring the brunette version, have taken Julie dolls and customized them. Since Julie has the matching Josefina face mold and brown eyes, rewigging the doll with a brown wig in a colonial style will most clostly resemble the Elizabeth doll.

Emily
Although the line is called "Best Friends," Emily is far from being Molly's best friend. She originally appeared in only one of Molly's books, Happy Birthday, Molly!, as a temporary house guest seeking refuge from wartime London. She is thus marketed by American Girl not as a Best Friend but as "Molly's English Friend."

It can be theorized that because Molly has two best friends (Linda and Susan) that a different character was chosen so that neither one could be more prominent than the other; also, since Emily is from England, her story offers a different perspective from Molly's that neither Linda nor Susan could give. The made-for-TV movie Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front gave Emily a greater role and a different backstory than the books. The Light in the Cellar also gave Emily a much greater role than she had previously had and fit itself within Molly's canon chronology.

The illustrations of Emily in Happy Birthday, Molly! were also edited. Her hair was lengthened from a bob to shoulder-length and her clothes were changed to reflect the actual items sold for the doll.

Dolls not yet made
The dolls without official Best Friend characters are Addy, Josefina, Kirsten, and Kaya. Each of them has a best friend of color, and some fans do perceive that it is because of this that the characters have not been released. The release of Ivy Ling may or may not be a "test run" to see if these dolls would be popular or successful.

With the release of the Magnetic Mini Worlds, which pair each girl with their "Best Friend," it is theorised that the characters would have the following Best Friends:


 * Addy:: Sarah Moore
 * Kirsten: Singing Bird
 * Kaya: Speaking Rain
 * Josefina: Clara Montoya or Mariana

Josefina does not technically have a prominent best friend; Mariana is only in one book, and Clara is her sister. However, both are in her paper doll sets and Clara is in her Magnetic Mini World.