Nellie O'Malley

Nellie O'Malley was the first Best Friend released; she is the "Best Friend" of Samantha Parkington.

In October 2008, American Girl announced that they will "archive" Samantha Parkington's entire collection; she, Nellie, and their collections will no longer be available for purchase online or through catalogues with the exception of books. The website states that this is the last holiday season to get Samantha, so she will probably be archived after Dec or January. It is unknown when Samantha and Nellie will be once again available after the archiving, if ever.

Basic Facts

 * Name: Nellie O'Malley
 * Birthday: October 14, 1896

Personality and Facts
Nellie starts the series as a shy servant girl; she lives with her mother, father, and two sisters Jenny and Bridget. Nellie's family are Irish immigrants and thus not looked upon well in American society.

Nellie is first seen in Meet Samantha working for the Rylands as a servant. She defers to Samantha and her family because she is of a lower class, even calling Samantha "miss" and fretting that she might be seen with her. She is described as shorter and smaller than Samantha and not very healthy due to having done hard factory work that has weakened her health. This eventually leads to her being dismissed by the Rylands because Mrs. Ryland does not think she will last. She has worked several years of her young life by the time Samantha meets her, first in a factory and then as a house servant, and initially had never gone to school until Samantha Learns a Lesson. She is practical where Samantha is fanciful; when Samantha says that Jessie has left to be an actress and goes into a fantasy, Nellie simply concludes--correctly--that Jessie may have a baby.

Initially, Nellie was a foil to Samantha to reflect her poorer, more rough life. However she was lifted in status when she becomes part of Samantha's family; she and her sisters are adopted by Gardner Edwards and Cornelia Edwards.

Nellie is extremely apprehensive of letting people get close to her or getting too informal with people she perceives as her betters; even after living with Gardner and Cornelia for two months, she still calls him "sir" and is very distant. She is extremely protective of her younger sisters and to some extent of the more naive Samantha. She is mechanically skilled; Miss Brennan calls her 'Miss Nellie O'Malley-All-Mended" because of the way she was able to disassemble and reassemble things to repair them. She also sings well.

Major Characters

 * Gardner Edwards: Nellie's adoptive father; Samantha's uncle.
 * Cornelia Edwards: Nellie's adoptive mother; Samantha's aunt.
 * Bridget O'Malley: Nellie's younger sister.
 * Jenny O'Malley: Nellie's younger sister.
 * Samantha Parkington: Nellie's best friend.

Minor Characters

 * Mike O'Malley: Nellie's uncle.
 * Miss Brennan: a teacher at a settlement house.

Book
Nellie's Promise

In Samantha's Series
Nellie is a major character for Samantha's first two books, Meet Samantha and Samantha Learns a Lesson. She is then pushed into the background until Changes for Samantha, when she is then made a prominent character again.

She is a major character for Samantha and the Missing Pearls, Samantha's Winter Party, The Curse of Ravenscourt, and The Stolen Sapphire.

Doll
Main Article: Nellie O'Malley (doll)


 * Face Mold: Josefina Mold
 * Skin: Light
 * Nellie has light freckles across the nose and cheeks.
 * Hair: Light blonde
 * Eyes: Dark blue

Meet Outfit

 * Blue and white dress
 * White tights
 * Blue hair ribbon
 * Black shoes
 * White bloomers

Meet Accessories

 * White straw hat with blue flowers
 * Celtic cross necklace
 * Embroidered handkerchief
 * Irish penny
 * Drawstring bag

Collection

 * See Nellie's Collection

Trivia

 * Nellie was the first explicitly non-Latina doll to use the Josefina Mold.
 * Though Nellie in the movie is a redhead, her doll is blonde, in contrast with the retcon of Elizabeth Cole's hair to match her movie counterpart. This may be because the book illustrations, which remain the same, can be interpreted as either color, or it may be because the Nellie doll was originally meant to be limited edition and continuity between the book and movie versions of the story was not as important in this case.