Ear Piercing

Piercedears — A pierced ear with standard-post earrings.

Ear Piercing is the modification of making holes in the vinyl through or near a doll's ears to allow the doll to wear earrings.

Before ear piercing was available directly, the only official earrings available were stick on earrings, generally of a small gemstone style (e.g.: Gemstone Earrings.)

Through American Girl

As of 2008, any My American Girl doll can get her ears pierced--if ordered off the website, this must be done at purchase. Otherwise the doll must be taken to a store or shipped to American Girl directly. Any 18" doll may be pierced for a fee of $16'; this is not available to Bitty Baby or Bitty Twins, presumably due to to the target age. For Historical Characters and Girls of the Year, ear piercing is often not available as an option at the time of purchase online.^[1] A purchase at any American Girl Place can be done soon after purchase, and AG will perform piercing services for any doll.

The holes are drilled with a dremel (power tool) and are permanent. The resulting holes are sized for American Girl earrings and so are bigger than standard human earring posts. Any doll may wear any available earrings. The doll comes with a set of Silver Star Earrings which are only available through piercing.

The same drill method is used for applying hearing aids, though the post hole is placed at a lower position. A doll thus may have both hearing aids and pierced ears.

Self-Piercing

Some collectors prefer to pierce ears themselves. In this way, they are not limited to American Girl earrings only; before ear piercing was offered this was the only way to have pierced ears. This is generally done with a large needle or pushpin, or the earring post directly. The vinyl can be warmed up with a heat source such as a blow dryer to prevent cracking; the needle or pushpin is then gently pushed into the vinyl to make a hole. The hole, while permanent, is much more discreet than the piercing holes made by American Girl and allows any regular human earrings to be placed into the piercing.

A person can also make earring holes the same size as the American Girl sizes using a hand drill and a correctly sized bit. A thumb tack will make an initial guide hole, and a 82/1000 or #42 drill bit will make them the correct size. One may have to ream the hole a bit with the drill bit on high speed if too snug.

Dolls with Earrings

Addy Walker and Josefina Montoya both come with permanent gold loop earrings. Just Like You 27 came with permanent silver loops with star charms until 2008.

Ivy Ling, Elizabeth Cole, and Saige Copeland come with pierced ears and can wear standard American Girl Earrings.

Grace Thomas can have her ears pierced with exclusive earrings.

Earrings Sets

Since piercing has been available, the following earring packs have been available:^[2]

References

↑ Isabelle Palmer and Grace Thomas are the exceptions; by default their ears are not pierced, however.
↑ This does not include outfits or accessory sets that have included earrings.

[1] Isabelle Palmer and Grace Thomas are the exceptions; by default their ears are not pierced, however.

[2] This does not include outfits or accessory sets that have included earrings.

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