Yesterday, the UPS man drove up the driveway and instead of letting him dump his package and leave, I went to the door to personally receive the box. I knew what was inside. It was the Erin Carpatina doll. I tore open the box and checked her to make sure her eyes opened and she really did have gorgeous red hair. She looked exactly like the photos on the company site, except she was carefully mummied into her box and was wearing a hair net. Overall, I swooned.
No, this doll is NOT for me. After talking with my sister Dorothy about what to buy for Little this Christmas, I realized it was my goal in life to find her a fake American Girl doll with red hair and blue eyes (because there aren't any redheaded American Girl dolls and they are ridiculously expensive at over $100 a pop). It's true, most of us redheads actually have blue eyes instead of green (I do and so does Little). But the Myth of the Redhead is stronger than the 4% of the population that actually has red hair, so we can do little to fight the battle.
Erin is the PERFECT doll for a redheaded girl. She has amazing hair -- not the weird orange hair I saw on other dolls. She has pretty freckles -- not the obnoxious, unrealistic freckles I saw on other dolls. Erin is truly unique. Carpatina won me over immediately when I saw her little face. And did I care about the $69.00 price tag after searching for hours on the Internet feeling like I had no hope left? Hell no. Because I remember being that little girl who wanted a doll that looked exactly like her. Instead, I had an African American Cabbage Patch Kid named Tanya. We loved each other despite our differences.
To get away from myself for a moment, I also appreciate Carpatina because I work with English as a Second Language educational materials. Along with Caucasian dolls like Erin, they have stunning Asian dolls. (I'm a little baffled that there isn't an African American doll or a Latina doll, but everyone has to start somewhere. I'm sure they'll get there.) I think the line that has the broadest ethnic swatch is probably the Karito Kids collection (which I lurved, but they didn't have a redhead). I was also impressed by the diversity of the Journey Girls (I almost got Kelsey, but I couldn't really tell if her hair was red or brown). The Madame Alexander Favorite Friends group is nice as well. I see they have a new redhead for 2011, but I was already wooed by Erin. At least I know there is one other pretty redheaded doll out there in the universe if I need another one.
I've written about the awkwardness of redheaded pop-culture characters before. It's so hard for me to find GOOD books or dolls or movies or whatever for my little ginger niece. I have EXTREMELY high hopes for Pixar's movie Brave, which is supposed to come out sometime next summer:
Please be good, please be good! And damn, I'm pretty sure those are BLUE eyes. WHOOT!
But back to Erin. I bought her this dress and these shoes so she would have something to wear. I told Dorothy about all of this and we squealed with delight. Somehow, all of the angst of Christmas disappeared while we were talking about the doll. We were little girls again, excited at the prospect of unwrapping such a treasure. I can't WAIT to see Little's face when she opens Erin!
As for me, I had to get Erin out of Farmhouse Villa. Gretchen would NOT stay away. I left her in the the pretty blue box she came in but also in the cardboard shipping box on the table. Ten minutes later? BAM! It was on the floor. I moved it to the top of the chest of drawers in my bedroom. Crunch, crunch, crunch. I heard Gretchen nibbling on the shipping tape. Out of desperation, I called my mother and had her stop by to pick up Erin and move her safely to Nerdtopia. No kittehs can get to her there. My home doesn't lend itself to "hiding" things from cats. I don't have what one would call "cupboard space." And who wants to put Erin in a cupboard anyway? Not me.
Thankfully, time has been flying by SO FAST that I won't have to wait long to see the big reveal. I just hope Little will be as excited as her mother and I are. If not, maybe we'll just keep her. We can have joint custody.
6 comments:
There was an American Girl doll when I was growing up who had red hair, Felicity (Colonial Williamsburg). I suppose she is long retired by now, with most of the classic ones; it's hard to imagine how much that line has changed over the years.
I don't have blue eyes. Or green eyes. Or grey eyes. They are somewhere between all three. But I'm also not a "real" redhead. ;-)
You can still get a redhead american girl doll
http://store.americangirl.com/html/myagconfig2/main.html
but I think you got a much better value with the one you picked. American Girl sort of makes me wanna scream, my niece just HAD to have one, cause all the girls did, and it just seems like DANG they nickel and dime you to death... $100 isn't enough for a damn doll if you want her ears pierced.. (add $10) and so on and so on... and then my niece went to the American Doll store ONCE for a new hairdo and the CHEAPEST doll hair do was $12 are you kidding me!
the doll is gorgeous, and I am sure she will be thrilled, interestingly I never wanted a doll to look like me as a kid, I always picked boy dolls... not sure what that means in the grand scheme of things! LOL
oh and Sassymonkey, if I ever had to pick a dolls eye color for either of my kids I would be LOST, I honestly have no idea how to tell my kids what color eyes they have. At preschool the kids have to write a book about themselves, 3 years ago Drew's teacher told him he had green eyes, last year in kindergarten his teacher told him he had blue eyes.... and I think they are almost hazel, but less brown and more gray in the background??? They are super pretty but I don't which color represents them more!
When I read the title of this post I thought "how fitting I should read this just after having seen the new Pixar trailer!" and then lo and behold... you include said trailer in your post! :o)
Redheads of the world unite!!!
As for the redheads/green eyes... HEY! I'm a redhead with green (hazel) eyes!!! But my sister is a redhead with blue eyes and my dad a redhead with brown (even more rare!)
I totally understand your redheaded frustration! I think it's part of the reason why I loved Disney's The Little Mermaid so much... that and the sea of course. :D
she's lovely, just like you and little.
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