'From socialite to shopgirl': American Girl Samantha gets a new story

Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday Meet Samantha Parkington.

听说周末版周日认识萨曼莎·帕金顿。

She's a 9-year-old orphan living with her wealthy grandmother in the fictional town of Mount Bedford, N.Y., in 1904.

1904 年，她是一名 9 岁的孤儿，与富有的祖母生活在虚构的纽约州贝德福德山小镇。

Emily Friedrichsen, a stylist at the American Girl salon in New York City, buckles Samantha into a magenta-colored, doll-sized salon chair, affixes a pink cape around her neck, tilts her back and gets to work.

纽约市美国女孩沙龙的造型师艾米丽·弗里德里希森 (Emily Friedrichsen) 将萨曼莎 (Samantha) 扣在一张洋红色、娃娃大小的沙龙椅上，在她脖子上系上一件粉色斗篷，倾斜她的背部，开始工作。

"Before brushing your doll's hair, always make sure that you spray some water," says Amanda Holder, another stylist.

“在给娃娃梳理头发之前，一定要先喷一些水，”另一位造型师阿曼达·霍尔德说。

"No water into the eyes, OK?

“别让水进眼睛里，好吗？

And then we start brushing the hair from the bottom, the middle and then the top."

然后我们开始从底部、中间、顶部开始梳理头发。”

Samantha Parkington is, of course, both a children's book character and a doll — one of the most popular American Girl dolls sold in the 1990s.

当然，萨曼莎·帕金顿 (Samantha Parkington) 既是儿童读物中的人物，又是一个娃娃——20 世纪 90 年代最受欢迎的美国女孩娃娃之一。

My Samantha doll arrived on my birthday dressed in a checked taffeta dress with a velvety pink purse, a pair of black Mary Jane shoes, a golden locket and a big bow in her shiny, brown synthetic hair.

我的萨曼莎娃娃在我生日那天抵达，她穿着格子塔夫绸连衣裙，配有柔软的粉红色钱包、一双黑色玛丽珍鞋、一个金色挂坠盒，闪亮的棕色人造头发上系着一个大蝴蝶结。

After declaring her tangle-free, Friedrichsen turns to Samantha's bangs, which after many years of brushing, have stretched out a bit.

在宣布萨曼莎不再打结后，弗里德里希森转向萨曼莎的刘海，经过多年的梳理，她的刘海已经拉长了一些。

"She can't quite see right now," Friedrichsen laughs.

“她现在不太清楚，”弗里德里希森笑着说。

"So let's take care of that." Friedrichsen picks up some scissors — "Do you mind if we give her bangs a little trim?

“所以让我们来解决这个问题吧。”弗里德里希森拿起一把剪刀——“你介意我们稍微修剪一下她的刘海吗？

Is that OK?"

可以吗？”

In the salon chair next to my Samantha doll is another, newer, Samantha, with her hair up in clips.

在我的萨曼莎娃娃旁边的沙龙椅子上是另一个更新的萨曼莎，她的头发盘起来。

Holder is using a tail comb to recurl her hair — "or you can use a crayon or a pencil" — before braiding and styling it into a twist.

霍尔德正在用尾梳重新卷曲她的头发——“或者你可以使用蜡笔或铅笔”——然后将头发编成辫子并造型成麻花状。

The other Samantha belongs to author Fiona Davis, who was asked to write a historical fiction book for adults about Samantha Parkington to mark American Girl's 40th anniversary.

另一本《萨曼莎》属于作家菲奥娜·戴维斯，她被要求为成人写一本关于萨曼莎·帕金顿的历史小说，以纪念《美国女孩》成立 40 周年。

It's called Samantha: The Next Chapter .

这就是《萨曼莎：下一章》。

"I got my doll soon after I got the job," Davis says.

“我找到工作后不久就得到了我的洋娃娃，”戴维斯说。

"She watched over my shoulder as I typed." Davis is the author of several other novels set in New York, including The Stolen Queen and The Lions of Fifth Avenue .

“当我打字时，她在我身后看着。”戴维斯是其他几部以纽约为背景的小说的作者，包括《被盗的女王》和《第五大道的狮子》。

"In the [Samantha] book, she's 25 in 1920, and she learns that her grandmother's inheritance has been stolen," Davis says.

“在[萨曼莎]书中，1920 年她 25 岁，她得知她祖母的遗产被盗了，”戴维斯说。

"She basically goes from socialite to shopgirl overnight.

“她基本上是一夜之间从社交名流变成了女售货员。

And in her quest to find out what happened to it, it takes her to these glamorous nightclubs and to the headquarters of criminal empires."

为了查明到底发生了什么，她来到了这些迷人的夜总会和犯罪帝国的总部。”

In the café downstairs from the salon, Davis, who's 59, says that while she didn't grow up with an American Girl doll, she knew about the character from her niece.

在沙龙楼下的咖啡馆里，59 岁的戴维斯说，虽然她不是和美国女孩玩偶一起长大的，但她从她的侄女那里知道了这个角色。

"She explained to me that because the doll came with these stories, when you had a doll, it wasn't just playing with the doll.

“她向我解释说，因为洋娃娃带有这些故事，所以当你拥有洋娃娃时，你就不仅仅是玩洋娃娃了。

You became the doll," Davis says.

你变成了洋娃娃，”戴维斯说。

"[My niece] talked about how she was very shy when she was a young girl and by becoming Samantha, who is a very tenacious young girl in all those stories, she was able to adopt those characteristics as well." Plus, Davis says, it made her niece a big history nerd, "which, of course, I appreciate." To write Samantha's next chapter, Davis did what she does with all her books — and dove headfirst into Samantha's history.

“[我的侄女]谈到她小时候非常害羞，而通过成为萨曼莎，她在所有这些故事中都是一个非常顽强的年轻女孩，她也能够采用这些特征。”另外，戴维斯说，这让她的侄女成为了一名伟大的历史书呆子，“我当然很欣赏这一点。”为了写出萨曼莎的下一个篇章，戴维斯做了她在所有书中所做的事情——一头扎进萨曼莎的历史。

Pleasant Rowland launched Pleasant Company with three dolls — Samantha, Molly and Kirsten — in 1986.

Pleasant Rowland 于 1986 年推出了 Pleasant Company，拥有三个娃娃——萨曼莎 (Samantha)、莫莉 (Molly) 和克尔斯滕 (Kirsten)。

Her vision was a series of books and dolls "for girls about girls." It became an empire — a catalog, a magazine, a book about puberty called The Care and Keeping of You , plus stores and movies.

她的愿景是推出一系列“为女孩打造的、关于女孩的”书籍和玩偶。它变成了一个帝国——一本目录、一本杂志、一本关于青春期的书，名为《照顾和守护你》，还有商店和电影。

Today, about one American Girl doll is sold every minute, according to the company.

据该公司称，如今，每分钟大约售出一个 American Girl 娃娃。

"Pleasant Rowland is beyond brilliant," says Amanda FitzSimons, author of the new nonfiction book An American Girl: How a Billion-Dollar Doll and Its Unlikely Founder Changed Girlhood Forever .

“普莱森·罗兰非常出色，”新书《一个美国女孩：一个价值十亿美元的娃娃及其不可思议的创始人如何永远改变了少女时代》的作者阿曼达·菲茨西蒙斯说道。

She says Rowland understood something that almost no one else in the toy industry did, "which is that girls that are between the ages of, like, 7 and 12, they want to feel important and they want to feel catered to, and there wasn't a whole lot out there that was doing that." In fact, FitzSimons says, a lot of marketers at that time were trying to make girls feel older.

她说，罗兰明白玩具行业中几乎没有其他人明白的事情，“那就是，7 岁到 12 岁之间的女孩想要感到自己很重要，想要受到照顾，但没有很多人这样做。”事实上，菲茨西蒙斯说，当时很多营销人员都试图让女孩感觉自己更老了。

Rowland, she adds, "met them exactly where they were."

她补充道，罗兰“在他们所在的地方见到了他们。”

Each doll came with a story, which took place over six illustrated, middle-grade books.

每个娃娃都有一个故事，故事发生在六本带插图的中级书籍上。

"The idea was that, you know, I'm looking at this girl and she's going through a lot of the same things I am," FitzSimons says, "and if this girl is interesting enough to write about and to learn about, then I'm interesting enough too."

“这个想法是，你知道，我正在看着这个女孩，她正在经历很多与我相同的事情，”菲茨西蒙斯说，“如果这个女孩足够有趣，值得写和了解，那么我也足够有趣。”

Maxine Rose Schur wrote one of those original chapter books — Samantha's Surprise: A Christmas Story .

玛克辛·罗斯·舒尔 (Maxine Rose Schur) 撰写了其中一本原创章节书——《萨曼莎的惊喜：圣诞故事》。

"I did a lot of research in those days about Victorian Christmas — how people would decorate their homes, how they would celebrate," says Schur.

“当时我对维多利亚圣诞节做了很多研究——人们会如何装饰他们的家，他们会如何庆祝，”舒尔说。

She got a rough outline of the characters from Rowland but says it was up to her to add in the details.

她从罗兰那里得到了角色的粗略轮廓，但表示要由她来添加细节。

"At that time in my life, I was watching the BBC show Upstairs, Downstairs ," Schur explains.

“当时，我正在观看 BBC 节目《楼上楼下》，”舒尔解释道。

"There's a very cranky cook — I think her name was Mrs. Bridges — I kind of fashioned the cook in Samantha's Surprise a little bit after Mrs. Bridges.

“有一个非常暴躁的厨师——我想她的名字叫布里奇斯夫人——我在《萨曼莎的惊喜》中模仿了布里奇斯夫人，塑造了这位厨师。

So, I had a lot of fun with it."

所以，我从中获得了很多乐趣。”

There was also a "Look Back" or a "Peek into History" at the end of each book.

每本书的末尾还有“回顾”或“回顾历史”。

Readers of Samantha's series, for example, could learn more about the suffragist movement, the role of household servants in 1904 or then-President Theodore Roosevelt's work adding land to America's national forests.

例如，萨曼莎系列的读者可以更多地了解妇女参政运动、1904 年家庭仆人的角色或时任总统西奥多·罗斯福为美国国家森林增加土地的工作。

The first Pleasant Company catalog launched on Sept.

第一个 Pleasant Company 产品目录于 9 月推出。

15, 1986.

1986 年 15 日。

Two months later, FitzSimons writes in her book, the first 110,000-print run of the chapter books had sold out.

两个月后，菲茨西蒙斯在她的书中写道，第一批 110,000 册的章节书已经售罄。

Two years later, the company's annual revenue was $17 million.

两年后，公司年收入达到 1700 万美元。

Part of the early success of the American Girl brand was timing — in 1987, Congress declared March Women's History Month — but Rowland was also the daughter of an advertising executive and she knew what she was doing.

American Girl 品牌早期成功的部分原因在于时机——1987 年，国会宣布三月为女性历史月——但罗兰也是一位广告主管的女儿，她知道自己在做什么。

"Pleasant wanted to create little toys and auxiliary materials that could be sold to complement the sale of the book and the doll," says Schur, who remembers intentionally writing ideas for accessories into Samantha's Surprise .

“普莱森特想要制作一些小玩具和辅助材料，这些玩具和辅助材料可以用来补充书和娃娃的销售，”舒尔说，他记得特意将配件的想法写进了《萨曼莎的惊喜》中。

"A certain type of little handkerchief or a little music box or other things that could be duplicated in a kind of Victorian fashion and sold."

“某种类型的小手帕或小音乐盒或其他可以以维多利亚时代的时尚方式复制并出售的东西。”

FitzSimons says Rowland and American Girl were positioning their dolls as the anti-Barbie.

菲茨西蒙斯表示，罗兰和美国女孩将他们的娃娃定位为反芭比娃娃。

"She was also marketing to parents," FitzSimons says.

“她还向家长进行营销，”菲茨西蒙斯说。

Nothing was pink or plastic.

没有什么是粉红色或塑料的。

Samantha's table and chair set was real wicker.

萨曼莎的桌椅是真正的柳条制成的。

Her ivory tablecloth was trimmed with Battenberg lace.

她的象牙色桌布饰有巴滕伯格蕾丝。

Her lemonade goblets — not cups — were made by a family-owned glassware company in Ohio.

她的柠檬水高脚杯（不是杯子）是由俄亥俄州一家家族玻璃器皿公司制造的。

"The idea was really that these were things of quality for your children," FitzSimons explains.

“我们的想法实际上是，这些对您的孩子来说是优质的东西，”菲茨西蒙斯解释道。

"This was an investment."

“这是一项投资。”

But the scope of the history covered in the American Girl books was limited, for the most part, to white, Christian, middle- to upper-class America, FitzSimons notes.

但菲茨西蒙斯指出，《美国女孩》书中所涵盖的历史范围在很大程度上仅限于美国白人、基督徒、中上层阶级。

In 1993, the company tried to rectify that lineup with Addy Walker, the company's first nonwhite doll, whose backstory was that she was an enslaved person who escaped to freedom in 1864.

1993 年，该公司试图通过 Addy Walker 来纠正这一阵容，这是该公司的第一个非白人娃娃，其背景故事是她是一名奴隶，于 1864 年逃亡到自由。

Aisha Harris begged for an Addy doll that Christmas.

那年圣诞节，艾莎·哈里斯乞求得到一个阿迪娃娃。

"It was so cool to have this doll who kind of looked like me," she says.

“拥有这个看起来像我的娃娃真是太酷了，”她说。

She remembers that Addy's hair, unlike that of a lot of the other Black dolls she played with, actually felt like her own hair.

她记得阿迪的头发与她玩过的许多其他黑色娃娃的头发不同，实际上感觉就像她自己的头发。

"It was kind of coarse and not as straight," Harris says.

“它有点粗糙，而且不那么直，”哈里斯说。

Harris is co-host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour and the author of the 2016 Slate essay " The Making of an American Girl ." She says that Addy Walker's historical background was meaningful and that she appreciated that the doll was a fully realized and researched character.

哈里斯是 NPR 流行文化欢乐时光的联合主持人，也是 2016 年 Slate 文章《美国女孩的成长》的作者。她说艾迪·沃克的历史背景很有意义，她很欣赏这个娃娃是一个经过充分认识和研究的角色。

Pleasant Company convened an advisory board for the doll that included Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Pleasant Company 为该娃娃召集了一个顾问委员会，其中包括史密森尼国家非裔美国人历史和文化博物馆的创始馆长朗尼·邦奇 (Lonnie Bunch)。

"There's a great detail about, like, making sure that she had sort of a space between her teeth, like a gap between her teeth, because that's common for certain cultures, especially if you're coming from western Africa," Harris explains.

“有一个很大的细节，比如确保她的牙齿之间有一定的空间，就像她的牙齿之间的间隙一样，因为这在某些文化中很常见，特别是如果你来自西非，”哈里斯解释道。

The problem, Harris writes in her essay, is that for nearly two decades, Addy was the only Black doll to choose from.

哈里斯在她的文章中写道，问题在于，近二十年来，阿迪是唯一可供选择的黑人娃娃。

"It's a very heavy burden to carry," she says.

“这是一个非常沉重的负担，”她说。

"Why is she the only?

“为什么只有她一个人？

Why is she the only enslaved person?

为什么她是唯一的奴隶？

And why is this the only representation that I have from this company?"

为什么这是我从这家公司得到的唯一代表？”

Today, there are more than 50 characters in the American Girl brand, which is now owned by Mattel.

如今，American Girl 品牌已有 50 多个角色，现已归美泰 (Mattel) 所有。

They come from all different backgrounds.

他们来自不同的背景。

According to market research company Circana , adult-only households made up 55% of toy sales in the first half of this year.

根据市场研究公司 Circana 的数据，今年上半年成人家庭玩具销量占到了 55%。

Deena Taylor, senior director of global brand marketing for American Girl, says today, in addition to marketing to kids, the company is also trying to tap into that intangible, priceless quality: nostalgia.

美国女孩全球品牌营销高级总监迪娜·泰勒 (Deena Taylor) 今天表示，除了针对儿童进行营销之外，该公司还试图挖掘一种无形的、无价的品质：怀旧之情。

"Millennials right now, we're in that spot of, you know, wanting that familiarity of what we grew up with," Taylor says.

“现在的千禧一代，我们正处于这样的境地，你知道，我们想要熟悉我们成长的过程，”泰勒说。

Millennials like me.

像我这样的千禧一代。

I'm part of that generation of American Girl fans who have grown up.

我是那一代已经长大的《美国女孩》粉丝中的一员。

Who stored her doll in her mom's basement, waiting to pass her on to the next generation.

她把她的洋娃娃存放在她妈妈的地下室里，等待着把她传给下一代。

Maxine Rose Schur, who wrote part of Samantha's original story, says she never previously considered what Samantha might be like as an adult.

萨曼莎原创故事的部分作者玛克辛·罗斯·舒尔 (Maxine Rose Schur) 表示，她之前从未考虑过萨曼莎成年后会是什么样子。

But, Schur says, "I hope she marches for women's suffrage.

但是，舒尔说，“我希望她为女性选举权而游行。

I think she's a feisty girl, so I don't see her as taking a back seat to a man, for example.

我认为她是一个活泼的女孩，所以我不认为她退居于男人之后。

I hope not."

我希望不会。”

No big spoilers for Samantha: The Next Chapter , but in a way, it picks up right where we left Samantha in the sixth and final book in her original series.

《萨曼莎：下一章》没有大剧透，但在某种程度上，它接续了我们在萨曼莎原创系列的第六本书也是最后一本书中离开的地方。

At the end of Changes for Samantha , she attends a rally with her aunt Cornelia, a suffragist.

在《萨曼莎的改变》的结尾，她和她的姑妈科妮莉亚（一位妇女参政论者）一起参加了一次集会。

Fifteen years later, in 1920, the 19th Amendment has just been ratified.

十五年后，即1920年，第十九修正案刚刚获得批准。

In the very first pages of Fiona Davis' new book, we meet Samantha and her aunt discussing how they can best assist the League of Women Voters.

在菲奥娜·戴维斯新书的第一页，我们见到萨曼莎和她的阿姨，讨论她们如何才能最好地帮助女性选民联盟。

Davis promises that adult Samantha will be recognizable to longtime fans, but new and exciting adventures are ahead for her too.

戴维斯承诺成年萨曼莎将被长期粉丝所认出，但她也将面临新的、令人兴奋的冒险。

"It's fun that she's not frozen in time.

“有趣的是她的时间没有被冻结。

She's not in amber and, you know, fossilized," Davis says.

她不在琥珀里，你知道，她不是化石，”戴维斯说。

"She's out there living her life just as her readers are.

“她和她的读者一样过着自己的生活。

And what I wanted it to be is like you were taking a long journey with an old friend but going somewhere new."

我希望它就像你和一位老朋友一起进行长途旅行，但要去一个新的地方。”

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: In 1986, Pleasant Rowland launched Pleasant Company with three dolls - Samantha, Molly and Kirsten.

AYESHA RASCOE（主持人）：1986 年，Pleasant Rowland 推出了 Pleasant Company，拥有三个玩偶：Samantha、Molly 和 Kirsten。

Her vision was a series of books and dolls for girls about girls.

她的愿景是为女孩制作一系列关于女孩的书籍和玩偶。

It became an empire - a catalog, a magazine, stores, movies and hundreds more dolls - known as American Girl.

它变成了一个帝国——目录、杂志、商店、电影和数百个娃娃——被称为“美国女孩”。

Now 40 years later, there's a new chapter in OG American Girl Samantha's story.

40 年后的今天，OG 美国女孩萨曼莎的故事翻开了新的篇章。

So NPR's Samantha Balaban took her Samantha doll to the American Girl store in New York to investigate.

于是NPR的Samantha Balaban带着她的Samantha娃娃来到纽约的American Girl商店进行调查。

EMILY FRIEDRICHSEN: Is she yours?

艾米丽·弗里德里克森：她是你的吗？

Oh, my goodness.

哦，我的天啊。

SAMANTHA BALABAN, BYLINE: Meet Samantha Parkington.

萨曼莎·巴拉班连线：认识萨曼莎·帕金顿。

She's a 9-year-old orphan living with her wealthy grandmother in the fictional town of Mount Bedford, New York, in 1904.

1904 年，她是一名 9 岁的孤儿，与富有的祖母一起生活在虚构的纽约州贝德福德镇。

And her hair is a mess.

而且她的头发很乱。

FRIEDRICHSEN: She is officially tangle-free.

FRIEDRICHSEN：她正式不再缠结了。

Hooray.

万岁。

BALABAN: Samantha Parkington is, of course, both a children's book character and a doll.

巴拉班：当然，萨曼莎·帕金顿既是儿童读物中的人物，又是一个洋娃娃。

One of the most popular American Girl dolls sold to girls like me in the 1990s.

20 世纪 90 年代，最受欢迎的美国女孩娃娃之一卖给了像我这样的女孩。

FRIEDRICHSEN: Going to brush out the bangs.

FRIEDRICHSEN：去梳理刘海。

BALABAN: She came on my birthday, dressed in a checked taffeta dress and a big bow in her shiny brown synthetic hair.

巴拉班：我生日那天她来了，穿着一件格子塔夫绸连衣裙，闪亮的棕色人造头发上系着一个大蝴蝶结。

FRIEDRICHSEN: Do you mind if we give her bangs a little trim?

FRIEDRICHSEN：你介意我们稍微修剪一下她的刘海吗？

Is that OK?

可以吗？

BALABAN: Her hair is partially why we're here today, getting a fresh blowout from Emily Friedrichsen, a stylist at the American Girl salon.

BALABAN：她的头发是我们今天来到这里的部分原因，由 American Girl 沙龙的造型师 Emily Friedrichsen 为她打造了全新的发型。

FRIEDRICHSEN: We've got her nice little bow in the back, and she is looking...

FRIEDRICHSEN：我们在她后面打了一个漂亮的小蝴蝶结，她正在看着……

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yeah.

身份不明的人#1：是的。

FRIEDRICHSEN: ...Gorgeous.

弗里德里希森：……太漂亮了。

Do we want to put the hat back on?

我们想把帽子戴回去吗？

BALABAN: In the salon chair next to my Samantha is another Samantha, getting her hair styled into a twist.

巴拉班：在我的萨曼莎旁边的沙龙椅子上是另一个萨曼莎，她正在把头发打成螺旋状。

FIONA DAVIS: I got my doll soon after I got the job.

菲奥娜·戴维斯：我找到工作后不久就得到了我的洋娃娃。

So she watched over my shoulder as I typed.

所以当我打字时，她在我的肩膀后面看着。

BALABAN: That's Fiona Davis, the author of several historical fiction novels set in New York, including "The Stolen Queen" and "The Lions Of Fifth Avenue." For its 40th anniversary this fall, American Girl asked her to write a new historical fiction book for adults.

巴拉班：那是菲奥娜·戴维斯，她是多部以纽约为背景的历史小说的作者，其中包括《被盗的女王》和《第五大道的狮子》。今年秋天，为了庆祝其成立 40 周年，《美国女孩》邀请她为成人写一本新的历史小说。

It's called "Samantha: The Next Chapter." DAVIS: In the book, she's 25 in 1920, and she learns that her grandmother's inheritance has been stolen.

它的名字叫“萨曼莎：下一章”。戴维斯：在书中，1920 年她 25 岁，她得知祖母的遗产被盗了。

She basically goes from socialite to shopgirl overnight.

她基本上是一夜之间从社交名流变成了女售货员。

BALABAN: In the cafe at the American Girl store, Davis says, while she didn't grow up with her Samantha doll, she knew about the character from her niece.

巴拉班：在美国女孩商店的咖啡馆里，戴维斯说，虽然她不是和萨曼莎娃娃一起长大的，但她从她的侄女那里知道了这个角色。

DAVIS: And she explained to me that because the doll came with these stories, you became the doll.

戴维斯：她向我解释说，因为洋娃娃带有这些故事，所以你就成了洋娃娃。

You became Samantha.

你变成了萨曼莎。

And she talked about how she was very shy when she was a young girl.

她谈到自己年轻时非常害羞。

And by becoming Samantha, who's a very tenacious young girl, she was able to adopt those characteristics, as well.

通过成为萨曼莎，一个非常顽强的年轻女孩，她也能够采用这些特征。

And on top of that, she said it made her a big history nerd, which, of course, I appreciate.

最重要的是，她说这让她成为了一个大历史书呆子，我当然很欣赏这一点。

BALABAN: To write Samantha's next chapter, Davis began the same way she begins every book - by researching the past.

巴拉班：为了写萨曼莎的下一章，戴维斯以她开始每本书的方式开始——研究过去。

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) PLEASANT ROWLAND: Somewhere in the archives of this company is a postcard written in green ink.

（存档录音的声音片段） PLEASANT ROWLAND：在该公司的档案中，有一张用绿色墨水写的明信片。

BALABAN: Pleasant Rowland giving a speech celebrating the 25th anniversary of American Girl.

BALABAN：普莱森·罗兰发表演讲，庆祝《美国女孩》成立 25 周年。

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) ROWLAND: It said, as best I can remember, I've been down in Williamsburg this week and had an idea - a series of books about 9-year-old girls growing up at different times in American history.

（存档录音的声音片段） 罗兰德：据我所知，这周我去了威廉斯堡，并有了一个想法——出版一系列关于美国历史上不同时期成长的 9 岁女孩的书。

AMANDA FITZSIMONS: Pleasant Rowland is beyond brilliant.

阿曼达·菲茨西蒙斯：普莱森·罗兰非常出色。

BALABAN: Amanda FitzSimons is the author of the new non fiction book "An American Girl: How A Billion-Dollar Doll And Its Unlikely Founder Changed Girlhood Forever." She says Rowland understood something that almost no one else in the toy industry did.

巴拉班：阿曼达·菲茨西蒙斯 (Amanda FitzSimons) 是新的非小说类书籍《一个美国女孩：一个价值十亿美元的娃娃及其不太可能的创始人如何永远改变了少女时代》的作者。她说罗兰了解玩具行业中几乎没有其他人了解的事情。

FITZSIMONS: Which is that girls that are between the ages of, like, 7 and 12 - they want to feel important and they want to feel catered to, and there wasn't a whole lot out there that was doing that.

FITZSIMONS：年龄在 7 岁到 12 岁之间的女孩 - 她们想要感觉自己很重要，她们想要感到受到照顾，但没有很多人这样做。

In fact, what a lot of marketers were doing was trying to make them feel older, but she just met them exactly where they were.

事实上，很多营销人员所做的就是试图让他们感觉自己变老了，但她只是在他们所在的地方遇到了他们。

BALABAN: Each doll came with a story, which took place over six illustrated middle-grade books.

BALABAN：每个娃娃都有一个故事，发生在六本中年级插图书中。

FITZSIMONS: It was the year they were 9, so it was Christmas, birthday, school.

FITZSIMONS：那一年他们九岁，所以那是圣诞节、生日、上学。

And the idea was that, you know, I'm looking at this girl and she's going through a lot of the same things I am, like this universality of girlhood.

这个想法是，你知道，我正在看着这个女孩，她正在经历很多与我相同的事情，就像少女时代的普遍性一样。

BALABAN: Maxine Rose Schur wrote one of those original chapter books, "Samantha's Surprise: A Christmas Story." MAXINE ROSE SCHUR: I did a lot of research in those days about Victorian Christmas - how people would decorate their homes, how they would celebrate.

巴拉班：玛克辛·罗斯·舒尔 (Maxine Rose Schur) 写了一本原创章节书，《萨曼莎的惊喜：圣诞故事》。 MAXINE ROSE SCHUR：当时我做了很多关于维多利亚圣诞节的研究——人们会如何装饰他们的家，他们会如何庆祝。

I had a lot of fun with it.

我玩得很开心。

BALABAN: Part of the early success of the brand was the timing.

BALABAN：该品牌早期成功的部分原因在于时机。

Girl power was on the rise.

女孩的力量正在上升。

In 1987, Congress declared March Women's History Month.

1987 年，国会宣布三月为妇女历史月。

SCHUR: I think the marketing aspect was pretty brilliant, actually.

SCHUR：实际上，我认为营销方面非常出色。

Pleasant wanted to create little toys and auxiliary materials that could be sold to complement the sale of the book and the doll.

普莱森特想要制作一些可以出售的小玩具和辅助材料，以补充书籍和娃娃的销售。

BALABAN: Schur intentionally wrote accessories into the story.

巴拉班：舒尔故意在故事中加入了配件。

SCHUR: Maybe a certain type of little handkerchief or little music box.

SCHUR：也许是某种类型的小手帕或小音乐盒。

BALABAN: Amanda FitzSimons says Pleasant Rowland was positioning American Girl as the anti Barbie.

巴拉班：阿曼达·菲茨西蒙斯说普莱森·罗兰将《美国女孩》定位为反芭比娃娃。

FITZSIMONS: She was also marketing to parents.

FITZSIMONS：她也在向家长推销。

BALABAN: Samantha's table and chair set was real wicker.

巴拉班：萨曼莎的桌子和椅子是真正的柳条制成的。

Her ivory tablecloth was trimmed with Battenberg lace.

她的象牙色桌布饰有巴滕伯格蕾丝。

Her lemonade goblets - not cups - were made by a family-owned glassware company in Ohio.

她的柠檬水高脚杯（不是杯子）是由俄亥俄州的一家家族玻璃器皿公司制造的。

FITZSIMONS: The idea was really that these were things of quality for your children, that this was an investment.

FITZSIMONS：我们的想法实际上是，这些对你的孩子来说是优质的东西，这是一项投资。

BALABAN: And it sold.

巴拉班：然后就卖了。

But the scope of the history covered in the American Girl books was limited, for the most part to white, Christian, middle- to upper-class America, says FitzSimons.

但菲茨西蒙斯说，《美国女孩》书中所涵盖的历史范围很有限，大部分涉及美国白人、基督徒、中上层阶级。

FITZSIMONS: In 1993, the company endeavored to rectify that lineup.

FITZSIMONS：1993 年，公司努力调整阵容。

And they made Addy Walker, the company's first nonwhite doll, and her backstory was that she was an enslaved person who escaped.

他们制作了公司的第一个非白人娃娃阿迪·沃克（Addy Walker），她的背景故事是她是一个逃跑的奴隶。

AISHA HARRIS, BYLINE: I just remember for Christmas, I had begged for the American Girl doll, and she was waiting underneath my tree.

艾莎·哈里斯连线：我只记得圣诞节的时候，我乞求得到美国女孩娃娃，她就在我的圣诞树下等着。

BALABAN: Aisha Harris is co-host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour and author of the 2016 Slate essay "The Making Of An American Girl." HARRIS: It was so cool to have this doll who kind of looked like me and whose hair, unlike many other dolls that I played with, even, like, Black ones - like, her hair felt like mine.

BALABAN：艾莎·哈里斯 (Aisha Harris) 是 NPR 流行文化欢乐时光的联合主持人，也是 2016 年 Slate 文章《美国女孩的成长》的作者。哈里斯：拥有这个看起来像我的娃娃真是太酷了，她的头发与我玩过的许多其他娃娃不同，甚至像黑色的娃娃一样，她的头发感觉像我的。

It was kind of coarse and not as straight.

它有点粗糙而且不那么直。

BALABAN: She says Addy Walker's historical background was meaningful, and she was a fully realized and researched character.

巴拉班：她说艾迪·沃克的历史背景很有意义，她是一个经过充分认识和研究的角色。

HARRIS: There's a great detail about, like, making sure that she had sort of a space between her teeth, like, a gap between her teeth, because that's common for certain cultures, especially if you're coming from Western Africa.

哈里斯：有一个很大的细节，比如，确保她的牙齿之间有一定的空间，就像她的牙齿之间有一个间隙，因为这在某些文化中很常见，特别是如果你来自西非。

BALABAN: The problem, Harris says in her essay, is that for nearly two decades, Addy was the only Black doll to choose from.

巴拉班：哈里斯在她的文章中说，问题在于，近二十年来，阿迪是唯一可供选择的黑人娃娃。

HARRIS: It's like, why is she the only enslaved person?

哈里斯：就像，为什么她是唯一的奴隶？

And why is this the only representation that I have from this company?

为什么这是我从这家公司得到的唯一代表？

It's a very heavy burden to carry.

这是一个非常沉重的负担。

BALABAN: Today, there are more than 50 characters in the American Girl brand, which is now owned by Mattel.

BALABAN：如今，American Girl 品牌中有超过 50 个角色，该品牌现已归美泰 (Mattel) 所有。

They come from all different backgrounds.

他们来自不同的背景。

Deena Taylor is the senior director of global brand marketing for American Girl.

Deena Taylor 是 American Girl 的全球品牌营销高级总监。

She says the company is trying to tap into that intangible, priceless quality - nostalgia.

她说，公司正在努力挖掘这种无形的、无价的品质——怀旧之情。

DEENA TAYLOR: Millennials right now, we're in that spot of wanting that familiarity of what we grew up with and wanting to pass it down to your nieces and your daughters and your friends kids so they can have that same experience.

迪娜·泰勒：现在的千禧一代，我们想要熟悉我们成长的过程，并希望将它传递给你的侄女、女儿和朋友的孩子，这样他们就能有同样的经历。

BALABAN: And Samantha has grown up right alongside us.

巴拉班：萨曼莎和我们一起长大。

Maxine Rose Schur, who wrote part of Samantha's original story, says...

萨曼莎原创故事的部分作者玛克辛·罗斯·舒尔 (Maxine Rose Schur) 说……

SCHUR: I hope she marches for women's suffrage, you know?

舒尔：我希望她为妇女选举权而游行，你知道吗？

I think she's a feisty girl.

我认为她是一个活泼的女孩。

I don't see her taking a backseat to a man, for example.

例如，我不认为她对男人退居二线。

I hope not.

我希望不会。

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Did you want this...

身份不明的人#2：你想要这个吗……

BALABAN: In the American Girl Store cafe, author Fiona Davis reads from the beginning of "Samantha: The Next Chapter." DAVIS: (Reading) Samantha and Cornelia walked back to Grandmary's house after the tea, sharing a lively discussion about other ways they could assist the League of Women Voters.

巴拉班：在美国女孩商店的咖啡馆里，作家菲奥娜·戴维斯读着《萨曼莎：下一章》的开头。戴维斯：（读）萨曼莎和科妮莉亚喝完茶后走回祖母家，热烈讨论了她们可以帮助女性选民联盟的其他方式。

As they turned down...

当他们拒绝时...

BALABAN: No spoilers, but Samantha is moving into the future while remaining the same American Girl she's always been.

巴拉班：没有剧透，但萨曼莎正在走向未来，同时仍然是她一直以来的美国女孩。

DAVIS: It's fun that she's not frozen in time.

戴维斯：很有趣的是她没有被及时冻结。

She's out there living her life just as her readers are.

她和她的读者一样过着自己的生活。

And what I wanted it to be is like you were taking a long journey with an old friend but going somewhere new.

我想要的就像你和一位老朋友一起进行长途旅行，但要去一个新的地方。

BALABAN: Samantha Balaban, NPR News.

巴拉班：萨曼莎·巴拉班，NPR 新闻。

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