Mckenna Brooks: American Girl Doll 2012

Before I start talking about the new Girl of the Year doll Mckenna Brooks I want to say.... HAPPY NEW YEAR! =D I can't believe it's 2012! It seems like just yesterday it was the beginning of 2011....

Now onto Mckenna.
Every year American Girl has a limited edition doll that is only available to buy for one year. This year, the Girl of the Year is named Mckenna Brooks. She is from Seattle Washington and wants to be gymnast. The only problem is that she's falling behind in her reading at school....
I love the idea of a gymnast doll because I used to be in gymnastics when I was younger and I think that the theme of gymnastics will be popular with American Girl Doll fans.
However... No matter how much I love Mckenna's theme... I am not a huge fan of the doll or her collection.
Here is a picture of Mckenna:

I will start with the things that I like about Mckenna.
Her hair is gorgeous! She is one of the few American Girl Dolls that doesn't have a part in her hair. Mckenna's hair is straight, caramel colored, and has no part which makes for a totally knew hair combination that American Girl has never used before!
The second thing I like about Mckenna is her dress. I love the colors - gray and blue go great together especially if they are stripes!
However much I love the colors of the dress and the stripes I'm not a big fan of the pattern. The panel in the front looks kind of odd.
The biggest thing that I don't like about Mckenna is her face... In 2009 the Girl of the Year was named Chrissa. Chrissa had the same face mold as Mckenna and the same eye color. The only difference between Mckenna and Chrissa is their hair color.
Here is a picture of Chrissa next to Mckenna:
What happened to Girl of the Year's being unique in their looks? What happened to American Girl Dolls in general being unique in their looks? To me it looks like American Girl mixed Chrissa, with Elizabeth and Marie-Grace to get Mckenna....


I am not happy with American Girl for making Mckenna look so much like other dolls. For the price that the dolls cost ($105 for a doll and her book), American Girl should at least put a little more variety in their dolls.
Now onto Mckenna's collection....
First I will talk about her school outfit:
I absolutely LOVE the sweater! The gray mini-skirt is kind of interesting... It looks like a pair of shorts from the angle the picture was taken. Next come purple leggings... They don't seem to fit with the outfit because they are a different color purple than the sweater. They do, however, match the shoes which look almost exactly like the shoes Mckenna comes with. Why didn't American Girl choose different colors for the shoes? Then they could be different from the shoes that Mckenna comes in. The final piece in this outfit are the two blue hair clips. They match the shoes... But other than that they look out of place. For $28 you get a lot of piece. Although I don't think that the outfit compliments itself as a whole, I love each of the parts separated.
Next is Mckenna's PJ's and some other outfits. All of the outfits are pretty cute but simple and would probably be easy to make on your own.


Now let's move onto Mckenna's accessories and furniture.
First is my absolute favorite thing in Mckenna's collection:
I LOVE the umbrella and the boots are adorable! I would buy this in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the price... $34 for those two items. WAAAY too much! I could buy an American Girl outfit for the same amount of money. I could take a friend out to dinner for the same amount of money! I could feed 34 people off the dollar menu at McDonalds for the same about of money! I could go see the Tintin movie again for the same amount of money!

Unfortunately the rain boots and umbrella aren't the only over priced items in Mckenna's collection....
Here is Mckenna's bed set and her balance beam set. The former costs a whopping $225!! The latter costs $85 I think.
I absolutely love the accessories to the loft bed but sadly they don't come separately.



All together, I don't think Mckenna is an original looking doll and even though I really like her collection, the overpriced items will not be finding their way into my home anytime soon.

And now that I'm finished with my little rant... I am going to go get myself some Nutela on toast and then listen to "The Night Before" by the Beatles because it has been popping in and out of my head for the past day or two.