A doll to pass along
American Girl Truly Me Doll + Accessories ($140 at the time of publication)
I can think of no single toy I coveted more fiercely as a child than an American Girl doll. They were expensive then (around $80 in the early ’90s), and they’re still expensive now. But for my sister and me, they were a long-term investment in imagination and love, in more ways than I could have realized at the time. We cherished and played with our dolls through adolescence, amassing a collection of outfits and high-quality accessories. Years later, my stepmother rescued our dolls and their belongings from the attic and sent them off for a restorative stay at the Doll Hospital. A quarter century after we first got them, the spiffed-up American Girls were presented to my two daughters when they were right around the same age. They now love their dolls, just as I…