Felicity Merriman - 1774
- Jun 2
- 7 min read
I've mentioned before that I only read a couple of American Girl books as a kid, and of those, the one that stands out most in my memory is Meet Felicity. I was a hardcore horse girl back in the day and dreamed of owning a horse when I was older. Reading Felicity's story, I couldn't help but daydream about finding or rescuing a horse and somehow being lucky enough to end up keeping it, just like her. But as much as I enjoyed her story, I don't think I ever really wanted a Felicity doll -- or at least not as much as I wanted a Samantha or Kirsten.
For years I held the same opinion -- Felicity was nice, but not a must-have. Sometimes I thought her eyes were just too laser green. Sometimes her hair seemed a little too plain (though, I've always loved her pin curls). I did always like her outfits, though. Aside from Samantha's middy dress, I think I would've wanted all of Felicity's girl-sized outfits the most. Like I've said before, I love a good late 18th century dress. There's just something about the look and fit that's so flattering and so fairytale to me. I love the hats, too. And hopefully this goes without saying, but I love the fashion, not the values of the day.
When American Girl re-released the original dolls as part of their 35th anniversary celebration in 2021, I thought about potentially getting Felicity along with Kirsten, but in the end (and partly thanks to the price of the dolls), I was able to resist her. That began to change, though, when I became more aware of her best friend, Elizabeth Cole.
If you're familiar with my blog or my Instagram, you'll know just how big of an Elizabeth Cole fan I've become over the years. I've spent a lot of time using the Wayback Machine and hunting for images of the catalogs that featured Elizabeth. As a best friend character, wherever Elizabeth is pictured, Felicity is sure to be nearby. Seeing the two together, I began to wonder if I should eventually get Felicity, and in looking at multiple Felicity dolls, I realized that not all of them were made the same.
The Many Faces of Felicity
Like most of the American Girl character dolls, Felicity's look has changed slightly over time. When you look closely at dolls from across the years, you'll start to notice the differences between them. If you want a really good look at all of Felicity's changes, Dandridge House Dolls has an amazing blog post on the subject.
My favorite Felicity dolls were produced around the mid 2000's. During this time, Felicity's hair was more auburn than light copper, her face was a little thinner, and her eyes a little less sunken looking (some of the early dolls almost have a shadow around their eye sockets to me). There's just something about the Felicity dolls of this era that I really love. Every doll has such a sweet expression. Maybe it's partly because I saw so many of this particular doll in the catalog scans alongside Elizabeth, but I just really love her coloring and overall look. I even really like the purple "traveling" meet dress (though I do want to add the "rose garden" dress to my collection at some point, too).
Around the time I began collecting American Girl dolls, BeForever Felicity made her debut. I think that version may be one of my least favorite. Something about the feathered eyebrows and different shade of green eyes really made her look like an imposter and not actual Felicity. Pair those changes with arguably the worst meet outfit AG has ever made and she was an easy pass for me.
When you look at the most recent Felicity dolls -- the 35th and 40th anniversary re-releases -- they look very different from previous versions. These Felicity dolls have "new classic mold" faces, which are skinnier and longer than in years past. There's something about the doll's coloring that seems slightly off to me, too. In the most recent pictures, her skin tone looks so warm and saturated, it almost reads orange-y to me. Maybe it's just the way she photographs. Maybe her lighter, true copper hair causes camera sensors to alter her skin tone in photos.
The Hunt for Mid-2000's Felicity
During the 35th anniversary, Felicity sold out fairly fast. Five years later, Felicity has returned for the 40th anniversary, and at the time of my posting, she's currently backordered until November! But despite the popularity of her re-release, a lot of people have been quick to point out the lowered quality of the doll and her dress compared to years past. This, in turn, has made some people opt for older versions of Felicity on secondhand sites instead. And with increasing interest in older Felicity dolls and accessories come increases in prices for each.
After seeing Elizabeth increase in popularity and price pretty dramatically over the past couple of years, I began to get nervous that the same would happen with the particular type of Felicity I wanted, too. So, I started keeping an eye out for a mid-2000's Felicity in relatively good condition.
As with the Elizabeth dolls I've seen over the years, I found a lot of Felicity dolls that were in horrendous condition for the price, with a lot of people trying to bank on the character's popularity or the fact that she's been unavailable for so long. I saw new in box dolls that were way out of budget, dolls that were listed as new and very clearly weren't, and lots and lots of dolls that no longer had Felicity's signature pincurls.
Finally, I stumbled across a doll that was sold nude, but looked gently used, with hair that still looked pretty good and pincurls intact. I added her to my watchlist, and after a few days, the seller sent me an offer that seemed very reasonable, so I accepted. Felicity arrived pretty quickly and the next day, I set to work taking her apart and cleaning her.
I cleaned and disinfected her limbs, head, and torso, washed her hair, and washed and disinfected her stuffing. According to her shoulder tag, this Felicity was produced in February 2007, so she's a little "younger" than "Adventure Lizzie," but from the exact time frame I was hoping for. After everything was clean, I set all of her pieces aside to fully dry overnight, so I could put her back together the following day.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen. My sweet "cat-son," Darcy, had a seizure that morning (the morning after his 10th birthday), and we rushed him to the emergency vet. Over the course of the next few days, we learned that he has inoperable brain cancer. At the time of this post, he's still with us and is doing well on his medication, but as someone who's lost a loved one to brain cancer before, I know the best I can do for him now is to pray for him, and make every day he has left as good and as comfortable as possible. Part of that involves waking up around 3 a.m. every morning to feed him his first round of salmon wet food, and I am more than happy to do it. My husband and I make sure one of us is always with him. We might take a quick walk around the neighborhood together, but he's never alone for very long. To us, he's not "just a cat," or "just a pet." We love him so, so very much, and we've always been willing to do whatever it takes to keep him safe, healthy and happy.
A few days into this new, terrible normal, I decided to turn my attention back to Felicity. Having been a caretaker before, I know that it's really, REALLY easy to pour all of your energy into trying to help your loved one and ignore the fact that you need rest and mental breaks, too. So, while Darcy was comfortably napping, I pulled out all of Felicity's pieces and started putting her back together.
I decided to try out some doll elastic I'd bought from Etsy and it turned out to be way more difficult to use than the pre-cut and finished sections I'd bought as part of a kit previously. Not only did the woven nylon covering begin unraveling at the drop of a hat, the elastic itself, which was some kind of black, rolled elastic sheet, began to come undone, too! By the fourth limb, I was struggling so much, I decided to use one of the pieces from my last premade kit. Maybe it'll be a good experiment to see which type of elastic lasts longer.
The following day, I set to work re-stuffing Felicity. I thought this would be easier than before, because I had all of her original stuffing that I'd washed. Unfortunately, I either overdid it trying to stuff her bottom half or the stuffing shrunk a little, because she didn't turn out quite as nicely stuffed as previous dolls I've done. I might eventually go back and add a little more fluff to her top half. For now, she's not bad. She does have a tendency to look upward a little more than my other dolls. I'm not sure if that's due to the shape of her body or my stuffing job or something else.
I struggled a little with her hair, too. The majority of her hair turned out well, but her pincurls were slightly frizzy. It took a few tries with water and then water with a little hair gel, but I was able to get them into a little better shape. I gave her a quick ponytail with slightly twisted sides, and it works for now, but eventually I do want to try to do a better job with her meet hairstyle.
At the end of the day, I know I'm being a little hard on myself. She looks really good overall and a lot of things I want to fix are kind of nit-picky -- including a little shine mark on her nose that I didn't get rid of the first time around. I think I'm just a little stressed and sleep-deprived.
Overall, I am really glad I have this version of Felicity in my collection. Someday, I'd love to have my own home office and have a shelf where I can display all of my historical girls in a row (and have room for more of them lol). This 2007 Felicity will look perfect next to my display Elizabeth.
My mom is really impressed with how my Felicity turned out. So much so, she's asked me to look for a similar doll for her. Right now, I can use all the happy distractions I can get, so it's a nice challenge to have.
Welcome, Felicity! And thanks for being a good distraction. ♥
