Josefina Montoya - 1824
- wingedmermaid
- Oct 3
- 9 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
The Josefina face mold is my absolute favorite of all the American Girl molds. I'm sure you can probably tell just by looking at the "Current Crew" tab... 😅 I can't help it! It's the face mold that most closely resembles mine -- complete with a larger nose! When I was a kid, most dolls had tiny, dainty noses, and it made me feel like mine was abnormal. So as silly as it sounds, the Josefina mold has actually kind of made me feel better about my appearance!
One thing I find especially interesting about this face mold is that it can look so different depending on when a doll was manufactured. And nowhere else can you find so many examples of this than with Josefina Montoya herself.
The Many Faces of Josefina
For a long time, I thought it would be nice to add Josefina to my collection. Not only do we share a face shape, we're both Catholics, we both struggle with facing our fears, and as of a couple of years ago, unfortunately, we both know the pain of losing a parent and trying to keep not only yourself moving forward, but the rest of your loved ones as well.
But, I kept feeling like there was a disconnect between the book illustrations and the doll itself. Josefina in the books was so vibrant, and when it came to the doll version, she felt a little more flat.
Then one day, I stumbled across a photo of an early Josefina from the late '90's. Her skin was rosy, her warm brown eyes practically glowed. She looked so much more like the illustrations! I found another photo, this time of a "glam lash" Josefina. She was absolutely gorgeous! These dolls were exactly what I was looking for in a Josefina doll! I practically launched myself down the rabbit hole of early Josefina's, and discovered that her appearance had changed a lot just in the first few years of production!
First Edition Josefina:
The first edition Josefina's have a pretty distinctive look in my opinion. Their faces are rounder, their eyes have a lot more of the whites showing and their eyelashes aren't as noticeable. They're easy to identify by the circled 1 next to their Pleasant Company neck stamps. People often say these dolls look a little younger, and I think I agree.
"Glam Lash" Josefina:
These are the holy grail of Josefina's for a lot of people. It sounds like when these dolls were produced, Pleasant Company and/or American Girl were in the process of changing up the eyes, and as a result, some Josefina's from this time were given eyes with extra long lashes. Some of the "glam lash" dolls have insanely long lashes that curl upward and fan out. Others have slightly less dramatic lashes, but they still fan out horizontally and give the doll a more distinctive appearance. I ended up with one that I think it is more "glam lash lite." Her eyelashes are glam-y, but not as dramatic as others I've come across.
Most of the "glam lash" dolls I've seen don't seem to have bodies with side tags. Once I discovered that fact, I began hunting for other dolls without tags that could potentially be "glam lash" dolls in the wild. And that's how I ended up with one that I affectionately called...
"Glam Brows" Josefina:
These are dolls that seem to have been made in the early days of production, but don't have a circled 1 stamp. Their eyes have less of the whites showing than the first edition dolls and more than "glam lash" dolls. Their eyelashes are curled and more noticeable than the first edition dolls, but not as much as even the "glam lash lite" dolls. Their eyebrows are a little darker and can be seen more easily from far away (by comparison, my "glam lash" Josefina's are pretty faint from just a few feet away).
"Leaky" Josefina:
Not an "official" name, but one I'm using for ease of explanation. According to Reddit, there is a version of Josefina that was made around 2003 - 2005 that is known to have plasticizer issues. The plasticizer begins leaking out of the vinyl and seems to loosen the limbs in the process. Sometimes an oily blue substance will begin leaking from the doll, other times, you'll be able to see that the loose limb elastic is turning blue as it sucks up the plasticizer. You can also kind of tell by the body tag. The affected dolls have a short tag with writing in red Arial font. I've come across one of these dolls on eBay, and not only could you see the blue-ish elastic in the listing photos, it appeared like the torso had markings like there had been wetness around the limb sockets. Definitely something to keep an eye on if you're looking for used dolls secondhand. Resellers don't always know much beyond the name of a doll; they definitely won't know to check for things like leaking plasticizer.
The Hunt for "Glam Lash" Josefina
When I was on the hunt for a "glam lash" Josefina, I came across a doll that had such a sweet face and was so cheap, I couldn't really pass her up. She didn't have a side body tag, so I thought maybe there was a chance that she could be a "glam lash," and the photos weren't showing her eyes very well. She ended up being a "glam brows" doll instead with a beautiful but very dirty face.
I honestly don't think I've come across a dirtier doll so far. I remember scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing, and every time I thought I'd gotten everything, I'd find more dirt! It was crazy!
This doll's hair was beyond help, so I didn't bother trying to save it. Instead, I gave her a new "espresso" colored wig. I hadn't been able to find any other good alternatives for a Josefina wig and the brown wig had a lot of variegation to it, which suited her well.
The Real "Glam Lash"
While I was in the process of fixing up this first Josefina, I found the "glam lash lite" Josefina. Her expression was perfect and she looked to be in pretty good shape overall! Best of all, she was much less than most "glam lash" dolls seemed to go for. I decided to get her.
When she arrived, I started cleaning her, and noticed a few issues. She surprisingly had more shine marks on her face than the other Josefina had, and although her hair didn't look as bad in photos, in felt very brittle and thin. It actually felt a little worse than my Just Like You #7's original hair had been. I really, really wanted her to stay as close to original as possible, so I decided I wouldn't swap out her wig until I'd found something really close.
As I got to the re-stuffing part of the restoration process, I noticed something suspicious about the first doll's body. On the inside of one of the limbs, I found multiple dots of discoloration. Sometimes, older dolls seem to develop tiny, dark "pin dots" on their bodies. "Adventure Lizzie's" body had two tiny ones on one of her fingers and a tiny one on her cheek that I was able to fade slightly. It's hard to find an actual consensus on whether or not these dots are something to be concerned about -- whether they'll continue to affect the doll or even have the potential to affect other dolls -- but after checking Elizabeth's body over the course of a few months, nothing has gotten worse and nothing has "spread," so I think I should hopefully be in the clear.
But unfortunately, when it came to the dots on the inside of this Josefina, they were bigger than normal, and they made me worry something might be off about her vinyl. Maybe not plasticizer issues, but I didn't like the look of it all the same.
"Glam Lash" seemed okay -- apart from a scratched foot that the seller had disclosed to me earlier. It wasn't super noticeable to me, so I had decided to buy her anyway.
I sent "Glam Brows" -- or as I'd started to call her after touching up her face paint, "Glam Lips" -- off to the Care Center for a new body, and waited impatiently for a month for her return.
Wigging Out
In the meantime, I touched up the other Josefina's face paint, which had also come off easily, despite barely touching it with a soapy, soft paper towel. I loved how the first Josefina's lips had turned out, but I really wanted to keep "Glam Lash" looking natural, so I tried to just seal her lips, hoping to keep the remaining paint. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I then tried to just use a little bit of paint and darken her lips slightly. That also didn't completely work as intended. So, while her lips aren't as dark as the first Josefina's, they're not exactly the original lightness either.
I also wasn't able to fix some of her more noticeable shine marks or even add in some missing paint to one spot on her cheeks that had lost color.
But the biggest frustration came from her replacement wig. I'd found a Monique "factory sample" wig that looked so exact, I wondered if the same factory had made her original wig. It was even braided and came down to the same length as Josefina's! When it arrived, I decided to take the braid out and give the wig a quick clean with a tiny bit of dish soap -- just in case there was any factory dirt or anything (the wig felt like it had a little bit of a coating). Unfortunately, as soon as I'd done that, the wig became almost static-y. I tried spritzing it with water, hoping that might calm it down. It sort of did, but not really.
I decided to go ahead with the wig swap. At least this new wig wasn't dry and brittle like the original. But for some reason, I had a really difficult time getting it to glue nicely to the head! I'm still not exactly sure what happened. I used a ton of tacky glue, but it just didn't want to stick very well. After the wig had dried for at least a day, I went back and tried to brush it out and braid it again. It was back to being static-y! I tried more water as I braided, and that helped again, but the tail of the braid had random pieces that kept sticking this way and that. I decided to leave it alone and hope I'd come across a better solution eventually.
A few weeks later, I did! Someone was selling an actual Josefina wig from a brand new doll! I grabbed it and after ripping off the first wig suspiciously easily, I carefully glued on the real Josefina wig. It's not perfect. There are areas I couldn't get fully lined up with the old wig line (almost like it's a slightly smaller wig), but you really can't see them -- especially when her hair is styled.
The Return of "Glam Lips"
As I waited for the return of "Glam Lips" Josefina, I kept pondering what I should do with the dolls. Should I keep both? Should I just keep one? I'd just sold one doll and was in the process of trying to sell another. At the same time, I'd unexpectedly stumbled on my dream Just Like You #21. After making a few different pros and cons lists, I ultimately decided to keep "Glam Lash" and sell "Glam Lips." It sort of worked out, because I had been really worried about sending "Lash" in to the Care Center. It was hard enough finding a "glam lash" doll that wasn't quite an arm and a leg in the first place, I really didn't want to have to find another in the event that something went wrong.
I decided to take the new body from the doll I'd just sent in, put it on "Glam Lash," and keep her. Then, I took her body, which was the nicer of the two PC bodies anyway, and put it with the "Glam Lips" head. I styled her hair, cleaned the clothes that had come with "Glam Lash," dressed her, and put her up for sale -- with plenty of photos of any remaining issues, like her foot. To my surprise, she sold super quickly -- in the same day! The next morning, I dropped her off at the post office, and she's currently on her way to her new home.
So now, I have a Josefina who looks as sweet as her illustrations, and I managed to save another Josefina who very likely could've ended up in a junkyard. I honestly think that makes me happiest of all. I kept a beautiful doll out of the trash. 😊
To finish off this tale of two Josefina's, enjoy the newly complete "glam lash lite" Josefina Montoya!
I think Josefina is settling in well! Eventually, I'll probably put her in my other display case, with the rest of the historical girls, but for now, she adds a perfect pop of color to my downstairs display.
¡Bienvenida, Josefina!
