American Girl responded to its critics on Wednesday after facing backlash for pulling several racial minority dolls from its "historical character" line, ABC News reported.
The doll company was blasted by social media after it tweeted it was discontinuing four dolls- one African American, one Asian American and two racially mixed dolls.
"Say farewell to cherished characters- they move into the American Girl Archives this fall," the Wisconsin-based company tweeted May 20.
"Seriously AG...You are getting rid of the ONLY Asian girl in your historical line-up," Jeanne Buccigross wrote on Facebook after the announcement. "It was disappointing enough that she was only a 'side-kick' doll to Julie, but she was better than nothing....which is what we have now," she continued.
"I hope you will be introducing more minority characters in the historical line, especially since you're retiring two of them," Amanda Pielecha Sauter also wrote on Facebook.
American Girl, owned by Mattel Inc., said the dolls were taken away so they could redesign the historical character line, ABC News reported.
Each individual doll belongs to a pair in the collection. The dark-haired doll "Ruthie" is the sidekick to a blond doll named "Kit Kittredge." African American doll "Cecile" is paired with "Marie-Grace," while Asian American doll "Ivy" is sidekick to another blond doll named "Julie."
The doll company said that "while demand for characters certainly plays a part in our overall decision making, the main reason for this year's approach is based on the decision to move away from our friend-character strategy within the historical line," according to a statement sent to ABC News.
"This decision affected Marie-Grace, Ruthie, as well as Ivy and Cecile- the first two racially diverse characters to be archived by American Girl. In comparison, American Girl will be archiving a total of nine Caucasian characters since 2008," American Girl said.
American Girl will have an African American doll, one Mexican American and one Native American doll as the only racial minorities left in the collection.
