How American Girl dolls helped me embrace my love of storytelling.

 As I sit here, working on the tenth day of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) (and for anyone who, cares I'm about to hit 20,000 words) I think about how exactly I caught the writing bug.

It's a crazy story though. I never truly liked to read when I was a kid until I was tweenaged and discovered the American Girl books; they were my wakeup call.

I swear to you, I went from "ew, books" to "ooh! Books!" in like two months.

I've collected dolls since I was basically a baby; they always have given me some sort of comfort. If they could talk, they'd have a few stories to tell.

But since they can't, I've told a few using them as actors and actresses.

My dolls, especially the AGs who had their own books and stories to embellish on, got into so much mischief. From the time Rebecca Rubin ran away from home to Kit Kiteredge getting married and having her own little, doll sized wedding, they've all gone through it. 

Now that I'm much older and simply collect them, hardly ever changing their clothes or "playing" with them, I'm forever grateful I had them during my formative years.

More than once I've written a plot line and thought "that's hauntingly familiar. Where have a seen that?" and it was one of my games I'd played with the dolls.

And right now, as I type this, Rebecca and my Marianne Götz Max doll are sitting on the shelf staring at me. I think I'll give them both a hug for how they've helped me.

Until next time, this is Ally signing out. 😎