American Girl Grows Up: Samantha Parkington Returns at 25 in First Adult Novel

By Elena Vasquez

Mattel's American Girl brand publishes its first novel for adults this week: "Samantha: The Next Chapter," written by New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis. The book reunites millennial readers with Samantha Parkington, the Edwardian-era doll introduced in 1986, now 25 years old and living in New York in 1920.

Samantha is one of the most beloved American Girl dolls among the millennial demographic, and choosing her as the first character for an adult-historical-fiction experiment is a nostalgia play for Mattel. Davis, known for historical novels set in New York, tells Variety the transition came naturally.

"It was so much fun, I have to say, because the original stories are so full of fun things to play with. And so as I read them, ideas were coming to mind right and left," Davis said. "And it made sense she would want to be a teacher because that is her interest as a young girl and also progressive education was going on then."

What happens in the new novel?

Per the official synopsis, the story opens in 1920 with Samantha working to educate New York women about suffrage and encourage them to vote in their first presidential election that fall. Then her large inheritance, including her childhood Mount Bedford home, is stolen in a scheme.

Samantha goes from socialite to shop girl overnight. Searching for clues, she infiltrates the business of a notorious New York criminal to save her family's legacy.

Davis said the character's contradictions drew her to the project. "I think the important thing for me about Samantha was that she's kind of a paradox where she's surrounded by wealth. So if you look at her and you think, that girl has everything and then you dig deeper and oh, she's an orphan," she said. "So there's a hole somewhere in her, and that needs to be filled in a way. And I think that makes her complicated and a really interesting character to pursue as an adult."

How much freedom did the author have?

Davis says the American Girl brand gave her near-total control of the plot, subject only to committee approval.

"In terms of the plot, they gave me so much freedom. I could really do whatever I wanted," she said. She chose an open-ended conclusion to leave room for future books, and the brand agreed.

Familiar characters appear in different measures. Grandmary, Uncle Gard, Aunt Cornelia and Agatha appear in the book; others, including Nellie, are only mentioned. Davis says some were held back deliberately.

"Part of it was that there are certain characters that possibly, maybe there'll be books about them down the road. So we didn't want to use up too much, and I'm allowed to say that," she explained.

Grandmary dies early in the book. On her deathbed, Samantha tells her grandmother she loves her for the first time in her life — a scene Davis grounded in her own upbringing. "I grew up in a very English family, my parents are both English and you would never say ['I love you'] and so I brought that into that scene," she said.

How does romance work for a doll's grown-up story?

Samantha has two love interests in the novel. Davis said the brand welcomed this but imposed strict historical accuracy on the courtship.

"It would never be spicy," Davis said. "You wouldn't hold hands in public. You would not kiss in public, and I had to fight hard to get that kiss [at the end of the book]. But they understood."

She wanted Samantha caught between two very different men who each offer a different side of the world.

Davis frames the whole arc as a test of the character's core traits. Her thought, she said, was: what if Samantha's wealth and supportive family were taken away, forcing her to rely on "the tenacity that she's so well known for and her intelligence and her empathy" — set free in New York to solve a mystery, possibly fall in love, and learn she is capable of nearly anything.

The open ending and the unused supporting characters both point in one direction: Mattel and Davis have built room for more adult American Girl novels, and the brand's millennial audience now has a series-in-waiting.