American Girl Heaven

This blog is dedicated to all things American Girl: from the books to the dolls, from the historical collection to the modern, from the magazine to the self-help books, this blog will focus on all! If there is anything you want to submit, from your own fanart/pictures to musings about the industry, feel free to share it!

[agheaven]

The American Girl Magazine Scan Project

I'm finally biting the bullet & working to scan every single American Girl Magazine issue that I currently have in my collection! I don't have every single issue, but I still have a solid chunk of the 2000s issues and that's not nothing.

I'm approaching this scanning project by scanning and cleaning in batches of months rather then by year. So instead of scanning all of my 2003 issues in one go, I'll be scanning every September/October issue I have. I plan to clean and upload all the scans in the batch before I move on to the next batch.

You can find a list of all the American Girl Magazines I have in my possession on this page.

Current Progress

Recently Purchased Issues/Provided Scans that I still need to upload:

Guest Scans - July/August 2014 Uploaded!

Guest Scans - September/October 2014 Uploaded!

Guest Scans - Nov/Dec 2014 subscription postcards/uncut ad page

Guest Scans - Holiday 2014 Uploaded!

Guest Scans - January/February 2016 Uploaded!

Guest Scans - May/June 2016 Mini Posters

Guest Scans- July/August 2016 Mini Posters

Guest Scans - September/October 2016 Mini Posters

Guest Scans - Jan/Feb 2017 Inserts

(I have some other misc guest scans, but they aren't directly tied to AG Magazine)

Where to find these Scans

The Internet Archive

Read the magazine in-browser!

Leave a comment!

Download JPGs or the PDF!

I would like to one day share the original files, including my original rough scans so people can make their own edits/adjustments to the original scans. However, the sheer scale of the project & the file sizes are much more data then google drive offers by default. If I'm able to find a suitable solution or workaround, I'll note it here.

American Girl Magazine Scans

JPGs of every issue I have scans of!

Tags so you can look up artists, writers, and themes across multiple issues!

Reblog and share around on Tumblr!

I set up a side blog that will be devoted entirely to sharing scans from American Girl Magazine! Think of it as a backup to the Internet Archive upload: I can't upload PDFs onto Tumblr, but I can share JPGs of the scans. I can even tag them, so people looking for a specific subject or artist can do so more easily!

Help Needed

A lot of these issues were the same ones I used in my childhood, and as a result a lot of bonus materials are missing, such as the mini mags, posters or any stickers or posters. In some extreme cases, I'm even missing the magazine cover.

I've tried to make note of the pieces I'm missing both in the file names, the file description on the archive page, and on the list of AG Magazines currently in my possession. It's highly possible I might not notice pieces are missing until I'm scanning.

If you happen to have the missing materials/pages and you are gracious enough to scan it on my behalf, I will be in your debt. The missing material will be added to the uploads, and credit will be given to you as desired. You can find details on how to submit missing scans to me through this SUBMISSION POST!

If you do not have these issues, you can also help me buy issues by donating money to my Ko-Fi.

I hope you enjoy these scans!

[americangirlstar]

In 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Americans everywhere took to the streets to demand justice for the Black community in the wa

SLAY!!!

[in-the-dollpalace]

HELLO??????

Samantha: The Next Chapter Hardcover Book | American Girl®

Adult fans can continue Samantha Parkington’s story in this historical-fiction novel set in 1920 New York City. 256 pages. Hardcover. Author

[agheaven]

September/October 2014 issue slaps hard idk why

I suspect the issue that slaps hard for a person will depend on their nostalgia. I stopped buying the magazine after I graduated high school in 2012 so I don't have the same level as nostalgia for the 2014 issues. I'll flip through it again to refresh my memory, but I'm sure you just have nostalgia bias-

>This is the issue with the 'Pig In the Blanket' costume with a skirt that just has the word 'PIG!' printed repeatedly on it

>This is also the issue with the story story contest winner with illustrations that make it look like the shy girl who could be The One (friend) is flirting

never mind you're right this issue slaps

[agmagazinescans]

This Blog Is Currently Up to Date as of 12/17/2025.

I have uploaded all of the American Girl Magazine scans I currently have, both in my physical collection and in scans that others online have graciously shared with me.

You can view the list of issues I currently have either on this blog's tag list, or in AG Heaven's Magazine List

You can view what pages/inserts I'm missing on the AG Heaven Magazine List

You can view and download PDFs of the magazines over on the Internet Archive

This blog will update when I have new American Girl Magazine material to share in here. In the meantime, I may edit around the tag list and flesh out the writer's page and artist's page. If you have any suggestions for tags or spot any errors, please let me know!

Do you have scans of issues or inserts I'm missing that you would like to send over to me? You can find details on how to submit missing scans to me through this SUBMISSION POST.

If you do not have these issues, you can also help me buy issues by donating money to my Ko-Fi.

I hope you enjoy these scans!

[agheaven]

The sideblog I made to post individual articles/pages of American Girl Magazine is now up to date with my current collection! Check it out if you haven't already!

The tagging system can still be refined, especially when it comes to subjects/topics, and I do want to properly flesh out the artists and writers page. That said, every issue I currently have scans of is now up on Tumblr!

[agheaven]

I'm not as clued into the American Girl Fandom as I used to be, but I have to ask: do folks know about the existence of AG TV?

At some point in the mid to late 90s, American Girl Developed a pitch for a TV Show, which never made it to air. The only signs of it's existence comes from Buzzco Associates Inc, a New York animation based studio, who still include the bumpers made for the pitch in their portfolio.

My own theory is that this pitch was developed around 1996, either just before or just after it. One of the bumpers refers to the American girl website, which did not go live until at least March/April 1996, and the credits below still refers to Pleasant Rowland as being around, and she would sell the company to Mattel circa 1998, and retire in 2000.

As I suspect this project isn't very well known by the fandom and there's always a risk of Buzzco's portfolio disappearing, I wanted to compose all the clips Buzzco shared into one video to post on Youtube. This video is intended purely for preservation and informative purposes. Outside of the opening and closer, it's not clear what order the bumpers were intended to go in, so do not take the sequence of bumpers here as accurate to the original pitch.

🐝You can view the Buzzco page regarding the project here

⭐⭐⭐

The text below is copied and pasted from the Buzzco website:

When American Girl Magazine, the folks that brought new meaning to dolls, wanted to make the jump to TV they got Buzzco to help. Norm Bendell, the humorous illustrator with whom we've worked extensively in the past (including the recent Ciba/Program Campaign which won two Effie Awards), designed the opening, closing and bumpers. The eight pieces feature a dog and six girls of various ethnic backgrounds and act as the "glue" to hold this magazine format television show together.

⭐⭐⭐

Norm Bendell was always the ultimate professional to work with and these illustrations were spot on! We were asked to make the open and glue for this tween TV pitch. Animation is preferable because real tween girls change physically so much that the cast members would age out quickly-- animated girls don't have to mature. For Buzzco's part-- this was the LAST commissioned work we shot on film. And that went counter to all my instincts because I understood that re-shooting would be a nightmare, especially in the "we work" section. That background (and cels of the girls) was about 36 inches long, panning the whole time. The other thing was that this was shot on film, but transferred to videotape. At the time, everything was SD (standard definition-- 640x480)-- the 3x4 frame ratio on normal broadcast TV's at the time. Unlike today (HD is 1920x1080, 4K is 4096x2160), color wasn't that specific or picky. When I was asked to have more than 3 skin tones, I told them they wouldn't be able to tell the difference on TV. They insisted. Back then, dark skin tones would turn to black easily and it would be impossible to see the thin black lines describing facial features. Light skin tones wouldn't be different from each other with pinkish, peach-ish, and pale skin all looking the same. I chose my usual dark brown for African American skin tone then an additional 4 other tones. You could see the African American girl's features, the Latino skin tone, but the rest just all looked the same. It was a shame it never made it to TV, but Norm went on to illustrate many of the books American Girl created to answer concerns of maturing girls with great sensitivity and style.

⭐⭐⭐

🐝🐝🐝Credits (Courtesy of the Buzzco Website)🐝🐝🐝

The Pleasant Company Founder/President: Pleasant Rowland

American Girl Productions Executive Producer: Elizabeth Richter

Creative Director: Shelley Spencer

Buzzco Associates, inc.

Directors: Candy Kugel & Vincent Cafarelli [Passed away in 2012]

Designer: Norm Bendell

He would later do a number of illustrations for American Girl, including the original edition of the puberty book The Care and Keeping of You

Animators: Vincent Cafarelli [Passed away in 2012] & Vincent Bell [Passed away in 2021]

Producer: Marilyn Kraemer

🌟🌟🌟

[agheaven]

Hey, I just checked your full list and it looks like you don't have any 2013 issues of the mag, I'll have to check specifically but I think I have most of if not all of the issues from that year.

lmk and I can get to scanning 🫡

Actually, someone else provided me with a fair amount of magazine scans recently, including a good chunk of issues from 2013! The only issue from 2013 that I'm missing scans for is May/June, if you happen to have it!

For the record: IRL circumstances really impacted my ability to focus on this project, so it took me a while to get to the guest scans or to updating the information on my blog. I'm still busy, but in a better spot to at least update the blog page on my current scan status!

[agheaven]

hi, do you have the July/August 2016 issue?

I have a pinned post on my blog that has a link to all of the magazine issues I currently have, as well as updates on the issues I have but still need to scan in.

I was focused on uploading scans to the side blog for a while (as well as other projects going on in my life). With the side blog having reached the 2010s though, I do plan to make cleaning up and uploading the issues I got a higher priority.

[agheaven]

Do you know when the penpal column was run in the magazine? In the 1990s. My daughter's letter was in it and she was wishing she had the magazine but I am not spotting the column in any of them. Thanks

Unfortunately there are a lot of issues I still don't have, and the column you're talking about doesn't ring a bell. There was a different magazine called New Moon that I recall had a semi-regular penpal column until it retired in 2003 or so, but I don't recall AG Magazine ever having such a feature. I could see them having a one-off article about it in the 90s, though.

If anyone happens to recognize the column this user is asking about, let me know! If I know it's from a specific issue, I can try to make it a priority to pick up that issue if I see it on ebay!

[doll-collector-by-day-deactivat]

Here's a screenshot from americangirlwomen about the pen pal program! I know my sister wrote in but I think her pen pal relationship fizzled out right away. I believe we got the AG magazine from '96-'99, but I think '96/'97 seems about right for when they had the pen pals. I think you're pretty light on those years, so probably just in the ones you don't have yet. :)

Looking at the picture about the Leap Year baby, I bet this is Jan/Feb 1996!

[agheaven]

Thank you so much!! Yeah I'm pretty light on issues from 1996-97 at the moment. If that Pen Pal announcement was in the Jan/Feb 1996 issue, I imagine any follow up articles would be in a later issue in 1996.

As a reminder, you can find a list of what issues I do and don't have over on this page! If you have an issue I'm missing and would like to help me out, check out the submissions post!

[agheaven]

Do you know when the penpal column was run in the magazine? In the 1990s. My daughter's letter was in it and she was wishing she had the magazine but I am not spotting the column in any of them. Thanks

Unfortunately there are a lot of issues I still don't have, and the column you're talking about doesn't ring a bell. There was a different magazine called New Moon that I recall had a semi-regular penpal column until it retired in 2003 or so, but I don't recall AG Magazine ever having such a feature. I could see them having a one-off article about it in the 90s, though.

If anyone happens to recognize the column this user is asking about, let me know! If I know it's from a specific issue, I can try to make it a priority to pick up that issue if I see it on ebay!

[americangirlstar]

Brave Emily (2006) illus. Nick Backes

[americangirlstar]

Really Truly Ruthie (2008) illus. Walter Rane

Bonus: Vignette by Susan McAliley

[americangirlstar]

Very Funny, Elizabeth (2005) illus. Dan Andreasen

Bonus: Vignette by Susan McAliley

[americangirlstar]

Nellie's Promise (2004) illus. Dan Andreasen

Bonus: Vignettes by Susan McAliley

[agheaven]

Hey! I’ve just found my small collection of American Girl BackpackBooks and was wondering if that’s something you’d be interested in? I have about 18, but I know they’re not magazines so I don’t know if you’d want scans of them 😓 I’d be happy to scan everything and send it your way if you’re interested! The numbers I have : 1, 4, 7, 9, 12, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, & 35!

I would love to see them! I never knew these existed until I found that mini-catalog insert in the Nov/Dec 1999 issue, and I'd love to see what was in them!

Since I have no idea what these books even look like in-person, I would need to review what the scans look like and how the mini-books are organized to figure out the best way of sharing them. Cleaning these up should be a lot faster then cleaning up a whole 50 page magazine, it might just take me longer to figure out how to organize and present these scans!

[agheaven]

helloooo! not sure if you would want this, but I have a higher quality version of your pfp if you’d rather :D i would’ve messaged this to you but i have no idea how to message people on this app LMAO

Oh, that's so sweet of you!

My avatar is actually an old Live Journal avatar someone else made and I downloaded a long long time ago. I don't think I have the original download anymore (or if I do it's buried in old save drives), and I've never felt the need to change it to something else. Higher quality assets are always welcome tho!

[agheaven]

Do you have (or know where I might find) scans of the "[girl]'s craft book" series? And the smart girls guides as well?

Off the top of my head, the Internet Archive has a fair amount of AG books scanned! You do need an account to 'check out' the books, but it's all free!

I made a list compiling the AG non-fiction titles (including the Smart Girl's Guide) that I could find on the Internet Archive over here. I made a list compiling the Historical character's activity books over here.