Okay a bit of time passage reality checking for those of us who were alive in 1999 or otherwise just feel like something is Off here because we remember the old historical dolls being a lot older than that because my timeblind ass needed it myself:
This IS a smaller gap between historical setting and release date than ever before.
In 1999 AG's youngest historical doll was from 1944 - i.e. OLDER THAN BOTH OF MY PARENTS.
In fact, if we're going by release date alone, Molly (1944, then the youngest historical character) was released in 1986 - 42 years after her story was set. Her original run lasted until 2014 - 28 years.
They set a new record by releasing Courtney (1986) in 2020 - for a gap of 34 years between setting and release.
As for now, 1999 was 24 years ago. The gap between setting and release has shrunk by an entire 18 years, or 43%, since the youngest doll we remember, who was already 13 years old in 1999.
Time isn't passing faster. You have not missed anything. They're just shrinking the gap between historical setting and release, and this is not only benign but potentially even a good thing as the cultural gap between generations becomes less dramatic! You are not, in fact, as "historical" as Molly was when we were kids, and you are in fact RIGHT to feel weird about the immediate comparison you probably made because it IS in fact off by a margin of an entire generation.
Breathe. It's gonna be fine.
