American Girl originally began as a line of collectible dolls in 1986. Each doll portrayed a girl, approximately 8-11 years old, from a specific time in history. Later, a book series was written for each doll from the perspective of these young girls. Initially, there were only eight historical dolls with books. However, the series has been expanded to include various ethnicities and the book series name has changed to “Beforever”. Although the new “Beforever” format has changed to three books, (two covering the historical story and one “choose your own adventure reader) instead of the six chapter books of the original format – both formats cover the same information and stories and pair nicely with Girls of American History. All of the historical dolls and books are well loved by children and have become a multi generational treasure.