American Girl is a brand of dolls launched in 1986 by Pleasant Rowland with three 18-inch dolls representing original characters from different periods of American history. The first three characters were Samantha Parkington, from 1904, Kirsten Larson, from 1854, and Molly McIntire, from 1944. Each doll came with the first book in her six-book series. In 1990, the Our New Baby line, a line of 15-inch baby dolls, was released. Three more historical characters were released in the ‘90s: Felicity Merriman from 1774 was released in 1991, Addy Walker from 1864 was released in 1993, and Josefina Montoya, from 1824, was released in 1997. In 1995, the Girl of Today line, a line of contemporary 18-inch dolls, was released, and the Our New Baby line was rebranded as Bitty Baby. In 1998, Pleasant Rowland sold the company to Mattel for $700 million. Characters continued to be released periodically in the historical character line, and a new line debuted in 2001, the Girl of the Year line. The initial two dolls in the line, Lindsey Bergman and Kailey Hopkins, were not strong sellers, but the line took off with the release of Marisol Luna in 2005. Other lines launched under American Girl branding in the 2000s include Girls of Many Lands, Hopscotch Hill School, and the Bitty Twins. The Bitty Twins line was the only one of those lines to continue into the next decade, but was retired in 2016 with the debut of the WellieWishers line. In 2014, the historical character line was revamped under the BeForever branding. In 2017, the Contemporary Character line is released. The line was similar to the Girl of the Year line, but without the specified limited availability. The Create Your Own line of customizable dolls was also released in 2017. The Girl of Today line went through many name changes and rebrands, but is currently known as Truly Me.