Illustrations by Burton Durand
The American Dolls Acadian Collection: Yvette, Clotile, Renee
For almost forty years, we at American Girl® have created powerful stories with smart, curious, and courageous heroines that have helped shape an entire generation of women—but left out Acadians. Whoops! Sorry about that! (In our defense, we thought “Cajun” was a type of chicken until last year’s sales conference in New Orleans.)
This holiday season, celebrate the magic of Cajun culture by taking home three new friends from families responsible for giving our nation spicy salt blends, French last names ending in “x”, and some of the scariest mythical bayou creatures cryptologists have ever “seen”.
But, hurry! Collect them all while supplies last—which won’t be long because we just received an expedited bulk order from a father with the largest number of children we’ve ever heard of. A *checks notes* Papa Noël?
Meet Yvette
Burton Durand
Meet Yvette, cousin of Evangeline, "who has somehow made the whole Le Grand Dérangement all about her."
It’s 1755, and for Yvette Marie LeBlanc, life has just taken a surprising turn. In between quilt-making and skipping rocks with her crush Étienne Vernice Augustin Benoit, the Nova Scotian Governor Charles Lawrence has ordered her deportation. Yvette’s father is always too busy for her these days, locked in a church for refusing to sign an oath to England. Her mother isn’t much better, constantly distracted by soldiers throwing Yvette’s siblings onto ships to different countries to notice her daughter’s budding gift for the visual arts! At least she’s not the only hard-headed one of the family. Yvette’s youngest brother, Alphonse, escaped to the woods to help Nonc Joseph Beausoleil Broussard form a resistance. Now, Yvette’s got to live at sea for who knows how long with her cousin, Evangeline, who has somehow made the whole Le Grand Dérangement all about her. If Yvette has to hear her cry about a man who wasn’t that into her one more time, she’s going to give Evangeline something to cry about. She’ll remind her that if the loup-garou could follow their peasant ancestors from Poitou, France to Grand Pré, Canada, it most certainly can travel to La Louisiane with them on this refugee ship.
The “Meet Yvette” set includes:
• One sweat-stained linen chemise and splintered pair of wooden clogs
• A cow
• The British Army carrying torches
Meet Clotile
Burton Durand
Meet Clotile, who, "is sixteen and hopes to get her very own spear to go giggin’ with her daddy."
It’s 1930 in South Louisiana, the start of the Great Depression, but for Clotile Anne Savoie, she doesn’t feel any poorer than before. A man in a suit arrives at her house to count the members of her family for government records, and Clotile’s mom tries to shoo him away; he’s just going to misspell her name anyway, cher! The man insists they clarify if they are Black, Cajun, or “white Creoles”, and Clotile tells him to write down whatever he wants because she doesn't care about “the consensus-census-no senses” this man is talking about; she has supper to fix! Clotile celebrates her fourteenth birthday for the third year in a row because she’s too scared to tell Momma she’s wrong—that would be talking back! Secretly, Clotile is sixteen and hopes to get her very own spear to go giggin’ with her daddy. Les ouaouarons, bullfrogs, are in high demand this year in New Orleans restaurants. If she can catch enough tonight, Momma will let her go to the fais do-do, not just so she can dance, but also so she can break up with that couillon who keeps singing about her. Clotile doesn’t know how many times she has to tell him: she is NOT his “jolie blon”! She’s not even blonde! Which brings up another point…she thinks it’s high time they come up with a new word for “girlfriend” that has nothing to do with hair color in Louisiana French.
The “Meet Clotile” set includes:
• Scars from roux burns and bruises from getting caught speaking French at school
• Traiteur tinctures
• A jar of mirliton
• A Family Bible that doubles as the family birth tracker and grudge ledger
• A Catahoula pup named Bleue
• Nosy neighbors who suspect Bleue is the local shapeshifting, bloodthirsty Rougarou who killed their chickens and grandpa
Meet Renée
Burton Durand
Meet Renée, who, "wishes her grandparents would have taught her parents French so she knew what the old people were always gossiping about on Sundays."
It’s 2002, and for Renée Margaret Broussard, Y2K wasn’t nearly as scary as the time her parents almost forgot her at school when evacuating Hurricane Andrew. It’s hard keeping all the unspoken and unwritten rules in her household straight. Family and friends are welcomed through the back door, but the front door is for people who pronounce their last name “Browssard”. The dining room is only used for holidays or if someone dies, and there are never enough dishes to justify using the dishwasher. EVER. One day, Renée is shocked to learn the secret ingredient to her mom’s award-winning gumbo is a pre-made jar of Savoie’s roux! She’s always dreaming of moving away to a big city like in the rom-coms Sweet Home Alabama and the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, but she’d be lying if she said she wouldn’t miss being in everyone’s business. Everyone tells her she looks like her great-great-grandmother, who was Creole and Native American—though no one is sure of what tribe or from what area. Renée vows to find out and solve the mystery of her lineage. She wishes her grandparents would have taught her parents French so she knew what the old people were always gossiping about on Sundays (and so she could finally know what JP Thibodeaux says in his car commercials). She rolls her eyes every time her grandparents waltz to the old song “Jolie Blon”. Haven’t they heard of the new “Jolie Blon”? The only Jolie Blon that matters in the new millennium? The Princess of Pop, Britney Spears? Renée hates that she’s still terrified to go tee-tee at night at her maw maw’s house. It always feels like something is watching her, probably because there is: a Blue Dog painting. If it’s an original Rodrigue, she hopes she’ll inherit it. It’s the only way she’ll be able to retire someday.
The “Meet Renée” set includes:
• Ragin’ Cajun Soffe shorts and old tennis shoes for when Renée’s mom makes her get down at Rouses
• A keychain from Blue Bayou
• An airbrushed T-shirt that says “2001 Destin, FL”
• A D+ on a French test for answering the question “Comment dit-on ‘Merry Christmas’ en francais” with “Heaux heaux heaux”
• A shrine to Ali Landry
• A memento for Renée’s first kiss, a ticket stub from the Cajun Heartland State Fair
• Half-eaten bag of Zapp’s crawtators
*Batteries not included. Emotional eating, Catholic guilt, and generational trauma sold separately.
