Every January, we cannot wait to see what our Smarty friends at American Girl have up their sleeves. Each year, they unveil a new American Girl of the Year – one who will inspire little girls all over the world to be strong, brave, smart, kind and compassionate. This year, the girl of the year is focusing on the arts, reading and giving back to our community. Smarties, meet Gabriela McBride™ – who is a true talent and gets creative for a very special cause.
{If you have tween girls in your house, you’re going to want to hear this news…CSP is giving away ONE American Girl Gabriela doll, read on, Smarty friends!}
About Gabriela McBride™:
Gabriela is a true creative talent who uses the power of poetry to help her break down barriers and overcome a personal challenge with stuttering. Gabriela comes to life for girls via a beautiful 18-inch Gabriela™ doll featuring curly dark-brown hair and warm brown eyes, an exclusive outfit that reflects her creative side, and a book chronicling her story. Gabriela also comes with several performance-inspired outfits and accessories, including a dance barre, rehearsal and dance outfits, plus pretend headphones and a microphone. Additional Gabriela products and books will be available starting in spring 2017, and—for the first time—the new Girl of the Year collection will be available for a full 12 months and beyond.
Gabriela’s story will be told in a series of three books published by Scholastic and written by Teresa E. Harris. The first book Gabriela, hits shelves in January and tells the story of a quiet and creative girl growing up in a family of artists. Gabriela inherited a love of the arts from her parents, especially her mother, but spoken word poetry is becoming her own passion. Although Gabriela often finds herself in a battle with her own words because of her stuttering, she discovers that her poetry, filled with wit and honesty, helps her speech flow more easily and gives her the confidence to find her voice to help save her beloved community arts center from being torn down.
The American Girl/Scholastic Partnership:
To connect both boys and girls with Gabby’s inspiring message, American Girl is partnering with Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books and leader in comprehensive educational materials, to create and distribute Express Yourself, a custom curriculum program that teaches 3rd-5th grade students how to use poetry as a tool for self-expression. The free materials will be available on www.scholastic.com starting March 1, 2017, and include teacher lessons and corresponding classroom activities, a poetry poster, plus parent tips and learning ideas to do at home. In addition, to celebrate National Poetry Month, the program also features a poetry contest for students that will run throughout the month of April. The Express Yourself program will encourage all students to find their creative voices and share their own personal stories, while building confidence along the way.
Other Gabby-related initiatives being held throughout the year include the following:
-Gabriela Online Play: Girls can visit the Gabby-dedicated site at americangirl.com/girloftheyear for free book excerpts, videos, activities, wallpaper and e-cards, and much more.
-Gabriela Retail Events: On January 1, American Girl stores are hosting Gabriela’s Debut Event, where girls will get a first look at her full product collection, plus enjoy in-store activities, colorful crafts, giveaways, and a fun photo opportunity. For more details on the Charlotte in-store events, go here.
The Gabriela collection is available now through December 31, 2017, through American Girl’s catalogue; at americangirl.com; at all American Girl retail locations nationwide; and at Toys “R” Us stores starting in March. The Gabriela books can also be purchased through retail and online booksellers.
To learn more about Gabriela and the Girl of the Year™ line,
Go to americangirl.com, Facebook at facebook.com/americangirl, Twitter at twitter.com/american_girl, Pinterest at pinterest.com/agofficial, and American Girl’s Instagram page at instagram.com/americangirlbrand.
Smarty Giveaway: One (1) 2017 American Girl of the Year Gabriela McBride™ Doll:
One lucky Smarty reader will win the AG doll of the year! Simply do the following:
1) Subscribe to our Smarty e-newsletter. You MUST be a subscriber for your chance to win! Not subscribed? Get signed up, here!
2) Share this post on your facebook wall and and tag Charlotte Smarty Pants & American Girl on facebook. Do the same for instagram and tag 2 friends.
3) Tell us (by posting in the comments below) what you do to foster creativity with your kids. Make sure you include valid email address and first and last name so we can contact you if you are the winner.
You’re one step closer to having Gabriela McBride™ join your family for 2017. All Smarties who complete the steps above (we will validate!) will be put into a drawing. Our winner will be announced in our Smarty e-newsletter on February 7th, so be on the lookout!
29 comments
My family focuses on keeping screen time to a minimum and encourages everyone playing outside. Kids quickly become creative when they have to interact with each other instead of watch tv!
We homeschool, so we have many opportunities for creativity. Through writing activities, art projects, and multiple ballet classes a week, my daughter has ample opportunities to express herself and to learn about the world around her using creativity! She would love a Gabriela doll. Thank you!
My kids play lots of pretend games, make up stories, do tons of art and build with Legos. My Gabby is very excited that there is an American Girl who shares her name.
when they get a little bored they get really creative:) For my daughter, its having lots of art supplies because she loves to create. For my son, he loves experimenting with his Tinkercrate!
We do snap circuits, piano and Sudoku daily, and have an easily accessible art closet that they can use whenever the mood takes them. We usually do a creative project of some sort before bed each day.
My kids are all about art. One loves to build things (clay, recycled art), one leaves drawings and paintings all over the house, and the other writes stories.
If I won it would be for my niece, but for my own kids. I have to say they loved to play dress up. I had no issue with them leaving the house in their spiderman or princess outfits. I miss those days.
We have an open mind and explore as a family. I am a crafty/creative person and we do things together.
We make up songs to sing and dance around!
To foster creativity in my daughter I provide lots of costumes, different kinds of music, art supplies, imaginary play toys…I really hope we win, this doll looks just like her and we don’t have one yet!! She would be so creative dressing this lovely doll. Thanks for these awesome contests!
With three girls I let them foster creativity in and outside. Outside they run barefoot across the lawn while creating their own world with their playset and outside toys. Their imagination runs wild when they have no structure outside and just play. Inside the house we have a specific drawer in the kitchen full of art supplies that they can grab at anytime.
We love to adventure together. We also love art, painting, make-believe, dolls, puzzles, games, dance classes and family dance parties. I love DIY projects and ALWAYS let my little ones participate so they feel like they are a part of beautifying our home!!
In our house we foster creativity through the arts. My children create with different mediums. They also have the opportunity to sing and dance. Children need the chance to grow and learn in many different ways.
We LOVE arts and crafts! We have an art easel and canvases, modeling clay/play doh, dress up, and they enjoy puzzles and games as well! 🙂
My kids are way into cooking – watching cooking shows, experimenting in the kitchen – so we collaborate on meal planning and grocery shopping and do our own Chef Jr. competitions!
My daughter loves writing and illustrating her own stories. She also likes to come up with her own recipes and make special meals for our family.
We are always going out and doing stuff as a family and my girls love crafting so thanks to Pinterest and you tube we find lots of ideas.
I like to let my kids get bored. They always find something creative to do when they have to.
Cooking is our new fave way for the kids to be creative AND for us to be creative together as a family. Sometimes the girls pretend they are cooking on a cooking show (with a competition and judges, of course), or other times we’ll cook real food together forgoing recipes and experimenting with ingredients (for better or worse haha).
Limited screen time and family activities like cooking challenges!
My kid and I do a lot of arts and crafts. In fact it is preferred over game night or movie night, although we do that too! Mostly we like to make stuff for dress up. Our favorite time of creation is when we put together a Halloween costume. Sometimes it takes months of planning. You should see the things that Cada comes up with, it truly amazes me!!!
My children grow their creativity thru art!! They love to draw, and create things on and with paper! We also are readers, and thru books I feel like their imagination and creativity also grows. To be able to add this beautiful doll to our collection, and learn her story would be amazing!! Thank you for this chance!
Creativity is letting my girls play outside whenever pretty and let them play, laugh, and be what they want. Creativity is my middle child dressing like a princess, but playing in the mud as a monster truck princess driver.
We shut off electronics and play! We build forts and use our imaginations. Two of my kids play the piano and one plays the ukelele – one likes to dance and sing, so we have lots of “shows” and “performances”! 🙂
We sign them up for school and summer acting classes to keep the creativity flowing!
Sadly, I cannot enter as I am not on Facebook. My daughter and I love AG dolls. Good luck All!
I try to enroll them in creative art classes during the summer and some type of gymnastics or dance class, whatever they express interest in, I try to encourage it (michelle on fb)
tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com
I foster creativity buy letting my granddaughter create with all kinds of art and craft supplies. We also have a lot of hands on manipulatives to discover and create.
I do have Facebook but do not know how to share and tag. I do not have Instagram.