American Girl is releasing its first book aimed at adults, and it is doing everything in its power to make sure it does not actually read like one.
On February 11th, 2026, the company announced Samantha: The Next Chapter, a novel starring Samantha Parkington set in 1920 New York. The book follows the grown-up Samantha as she campaigns for women’s suffrage, loses her inheritance in a theft, and lands a job as a shopgirl. It is described as a story about a socialite turned worker experiencing a different side of the city.
What is not described is the book’s actual target audience. Because Samantha: The Next Chapter is not an adult novel. It is a young adult novel dressed in adult marketing clothes.
Samantha’s Long History With American Girl
Samantha Parkington is one of the original three dolls created by Pleasant Rowland, the founder of American Girl. She has long been considered the doll with the best stuff, and her rumored status as American Girl’s best-selling doll of all time has cemented her place in the brand’s lineup.
The new book continues that legacy. According to the company, Samantha’s direct descendant is Raquel Reyes, the 2026 Doll of the Year. Samantha’s original book series touches on child labor, but the new novel appears to have less friction, making her a safer bet for a franchise still trying to balance profitability with safety for children.
“It’s 1920, and 25-year-old Samantha Parkington is working hard to educate women in New York about suffrage and encourage them to vote in their first presidential election that fall.”
That description comes from American Girl and author Fiona Davis, who has written seven bestselling historical fiction novels involving New York City and its architecture. The book is being released via Cosmopolitan.com, with only the first four chapters currently available for review.
The Lockdown on Samantha
American Girl is keeping the novel under strict lock-and-key. No advanced reader copies appear to be circulating, and the preview is limited to those four chapters on the magazine’s website.
The company’s approach to the book is cautious. American Girl is owned and managed by Mattel, which has a vested interest in preserving the brand’s reputation. There is no world in which Mattel would canonically endorse Samantha joining the Industrial Workers of the World, or any other political movement that might upset customers.
That caution shows up in the book itself. Despite its description as an adult novel, Samantha: The Next Chapter reads like a young adult novel. The opening beats are so carefully constrained within the established patter and reading level of the original texts that you would be forgiven for thinking Samantha Parkington is twelve, not twenty-five.
The Adult Marketing Problem
The book is marketed as adult content, but it does not engage adult readers on their level. The opening pages include a heavy-handed reminder of Samantha’s trademark trappings: her heart-shaped locket, her dark brown hair, her childhood home in Mount Bedford, and the definition of a suffragist.
These details are meant to reassure longtime fans. They are also the kind of exposition that a young adult novel needs to establish its world, not an adult novel that trusts readers already know the character.
There is nothing wrong with a young adult novel. But calling it an adult novel changes the expectations. The book is not exploring grown-up themes with grown-up language. It is telling a familiar story with a slightly older protagonist.
Nostalgia and the American Girl Audience
The timing of the announcement is interesting. American Girl has spent years riding a wave of nostalgia, particularly during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. As people returned to their parents’ homes and cleaned out their old bedrooms, admissions to American Girl’s “doll hospital” surged.
At least one of the authors, Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler, found her formative Molly McIntire doll in the back of her old closet, rumpled-haired and loose-armed, and promptly used her adult credit card to get it fixed. The anecdote captures the tension between the warm glow of nostalgia and the bitter knowledge that the moment has passed.
In 2025, Orlovsky-Schnitzler and KC Hysmith published An American Girl Anthology: Finding Ourselves in the Pleasant Company Universe. The book explored how American Girl characters, books, and accessory lines shaped the careers of women who became historians and pursued higher education.
Dr. Tara Strauch, writing for the anthology, mused over the so-called “Felicity Generation”: women raised on American Girl who became historians or pursued higher education. That American Girl has helped foster an interest in the past while shaping futures is both undeniable and laudable.
What American Girl Owes Its Older Fans
The question of how to engage—and profit from—a grown-up audience is not new in the age of the internet. Nothing truly disappears online, and you can sink yourself into the haze of childhood nostalgia at a moment’s notice.
American Girl still has to walk a fine line between being a profitable brand and remaining a safe brand for children who are still learning to navigate the world. That means the company cannot fully commit to adult storytelling, even when the audience demands it.
Samantha is the logical choice for this project. She is one of the original dolls, she has a strong fan base, and her storyline has less friction than some of the other characters. But the book’s marketing promises more than its execution delivers.
The Bottom Line
Samantha: The Next Chapter is a young adult novel masquerading as an adult novel. It is a safe, constrained story about a grown-up Samantha who loses everything and learns to survive. It is not a bold reinvention of the character.
American Girl is not really comfortable with engaging adult readers on their level. The book’s description is aspirational, but the reading level is not. The company is trying to capture the adult market without actually changing the formula.
That is a disappointment. But it is also predictable. Mattel now owns and manages American Girl, and Mattel likes safe bets.
The first four chapters are available for preview on Cosmopolitan.com. For longtime fans, the question is simple: will the story live up to the promise of its title?
The answer, from what has been shown so far, is probably not.
Source material: “Rebranding Samantha: Reflections on the First “Grown Up” American Girl Book,” Literary Hub.
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