I was lucky enough to get a piece posted on the Huffington Post recently about how our children are already learning about gender equality - or sometimes the lack of it, as the case may be - through their toys. I do feel strongly that the toys children play with can send a strong if subtle message to them about their perceived place in the world. Which is why we want to tell our girls - and our boys - that being a girl is not 'second best' , despite what today's pay gap tells us...

Anyway, have a read - the link is here.

x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember! Remember!

The 5^th of November! 

 

Nipping at the heels of Halloween, at the zenith of autumn, Guy Fawkes’ Night, or Bonfire Night officially celebrates the foiled Gunpowder plot of 1605, when a rag-tag team of Catholic usurpers planned to assassinate the protestant King James I of England, first of the Stuart line, son of Mary, Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I’s successor. After the arrest of Guy Fawkes who was caught guarding the cache of explosives beneath the House of Lords in Parliament, conventional wisdom holds that henceforth England would celebrate the King’s survival with fireworks and bonfires. In the decades and centuries to follow it evolved into a state commemoration, a ‘thanksgiving’ of sorts with towns and provinces marking the occasion with their own sponsored celebrations.

For Clementine, who was evacuated to the countryside during WWII, it’s unlikely she would have known or experienced much of this holiday before the end of the war. Many Brits would have missed this celebration, suspended as it was during the Blitz of 1940 and Britain’s imposed blackout.

As children decamped to the countryside, city-dwellers took refuge in the London Underground doubling as a shelter to escape persistent bombing. Homes, shops, businesses and factories adhered to strict blackout regulations during much of WWII to scupper nightly air raids from the Germans. Consequently, the country overlooked Bonfire Night and its accompanying fireworks in the face of war, resuming the celebration only after VE Day in 1945.

Today, Bonfire Night is a popular event enjoyed by many people across the country. Have a safe and fun evening Just remember however you choose to celebrate, give our fire services a rest and stay safe!

(Traditional English Rhyme - 17th Century)

Remember, remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot

I see no reason why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent

To blow up the King and the Parliament

Three score barrels of powder below

Poor old England to overthrow

By God's providence he was catched

With a dark lantern and burning match

Holloa boys, holloa boys

God save the King!

Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!

We are so excited that Sam, Your 1960s Girl™ is finally here. We’ve had so much interest in not only the doll but also the period of time that she represents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 1960s certainly seems to resonate with a lot of AGAT fans, and we ourselves at AGAT Towers were no exception. When our designers and I were researching the range for Sam, we had such a giggle pulling out pictures of own childhood ‘fashion moments’ from the 60s. Vinyl clearly was a big thing, as you can see from my outfit here. I was convinced it was quite possibly the coolest thing I would ever wear. Quite possibly it still is!

I’ve had a lot of questions about how the process of designing a doll actually happens. It’s a long process, from light bulb moment to actually getting the product onto the shelf and into your homes, and start to finish can take anywhere from 18-24 months really. So it’s a lot of forward planning, organisation and anticipation of trends.

When we started designing Sam, we had already guessed that the styles from the 60’s were going to be big for AW15 / SS16. You can see loads of mini dresses, shiny vinyl and geometric patterns on the catwalks at the recent Fashion Week shows. So we started searching for inspirational patterns, colours and fabrics that would tell Sam’s story.

 

You can see we had a lot of fantastic inspiration to work with and the end result has been Sam and her wardrobe full of bright colours, fun fabrics, matching handbags and playsuits and of course GoGo boots.

       

 

We can’t wait to share more with you about our range and the new things we have coming your way!

x Frances

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exciting News from A Girl for All Time !

All of us at A Girl for All Time® are extremely excited to announce that in 2016/2017 we will be releasing a new range of gorgeous, contemporary dolls called Your Modern Girl™.

Sign up here to learn more and keep up to date !

Our new range of Your Modern Girl™ dolls will be wonderfully unique and reflect the world that today’s girls live in – a world more ethnically, socially, and economically diverse than at any other time this century with girls who are strong, confident, and comfortable in their own skin. Our new range of Your Modern Girl™ dolls will be unlike anything else seen so far, and we are very excited to start sharing with you.

We will be announcing our very own Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of A Girl for All Time®’s ‘ Your Modern Girl™’ range soon.

Our inspiration

All of us at A Girl for All Time® believe in the unique power and strength of girls and it’s what inspires us every day. Knowing that every girl is different and has ideas and aspirations, dreams and goals unique to her has been one of the cornerstones of the concept behind A Girl for All Time®.

Like the girls that inspire us, our dolls are completely unique and unlike any other dolls – they are beautifully crafted with original face sculpts that are just that little bit more ‘grown up’ without being ‘adult’ and have a fantastic depth of historical background not seen before.

Our beautifully written stories engage our young fans and create an emotional connection to our product that is unique to our brand.

The response has been amazing, with people writing in or posting in our fanclub and Facebook pages about how much the love the their AGAT Girls, the ethos and the concept behind the brand.

Now we want to bring that same excitement and love of our historical doll line to the world of contemporary dolls … and can’t wait to start sharing the journey with you!

 x                                                                                 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When our Georgian Girl, Lydia Peyton, landed in Colonial Boston in 1760, Boston’s Puritanical founders frowned upon holiday celebrations as decadent, indulgent and unnecessary, much to her dismay. It would seem everything was different in this strange New World. In the mid-1600’s one may even be fined for displaying their festive spirit. Imagine!

Now, of course Americans throw themselves full throttle into their holidays. Whilst European inspired, two-week breaks are rare, sprinkled generously throughout the calendar are three-day weekends and memorials celebrating anything from trees to US Presidents.

This 12 October comes one such unique holiday, Columbus Day, the official day Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America. Fixed on the second Monday of October, this year it falls on the exact day of Columbus’ landing. As early as the 18^th century Americans marked their calendar to honour the explorer’s achievements and Italian-American heritage with parades, festivals and religious ceremonies. In 1937, after intense lobbying by fraternal order Knights of Columbus, President Roosevelt made it an official Federal holiday.

Of course today we know Columbus did not actually land in America, but the Bahamas, nor was he the first European explorer to properly discover the New World, rather one with the good fortune of favourable PR. (Columbus Day has a far nicer ring to it than say Leif Erikson Day, no?).  Such is his overwhelming influence we now have several US cities and America’s very own capital ( District of Columbia ) named after him. Indeed, it is thanks to Columbus we still refer to the Caribbean as the West Indies and that Native Americans were, until recently, mistakenly known as Indians, a consequence of Columbus’ original geographical miscalculation mingled with a dash of hubris. Notwithstanding this and details of who landed where first, it was Columbus and his voyages that heralded the dawn of the “Age of Exploration”.

Not without controversy, Columbus’ critics argue his expeditions hallmarked the beginning of European invasion, colonization and ill-considered exploitation of the New World. Some US States now oppose it, preferring alternative holidays commemorating their own indigenous cause. Whilst Columbus may no longer be revered in American classrooms as a founding hero, for better or worse, his legacy casts a long shadow over American history and culture, however one wishes to celebrate it. One thing is certain: most everyone welcomes the long weekend!

History has always been incredibly important to our family. Both my mother’s side and my father’s side of the family have always passed down stories of their family’s triumphs and struggles, which has always fascinated me and created in me my love of history. 

This love of history and my belief in the significance of personal family history formed the basis for A Girl for all Time®. So I thought I’d share some of my own story, my own family history, with you because it explains why Lydia, our first Girl to head to America, goes to Boston.

For me, bringing Lydia to Boston has a special significance rooted in that love of history and the stories my parents always told me about our ancestors. My direct link to Massachusetts and Boston is through my paternal side of the family - as a matter of fact of our family arrived on the Mayflower in 1620 - Edward Winslow was a Separatist and along with his brother, Gilbert, signed the Mayflower compact. Among many other accomplishments, Edward also co-wrote the historic Mourt's Relation, which ends with an account of the First Thanksgiving and the abundance of the New World

If you read the Wikipedia entry above on Edward Winslow, you can see that several names keep appearing; those of Edward himself and also Elinor, an 8 year old girl who travelled with her siblings in Edward’s care on board The Mayflower. We still in our family carry on those names. My own full name is Frances Elinor Cain. Winslow, Edward, and Elinor are still names that my family uses to christen our newest members! 

Our paternal side of the family is also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which is an organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in War of independence. The requirements are stringent: anyone who can prove “lineal, bloodline descent from an ancestor who aided in achieving American independence is eligible to join the DAR. She must provide documentation for each statement of birth, marriage and death, as well as of the Revolutionary War service of her Patriot ancestor.”

My Patriot ancestor is Col. David Leonard, killed on 4^th July 1777 at Lake George NY. Because my family places so much importance on personal family history, we have documentation showing our family line all the way back to Col. Leonard – and further still back to the early 1600s. One day I hope to spend some time further researching our family tree and adding to our story, and look forward passing it down to my own children.

Raising my children in the UK, it has been fascinating watching them grow up English, with a definite English perspective on not only world history but also American history. So for me, being able to bring Lydia to Boston, is the perfect way to explore both sides of the Revolution and share with them some of those stories that I grew up with.

 

 

When I was little, I am sure my childhood was similar to so many of yours: the school day ended at 3pm, homework was minimal, television was a treat at the end of the day, and school holidays consisted of being unceremoniously shovelled out the door at 8am ‘to play’ until we were called back in …

I tell my children about my own childhood, and in-between perfectly timed sighs that they have heard it all before and eye-rolls that seem to lodge in the back of their heads (how do they do that??),  are incredulous questions such as “You only had a HALF HOUR of tv a day ? And there were only 4 channels ? And you had no screens / phone / ipads ?? But how did you talk to your friends? What did you DO all day??’…

And I tell them what we did all day – we played. With friends, on our own, with toys, with sticks and anything else that we came across; we hunted for mini beasts, we did chalk drawings, we played dress up with dolls, we made up games that could go on all summer, we rode our bikes for miles.

Today’s childhood is different from our own nostalgic ones, and I understand that things have changed since then: technology, the cost of living, and modern family structure and  lifestyle makes it difficult to go back to the ‘good old days’.

But today’s children seem to be suffering from a rise in childhood depression, as reported on in this story in the Telegraph. Children have more stress in their lives now than ever before, a result of modern day burdens such as early exams, the pressures of social media, peer expectations, and a myriad of other issues tto which this this generation is exposed.

There seems to be a solution right under our noses : the power of play has shown to reduce stress in children and help them cope with the pressures of modern day living. And spontaneous, non structured play is the best way to exercise the brain, increase creativity, and explore one's own potential.

David Elkind, a longtime professor at Tufts University wrote the ground breaking books ‘ The Hurried Child’ and ‘The Power of Play’.  He states, "Basically, play is nature's way of dealing with stress for children as well as adults" (Elkind, 2001, p. 197). Parenting website Education.com says ‘When children can repeatedly play out the issues they are struggling to understand, they can make sense of them and gradually be able to set them aside. From the serious problems of a disturbed child to the more mundane struggles of young children everywhere, childhood play is one of the best techniques available to work through stress (Frost, Wortham, & Reifel, 2005).’

Now more than ever its vital that we bring non structured, creative,  traditional  play back into the lives of our children – helping them cope not only today but tomorrow, too.

So break out the dolls, the construction sets, the art supplies and the empty cardboard boxes and let them do what they were made to do – play.

Mid September is here and it seems people are already counting down to Christmas ! While we are super excited about Christmas here at A Girl for All Time®, we are even more excited our recent award – Winner of the 2014 Industry Choice awards at the International Doll Show in June.
 
The Winners of this prestigious award are entered for PLAYDOLL OF THE YEAR 2014 and this year Clementine, Your 1940’s Girl™ has been nominated in this category.
 
That’s where you come in.
 
You see, this is one of the few awards that is determined by the voting public, so it means an awful lot to us at A Girl for All Time® HQ.
 
We love hearing from our friends, fans and customers through our facebook page, our Fanclub page, and our website and because of you we have a great, interactive community filled with fabulous, creative people. .
We’d love your help to bring this award home in 2014
Votes can be cast by clicking the link here:

http://www.dollsmagazine.com/component/content/article/72-dolls-awards-of-excellence/735-cast-your-vote-for-the-2014-publics-choice-dolls-awards-of-excellence.html

You can see photos of each nominee and vote for your favorite doll in each category online.
Limit: One ballot per household. The deadline for voting is Oct. 6, 2014.

xxFrances

Everyone has a favourite childhood memory of a cherished toy, given to you perhaps as a special birthday gift or Christmas present. Mine was an absolutely longed for doll when I was 6 or 7 years old - I begged Father Christmas to please please (please!!) bring me a Bizzie Lizzie doll. She was absolutely gorgeous and as far as I was concerned, just about perfect. Back then, dolls were not quite as concerned with empowering little girls as they are now : my Bizzie Lizzie's entire repertoire consisted of hoovering, dusting and ironing. This was all done via a miraculous battery pack that was cleverly disguised as a cleaning supply pack ! Could not get much more non PC, I think ! But I loved her and thought she was the most wonderful doll ever.

That is what we at A Girl for All Time® are trying to create for your loved ones - lasting memories of something that they will treasure for a lifetime. Beautifully crafted, our dolls encourage intelligent play with lots of activities and stories for girls 7 and older.

Hard to believe its been another year gone by already - its Thanksgiving and its Hannukah, 2 major markers in the start of the Christmas season. Black Friday is around the corner and there is alot of preparation for holiday shopping and planning for the new year.

As a thank you to everyone for their support this year we have a special weekened in store - 10% off and free shipping on all orders when placed from Friday - end of Monday. Make sure to use the code Friday10 when you check out.

We would not be here without you and appreciate all of the support, comments and help we have gotten over the past yea.

Stay healthy and happy over this weekend and enjoy your time with family and friends.

Check back with us soon - we have lots of things going on for 2014 that I want to share with you !

Frances