Exactly one week from now, Lila Monetti will be released. I am very excited, and I know a lot of American Girl fans are.

Lila Monetti is going to be American Girl's first Italian-American character. In regards to Girl of the Year, American Girl has been having firsts in accordance to ethnicities. For instance, Corinne is the first full-blooded Asian-American character, and Kavi is the first South Asian or Indian character. Since there are rumors saying she will have caramel-colored hair with blonde highlights, some people online say this is not Italian. Some Northern Italians have blonde hair, and to a lesser extent Southern Italians. There are Italian-Americans with light-colored hair, although very few. Some fans were hoping she'd be a redhead or a strawberry-blonde, but I was hoping brown hair.

As with hobbies, she is going to be into either two separate talents (horseback riding and gymnastics) or horse vaulting. I am really hoping for horse vaulting, since this is a theme not covered by any previous Girl of the Year. I know it has been said she comes with gymnastics items. Maybe her stories will deal with combining these two interests. Unlike Joss whose stories focused on two different hobbies.

She is probably going to be a farm girl or a ranch girl since her biggest item in her collection is a ranch set. I'm guessing her meet outfit is going to come with boots or johdpurs and a cowboy hat. She will no doubt have a horse in her collection (which I'm guessing is named Emsley) and possibly have some farm animals or if she has a personal pet herself. In recent Girl of the Years like Corinne and Kavi have dog companions. I think it is about time we have Girl of the Years with different animals as pets, like rabbits, parrots, and cats. Maybe Lila could have a kitten or a rabbit in her collection.

I'm also wondering who the author for her books will be. In recent years, American Girl has been hiring New York Times best-selling author to write books. Maybe Lila could be written by a best-selling author or a regular children's author like Mary Casanova. Nowadays, American Girl hardly uses any of the old veteren authors, like Laurence Yip, Kathleen Ernst, Sarah Masters Buckey, Mary Casanova, and Jacqueline Dembar Greene.