As American Girl’s first fully Asian Girl of the Year and first Girl of the Year doll of Chinese descent (as well as the only Asian in the AG character lineup), Corinne has been getting tons of media attention lately. She has gotten praise for the important representation of Asians and Chinese-Americans she brings to the table, as well as criticism for her colored streaks that are a common trope for Asian female characters and storyline featuring interracial marriage. (I personally think AG handled both of these well, but I understand why people who haven’t read the books would be worried.)
CBS News just interviewed Wendy Wan-Long Shang, the author of Corinne’s books, about Corinne and her experience writing the series. Here it is!
I love AG author interviews, and it’s so much fun when I get to interview authors! I enjoyed watching this a lot- perfect distraction for isolation!
I was concerned about the streaks, too, but to be fair-- there were four previous Asian dolls and none of them had colored hair, and meanwhile two dolls had colored hair before Corinne who weren't Asian. She was also released with Gwynn, whose hair isn't colored, so I think it kinda... evens out a bit?
This was a good interview. I have both dolls and the books now, cannot wait for more items through out the year.