The American Girl store in Charlotte, North Carolina is going to close a week from today - and to commemorate this, I figured I'd make a list of my favorite memories from the store!
The first time I went to AG Charlotte was a little bit after it opened, so I could beat the crowds. I went with my best friend at the time, and I got Josefina, and she got Rebecca. It was a really fun day!
A month after the Charlotte store opened, I was taken to it during a teacher workday so we could try the bistro. I got my doll's hair done that day too, and I had a lot of fun!
When 2015 started, I assumed that the store would be out of Grace dolls already. Nope - I was able to get Grace a few weeks before my birthday, and in 2016, I started my tradition of going to the AG store on GOTY release day and buying her! I ended up expanding that tradition to new Historical releases, too.
In fifth grade, I restored a few American Girl dolls for people I knew. However, once I was tasked with restoring a Cecile for my special education teacher's daughter, it was too big of a task to do myself - so I took her to the American Girl doll hair salon!
I had a few birthday parties at the American Girl store. In 2018, when I turned 13, me, my mom and my sister had a party at the bistro. In 2021, when I turned 16, there wasn't much to do because a lot of places were still closed, but we took a trip to the American Girl store to celebrate. And in 2023, when I turned 18, I had a meetup with my blog readers! The meetup was amazing, and I was hoping it would be the first of many in Charlotte. Alas, that was the only one.
When American Girl Live came to town in 2019, I was all ready to go to the show after I left the store - and an employee gave me a ticket to the show that a blog reader had told to give me! I already had tickets, but I framed that ticket so I could commemorate the experience, and me and the blog reader sat together at the show!
If I listed all the special memories I had surrounding American Girl releases, it would probably take up half this post! However, one particularly special release for me was Isabel and Nicki's release in February 2023. I had gotten a few bits of particularly good news for my project Rebelle the week leading up to their release, and the day before Isabel and Nicki came out, I got a piece of news that was some of the best news I had gotten in my life. It was so cool to celebrate what happened at the store - I'm still sworn to secrecy, but hopefully it won't be too long now until I can spill the details!
Last, but not least. This is the only one that hasn't happened yet - my final trip to American Girl Charlotte. On Sunday, the day before the store closes, I am going to be doing the one thing I've never done before at the American Girl store in Charlotte - have an official party at the Bistro! Me, my mom, my sister and my cousin are all going to have one of the last parties at the American Girl Charlotte location ever, and after, I have my last doll hair salon appointment ever at the location. I decided to take Julie, my first ever doll, to commemorate the end of this era.
I'm going to miss the American Girl store in Charlotte so much. AG store closures are always sad, but when it's your home store, it takes on a weight that you never have experienced in your life before this.
This store was the happy place of my childhood and my teenage years - and when I come home from college for spring break and the summer, it's going to feel really weird not being able to go there all the time.
All I can say is - I'm lucky I'm going to be in Nashville for two more years. After I graduate, though, I'll find a way to make things work. If I have to travel every time a new AG character doll releases, if it's for this blog, so be it!