Fans of the American Girl dolls and accessories will definitely want to attend the American Girl Fashion Show on Saturday, March 21, and Sunday, March 22, at Haymount United Methodist Church in Fayetteville. The fashion show will teach children how clothing has changed over the years to reflect history, culture and the individual style of girls.
  American Girl is a line of dolls and accessories based on preteen girl characters from various periods of American history. Pleasant Rowland began selling them by mail order in 1986. Fourteen million American Girl dolls have been sold, along with 123 million books about the dolls.
  The company’s flagship line is a collection of historical 18-inch dolls that come with books and accessories. The dolls, representing 9-10 year old girls, live through important times in American history and provide a child’s perspective of significant events in American history.
  The fashion show will feature more than 124 girls wearing historical and contemporary outfits based on the American Girl series. The money raised by the fashion show will benefit the Child Advocacy Center of Fayetteville, which works to prevent child abuse as well as developing outreach plans.
  {mosimage}Tammy Laurence, executive director of the Child Advocacy Center, says this is the third year the show had been held for the center and that last year’s fashion show was a “huge” success.
  “We think it will be even bigger this year because we’ve got folks coming not just from Fayetteville, but from Charlotte and Wilmington and all across the state,” said Laurence.
  The girls chosen to participate in the American Girl Fashion show won a previous competition that Laurence said had many contestants from throughout the region. All contestants will be wearing clothes that are one of two sizes: 6x or 10.  All the fashion show participants are from 8-10 years old.
  In addition to the fashion show, there will be tea parties,  a hair salon for the dolls and a special birthday party. Also, American Girl products will be for sale or they may be pre-ordered on the brand’s Web site, www.americangirl.com, and picked up at the fashion show. Refreshments will be served and there will be door prizes.
  There will also be a raffle ticket drawing offering a chance to win a number of American Girl prizes, including: a Just Like You Doll; the Kit and Ruthie Best Friends Collection;  Kit’s Tree House; the Bitty Twins; and the Bitty Baby Starter Collection.
  In cooperation with American Girl, any catalog order you place now will benefit the Child Advocacy Center, with 5 percent of the order’s total going to the organization. Orders must be placed between March 6 and April 5; use the special key code 162440.
  The American Girl Fashion Show will be held March 21 at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.; it will be held March 22 at 3 p.m. The event will be in the New Life Center at Haymount United Methodist Church, 1700 Fort Bragg Road. Tickets are $30. For more information, call (910) 486-9700. The event is recommended for ages 6 and up.

Contact Tim Wilkins @tim@upandcomiongweekly.com