American Girl turns 40 this year, and instead of one big anniversary event, the brand is stretching the celebration across 40 straight days. A new reveal drops daily at 10 a.m. Pacific on the company’s 40 Days calendar, running from August 24 through October 2.

• American Girl launched in 1986 with three historical characters — Kirsten, Samantha, and Molly — the brainchild of former educator Pleasant Rowland, who wanted dolls that told real stories rather than just wore outfits.
• The brand has sold more than 36 million dolls and introduced over 50 characters since, according to Mattel’s own 40th-anniversary press release.
• Each day of the calendar unlocks something different — new product drops, in-store events, seasonal content, and fan callbacks — with early reveals including a Hanna Andersson pajama collaboration and a sneak peek at an American Girl x Monster High crossover, per the official calendar page.
• Jamie Cygielman, Mattel’s Global Head of Dolls, said the anniversary is about “celebrating the timeless stories and immersive experiences that have had a lasting impact on the American Girl legacy and its multigenerational fans,” per the company’s own release.

The bigger anniversary push includes a Modern Era Collection that reimagines six of the original historical characters — Samantha, Addy, Kirsten, Josefina, Molly, and Felicity — for a new generation of kids, alongside their original archival counterparts. It’s a deliberate two-track approach: keep the 1980s-and-90s nostalgia intact for the parents who grew up with these dolls while giving their kids a version that actually looks like their own decade.

Two book releases round out the year. “The Making of American Girl,” an archival look back at four decades of the brand, published on May 12. A very different kind of tie-in follows on October 13: “Samantha: The Next Chapter,” an adult novel from bestselling author Fiona Davis that revisits the brand’s original Victorian-era character for the millennial and Gen X women who owned her doll as kids.

That’s the real trick of a 40-day countdown format — it turns a single anniversary into a month and a half of reasons to check back, whether you’re a parent shopping for a kid’s birthday or a 35-year-old who still has her Samantha doll in a closet somewhere. American Girl built its business on the idea that a good story keeps people coming back for the next chapter. Forty years in, the company is applying that same logic to its own anniversary.