In 2004, American Girl teamed up with
Julia Roberts' Red Om Films production company to create the first American Girl movie
Samantha: An American Girl Holiday. Samantha was played by
AnnaSophia Robb. In 2005 came the second American Girl TV movie
Felicity: An American Girl Adventure. It starred
Shailene Woodley as Felicity. The third American Girl television movie appeared in 2006.
Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front featured
Maya Ritter as Molly. The first American Girl movie to appear in theaters was
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl; it opened in wide release on July 2, 2008. It was produced by
Picture House. Kit was played by
Academy Award nominee
Abigail Breslin and notable co-stars included
Stanley Tucci,
Chris O'Donnell,
Julia Ormond and
Joan Cusack. The first Girl of the Year movie was entitled
An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong. Chrissa was portrayed by
Sammi Hanratty. It was released by HBO directly to DVD on January 6, 2009. McKenna Brooks, the "Girl of the Year 2012", has a movie named
McKenna Shoots for the Stars released July 3, 2012. The movie, starring
Jade Pettyjohn as McKenna, started filming in July 2011 and aired on
NBC July 14, 2012. Saige Copeland, Girl of the Year 2013, has a movie named
Saige Paints the Sky released July 2, 2013. The movie, starring Sidney Fullmer as Saige, was released on NBC on July 13, 2013. A film based on Girl of the Year 2014 Isabelle Palmer entitled
Isabelle Dances Into the Spotlight was released July 22, 2014, starring
Erin Pitt as the title character. A film based on Girl of the Year 2015 Grace Thomas entitled
An American Girl: Grace Stirs Up Success, with
Olivia Rodrigo playing the title role, was released June 23, 2015. In November 2015, short
independent films were uploaded on American Girl's
YouTube page, based on the Maryellen Larkin and Julie Albright characters, the latter in lieu of the previously announced
musical film project slated in 2007. The films star Harlie Galloway and Jolie Ledford as Maryellen and Julie, respectively, and mark American Girl's venture into digital content and independent film production.
Love Has to Win was then followed by
An American Girl Story - Maryellen 1955: Extraordinary Christmas, starring
Alyvia Alyn Lind as Maryellen Larkin and was released by Amazon on November 25, 2016. Set in 1976 in San Francisco, Ivy Ling is a Chinese-American who struggles to balance her two cultural identities. With the help of her best friend, Julie Albright, Ivy makes a tough call on two important events in her life when her gymnastics tournament and family's Chinese New Year dinner land on the same day. The movie
An American Girl Story - Ivy & Julie 1976: A Happy Balance was released by
Amazon in 2017, starring
Nina Lu as Ivy Ling, and
Hannah Nordberg as Julie Albright. In 2023, a film entitled
American Girl - Corinne Tan: The Movie was released by Amazon on July 28. It was originally supposed to release on
HBO Max and
Cartoon Network in December 2022, but that never materialized. As of early 2024, it is currently featured on Netflix. ==Films and DVD release dates==