The Generation Girl line was invented for "older girl" play. 1999 is when the first edition came out. There were six friends, including Barbie, who were Ana Suarez (Mexico City, Mexico), Tori Burns (Melbourne/Sydney, Australia), Lara Morelli-Strauss (Paris, France), Nichelle Watson/Williams (New York, New York), and Chelsie Peterson (London, England). Barbie Roberts was from Las Angeles/Malibu California. They all lived in New York, New York and attended Manhatten International High School. Getting the info strait is hard. On the box of the Generation Girl Tori doll, it says that Tori is from Sydney. In the books, it says that Tori is from Melbourne. ??? On the box, it says that Barbie is from Las Angeles, California. In the books, it says that she is from Malibu. ??? On the box, it says that Nichelle's last name is Williams. In the books, Nichelle's last name is Watson. ??? I personally think that Melanie Stewart screwed up somewhere. The Generation Girls all had brand new head molds. Christie's new head mold was shared with Nichelle. Tori and Chelsie shared a head mold and so did Lara and Ana. Barbie, Nichelle, Lara, and Ana used the Shani torso mold and Tori, and Chelsie used the Teen Skipper body mold. Also, Barbie, Nichelle, Lara, and Ana used the regular Barbie Bendable arms, while Tori, and Chelsie both used the Bendable Ballet arms. The Generation Girl Nichelle doll, had two lines. The first line had longer hair and in the box, she was holding her sunglasses. The second line had shorter hair and in the box, her sunglasses were on her head. At first, Mattel made the Generation Girl Barbie with a small heart shaped tatoo on her ankle. Those dolls are very rare because Mattel soon replaced her with a no tatoo version. The Generation Girl Tori doll had three ear piercings on her left ear and one on the right ear. That doll is rare too because she was replaced too with no earings at all. The Generation Girl Chelsie has two rare versions. The rarest is the one with three ear piercings on her left ear and one one the right, and a nose ring! The rare one next to that is just the nose ring. Then, Mattel started with no earrings and no nose ring. Very interesting... Some say that the first edition Generation Girl Lara was rare. I don't belive it because I remember seeing her multiple times at Toys-R-Us in 1999. The second edition was the Spring Jam Festival Dance Party edition. (shorted version:Dance Party) These dolls came out in 2000 and the theme was a dance party. Dissapointing news though, Ana and Chelsie were discluded from the group! How rude. Some good news though, two new members were added to make the "six best friends" thing work. This time there was a boy! His name is Blaine Gordon and he to is from New York, New York. (Barbie ditched Ken obviously) Blaine used his "twin brother" Zach's face mold. Zach was never finished. He was to be Skipper's new boy friend. Barbie's other new friend was named Mari Nakano(or Mariko in Europe). She was from Tokyo, Japan. This was an interesting switch. We still miss Ana and Chelsie though. More good news though! Toys-R-Us had an exclusive of the Dance Party Chelsie! Now the group was seven friends and Ana was still a no show. The Dance Party Chelsie was not in any of the picures on boxes on the Generation Beat magazine except for her own. The third edition came out in the spring of 2001. The theme to this edition was the My Room thing. Each doll came with her own room. It was three cardboard pieces (except on Tori's)that you set up to be the room. Good news! Ana was back in the group! Bad news...Blaine and Chelsie were not. I'm not really sure why they got rid of Blaine so quickly, but they did. Anyway, Ana was back! The Mari My Room doll was VERY hard to find! I went looking for her in stores and she was not to be found. The store workers even said that they never even got shipment of her! I only saw her about three times on Ebay. The rooms looked slightly different than they did on the box however. The drawn details of the room had some differences. Later on in the year of 2001, Mattel came out with a My Room Blaine doll! Yay! The "six best friends" thing was officially ruined! Blaine came with an electric guitar...cool. Before the Generation Girls actually came out on the market, their names where planned to be: Did you know... Blaine's head mold was based partly on a model from a magazine, that designer Bill Martinez found? The amazing sculptor, Hussein Abbo, should be credited for most of the work on Blaine's head mold, says Martinez. On Barbie.com in the Create 'n Skate with Barbie game,they use and instrumental "Poetry", "Pretty Strong", and "Go Barbie Go" Well, when I get more info on the third edition and anything else Gen Girl, It will be posted! Thanks to Barbie Bazaar Magazine for some of the information! Thanks to Man Behind The Doll Website for some of the information! *ALSO* Look Here and take a look at the old Generation Girl Site! Most of the links don't work, but we all miss the site, so it's refreshing to visit some of the pages there that work. Take a look
Here
to take part in a Generation Girl message board at Barbiecollectibles.com!
Sidney (Tori), Chelsea (Chelsie), Laura (Lara), and the familiar Nichelle, Ana, and Barbie.
Did you know...The pictures of Blaine on his box are not the same head mold used on the doll? The designers have to release the package art before the actual dolls, and they mold that is shown on the box was not really what they intended to use on the doll.
In the Pop Star Pop-ups game on Barbie.com one of the songs to chose from is "Friends Like We Are"...very mysterious.
