In the 1990's I was about 11 years old when I received my first American Girl doll (or rather my Pleasant Company Doll) for Christmas and she was Samantha. My sisters received Kirsten and Molly that same day and all three of us enjoyed playing with our dolls for years to come. That first Christmas, we weren't loaded with money so my Grandfather had used his woodworking skills to build us all a Kirsten looking bed that looked much like the catalog. My grandmother made flannel nightgowns with satin bows and custom sheets, pillows, mattress, and miniature quilts for each of our beds. This was our starter collection where we got the meet oufit that came with each of the dolls and a bedtime nightgown and bed to put dolly to sleep. Back in that day, the catalogs were mailed so when it came in the mail, we would each look over the doll products in the catalog and make wishlists. The outfits were pricy so I think mom bought us a new one each Christmas for a few years.

The dolls were packed away while I went to college and then one day when the family was all together, my mom brought out the boxes where she had safely stored everything away and was like "So do you girls want this?". We dug through the boxes like it was Christmas again, each of us with our doll and accumulated accessories and clothes and played like it was just another day as a kid. But by this time, our dolls had seen some better days. The hair was tangled and dull, the face paint had mostly worn away, they were terribly dirty and the thought came to my mind - I wonder if I could restore this doll to make it look new again? That was the loaded question as I researched and researched to learn how to restring limbs, paint doll faces, change eyes, and re-wig.

At the beginning of my search I just looked for vendors to buy the things I needed, but then I discovered it wasn't as easy as I thought and I was hunting and searching deeper and deeper to find exactly what I needed. I made quite a few dolly friends along the way and they shared with me their experiences with current doll suppliers and quality. And it wasn't good. There were complaints of super high overcharged prices, super low quality options that didn't last, and very poor customer service. One of my favorite lines from a kid's movie Robots says "Find a Need, Fill a Need" which kind of becomes my mantra in a lot of situations and this one fell right in my lap. I had lots of wig experience in doing human costumes and cosplay so creating wigs for dolls was right up my alley.

I started very small with designs for Samantha, Kirsten, and Molly. I had several drafts, and it seems even now I still try to perfect and upgrade them every year to be a little closer to the originals. Lots of people were in the same boat as I was where they loved their childhood doll and just wanted to keep them in good repair. The doll hospital is great for a lot of things, but when your doll is vintage and you want to keep it looking that way, that's not the route to go. Later on I added Felicity, Lindsey, Kanani and other wig designs to help collectors and then later on added modern and historical styles. It's always been in the spirit of complimenting with products that are not out there and that collectors need. And that's really what I'm all about, is to help collectors fix and repair their dolls and then continue to collect fun things.