Advertising plays into buyer demand, producing items that appear visibly desirable to their audience. American Girl was different; the company initially wanted to help bright-light historical time periods through their dolls. American Girl was sold to Mattel, the second largest toy company in the world, in 1998, which protracted a shift from quality to quantity. Mattel encourages products that are geared towards bringing in money, rather than focusing on the stories of the dolls. American Girl seemed to start to care less about where the doll came from and more about what the doll looked like. The new generation of American Girl dolls consisted of uniform characters who faced moderate challenges such as raising money for a bake sale or making a varsity cheer team at her local high school. 2020's "doll of the year" is Joss, a caucasian girl who grows up in southern California and competes in national surf competitions. While these character stories can be important, they appear small compared to trekking across the prairie or dealing with wartime rationing like the American Girl historical characters did. Mattel made this shift in the company to appeal to their customers. American Girl dolls went from holding a sense of history and importance to focusing on the lifestyle and fun aspects of young girls lives. American Girl dolls are extremely pricey, which inevitably makes the company's buyers on the wealthy end of the spectrum. Therefore, they want their dolls to reflect their owners who mostly aren't facing life-threatening detrimental challenges.