Meet Janine Napierkowski
AUTHOR: Janine B. Napierkowski
Hi! I’m Janine B. Napierkowski, and I work as the Project Coordinator for Cultural Assets at Girl Scouts of the USA. I take care of their national archives and collection, which is really cool because I get to help preserve the organization’s history. (Fun fact: the Girl Scouts actually had the name The American Girl first. It was the title of their magazine from 1919 to 1979, way before American Girl came along!)
I studied art and education in college and grad school, and over the years I’ve gotten to serve on the boards of a few nonprofits and work with some awesome museums around the country. One of my favorites was with the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. In 2025, I published an essay about the connections between Girl Scouts and American Girl in the book, An American Girl Anthology.
My American Girl journey started in the early ’90s when I got Felicity for Christmas. She was my first doll, and a year later I got an “American Girl of Today” doll I named B. Both of them still sit on a chair by my desk today. Felicity was my favorite, even though I wasn’t really a horse girl. My cousins had Kirsten and Molly, and we were obsessed! We brought our dolls everywhere and wrote letters from their perspectives, leaving them in little mailboxes we made. I was a huge reader and loved diving into The American Girls Collection books. I read every page of the catalogues, too, and always dreamed of being featured as a paper doll in American Girl Magazine.
One of my all-time favorite memories is visiting Colonial Williamsburg in 1995 for one of their Felicity programs. My family went all out! We had tea with Miss Manderly, rode in a carriage, toured the houses, and played colonial games. That trip really made Felicity’s world feel real and helped me see parts of myself in her. I’ve always been lucky to have strong support from my family, and I think that visit helped spark my love for history and storytelling. Even though the American Girl program isn’t there anymore, I’m planning a return trip just for fun!
Growing up, I always knew my dolls were something special. My dad built doll furniture, and my aunt sewed clothes. I can still remember the excitement of opening those iconic American Girl boxes with the paper bands. My dolls had their own setup and I kept playing with them into middle school, even though some kids teased me for it. They stayed on a shelf in my room all through high school. When I brought my partner home from college for the first time, they were still there. She thought they were a little creepy (she’s more of a stuffed animal person), but I loved them!
Now, as a grown-up American Girl collector and museum nerd, I see American Girl as more than just dolls. They’re a way to teach history through storytelling and objects. The stories help readers build empathy and curiosity about the past. And that’s what I love most. American Girl helps us learn from history while also dreaming up a better future. That’s why I keep doing what I do.