{"id":18681,"date":"2017-12-28T18:02:23","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T10:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/doll-of-the-year-2018s-top-american-girl-is-an-aspiring-astronaut-named-luciana-vega\/"},"modified":"2017-12-28T18:02:23","modified_gmt":"2017-12-28T10:02:23","slug":"doll-of-the-year-2018s-top-american-girl-is-an-aspiring-astronaut-named-luciana-vega","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/doll-of-the-year-2018s-top-american-girl-is-an-aspiring-astronaut-named-luciana-vega\/","title":{"rendered":"Doll of the year: 2018\u2019s top American Girl is an aspiring astronaut named Luciana Vega"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_386725\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-386725\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-386725\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/171228-americangirl-630x432.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"432\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/171228-americangirl-630x432.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/171228-americangirl-768x527.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/171228-americangirl.jpg 1177w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-386725\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A doll named Luciana Vega is unveiled as the American Girl of the Year for 2018 on ABC\u2019s \u201cGood Morning America\u201d as Space Camp girls look on. (ABC \/ GMA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>American Girl put a Space Age spin on the centuries-old tradition of dress-up dolls today by unveiling a spacesuit-clad character named Luciana Vega as its \u201cGirl of the Year\u201d for 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The big reveal came on ABC\u2019s \u201cGood Morning America,\u201d when the 18-inch-high doll was lowered to the set amid a throng of girls wearing Space Camp uniforms. Each of them got a doll.<\/p>\n<p>American Girl, which has been putting out dolls and accessories with elaborate stories behind them since 1986, says Vega\u2019s character is an 11-year-old \u201caspiring astronaut who dreams of being the first person to go to Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The doll, its back story and its product line were developed with advice from NASA astronaut Megan McArthur Behnken, former NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan, U.S. Space and Rocket Center CEO Deborah Barnhart and Maureen O\u2019Brien, manager of strategic alliances at NASA.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Meet American Girl's 2018 Girl of the Year: Aspiring astronaut Luciana Vega\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8maWJDIBr6c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>American Girl\u2019s editors and designers visited NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Texas and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center\u2019s Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., to get acquainted with astronauts as well as Space Camp trainees.<\/p>\n<p>American Girl says Luciana Vega is the first character to take a deep dive into science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve had STEM products before, but we really wanted to do a whole character to show girls that STEM is cool,\u201d designer Rebecca Dekuiper was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_386748\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-386748\" style=\"width: 204px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-386748 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/171228-luciana-book-204x300.png\" alt=\"Luciana Vega book cover\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/171228-luciana-book-204x300.png 204w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/171228-luciana-book-200x294.png 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/171228-luciana-book-68x100.png 68w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/171228-luciana-book.png 592w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-386748\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The doll character is the subject of chapter books being published by Scholastic. NASA\u2019s Space Launch System appears on the cover. (Scholastic \/ NASA \/ American Girl)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>And it\u2019s not just about the doll: The accessories include a flight suit and a spacesuit, a \u201cMaker Station\u201d and a Mars habitat. American Girl fans can also connect with the doll through a smartphone app and a series of books published by Scholastic.<\/p>\n<p>In conjunction with the doll\u2019s debut, American Girl is working with Scholastic, NASA and Space Camp on an educational program called \u201cBlast Off to Discovery,\u201d aimed at sparking STEM interest among third- through fifth-grade students. There\u2019ll also be a \u201cMission to Mars Sweepstakes,\u201d sponsored by American Girl and Scholastic.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Luciana Vega doll goes on sale online and at American Girl retail locations, including Alderwood Mall, on Jan. 1. The \u201cBlast Off to Discovery program\u201d will be available via Scholastic\u2019s website starting Jan. 31.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A doll named Luciana Vega is unveiled as the American Girl of the Year for 2018 on ABC\u2019s \u201cGood Morning America\u201d as Space Camp girls look on. (ABC \/ GMA) American Girl put a Space Age spin on the centuries-old tradition of dress-up dolls today by unveiling a spacesuit-clad character named Luciana Vega as its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5289,190,2623,4673,5290,4885],"class_list":["post-18681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-american-girl","tag-nasa","tag-stem","tag-stem-education","tag-stem-for-girls","tag-toys"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18681"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18681\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}