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Telling the story of American Girl doll Rebecca Rubin
Rebecca Rubin
Circa: 1910s
Location: New York City
Rebecca is a true city girl, born and raised in New York’s Lower East Side after the turn of the century. She comes from a family of Russian immigrants who fled their home country under persecution due to their Jewish faith. In the U.S. her family blends their Jewish and Russian traditions with new, American ones, but struggle at times to reconcile with the fast-paced and Christian-dominated American landscape.
Rebecca herself is a mystery to her parents– loud, expressive and quick-thinking– they struggle to understand the modern girl that lives under their roof, which often leads to tension or disagreements between them.
Rebecca dreams of becoming a famous actress in the new medium of film, someone like Mabel Normand or Lillian Gish. She is inspired by her mother’s cousin, a vaudeville actor who insists that “moving pictures” are the future of entertainment. However, the rest of her traditional family looks down on actors and believes that working in that industry is not “respectable,” leading them to discourage Rebecca from her dreams.
In spite of this, Rebecca is determined to be famous and even put on one-woman shows on street corners, performing for change which she uses at the soda fountain or for more sheet music.
One of the main struggles Rebecca faces is jealousy, as her older siblings always seem to have more freedom and responsibilities than she and she yearns for the day she is allowed to light the Sabbath candles before dinner. She is often lonely within her family unit, as her elder twin sisters have one another, and so do her younger brothers, but Rebecca is left alone in the middle.
But, when her uncle’s family joins hers in America, Rebecca gains a cousin her age to “twin” with. Her cousin however, finds the transition into American life difficult and is teased at school for her Russian attitudes and not being proficient at English. Rebecca herself falls into this trap and becomes embarrassed at her family member, but soon realizes that family and friendship are more important than worrying about what others think.
If your favorite doll is Rebecca, you are charismatic and enjoy being at the center of attention– especially while performing. You were likely a theater kid in high school and can still break into show tunes at a moment's notice, but your favorites are the classics, like “Carousel” or “Oklahoma!” Like Rebecca, you can find your way around a city easily and enjoy negotiating to get the best deal possible.
You totally had photoshoots with your friends in elementary and middle school, recreating images from favorite movies and trying in vain to find perfect lighting on an iPod touch. Crocheting is a favorite hobby of yours and others regularly come to you for advice on the perfect stitching or to simply complement your work.
You have a Regal MoviePass and put it to good use, often seeing movies more than once and certainly did a “Barbenheimer” double-feature on opening day: “Oppenheimer” for the laughs and “Barbie” for the complex discussions of morality and our place in the universe, of course.
