Be Inspired to be “Wild At Art” With This Year’s American Girl

Each year American Girl comes out with a new Girl of the Year. These dolls are available for just one year and are inspired by girls today. The 2016 Girl of the Year is Lea Clark, and her story is full of adventure and a lot of heart. As a mother of two animal loving girls that love to be outdoors, I was thrilled to see the doll American Girl created this year. Then after reading the book and learning about the program American Girl has to go along with this year’s Girl of the Year, I was even more of a fan! 

Lea’s story is one about bravery, trying new things, siblings, travel and animals. These are all things that remind me so much of my own girls. The fact that Lea starts a blog and loves photography – well that’s just icing on the cake! 

I think it’s so important to educate our daughters (and all children) on different parts of the world as well as animals and nature. There are so many things for them to learn about outside of their own back yard. Reading about them and playing with dolls like American Girl Lea Clark are great assets. Reading about the world makes my kids so excited about travel and gives us lists of places we’d love to see. 

What’s even better is this year’s Girl of the Year has an incredible program to go along with it. American Girl has a Wild at Art effort for The World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Lea Clark loves animals and sees many new species when she travels with her family to Brazil. In honor of this new doll and story, American Girl is trying to help the world’s wildlife by encouraging children to help too. They’re letting girls know that so many species of animals around the globe (over 11,000 species) are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss, illegal capture and poaching, and other threats caused by humans. By raising money for the WWF we can all help these animals. 

And here’s how they’d like girls to help: host a “Wild at Art” art sale! American Girl is encouraging girls to use their imaginations to come up with paintings, crafts and photographs celebrating animals and places Lea Clark would love. Then, they can host an art sale and add the money raised to the $50,000 American Girl donated to WWF to kick off the “Wild at Art” campaign. Also, $1 from every purchase of Lea’s soft plush animals will be donated to WWF too. 

I love this program because it shows kids that they can make a difference by using their imaginations.  Encouraging the creation of art to help save our planet’s species is such a beautiful way for children to learn to help out. As a mother of two girls, I really support this year’s Girl of the Year and American Girl’s Wild at Art campaign. I can’t wait to see how much the program raises and what American Girl comes up with next. 

Every registrant who hosts an art sale is automatically entered for the chance to win exciting Lea prize packages. Visit the Wild at Art page for art sale ideas, more details on the program and prize information. Now it’s time to create art and help the animals!