Mattel makers of the wildly popular Barbie Dolls and American Girls Dolls are used to catching flack over Barbie’s image. More recently, however, they are catching flack over the message being sent to children over the sale of Gwen, the homeless American Girl Doll that costs $95.00, hairstyling not included. Every American Girl Doll has a backstory, there’s Abby the runaway slave, Josefina who has lost her mother, another doll who is suffering during the depression and so on. What’s more than mildly disturbing is how much people are willing to spend on a homeless doll in a recession. The fact that the doll has a story that is set in present time and is homeless is a reflection of the times we are living in, yet, the price seems to suggest the harsh reality of our country’s economic status doesn’t exist.