In 1996, Pleasant Company released girl and doll sized T-shirts to celebrate their 10th anniversary. The shirts were white with black print that said “Proud to be an American Girl” with multi-colored stars around the words and a star dotting the “i”s and “!”. See this advertisement from the back cover of the Holiday 1996 catalogue:
After the tragic events that occurred on September 11, 2001, American Girl rereleased a modified version of the T-shirt for girls. All proceeds from the sale of the shirt went to the United Way’s September 11th Fund. See the insert from a 2001/2002 catalog below:
There were even buttons made with this design in 2002, but I’m not sure if they were sold in the catalogue or were a store exclusive item (the NYC American Girl Place didn’t open until 2003). I’ve seen a few of these buttons for sale online, but I don’t have one myself. Below are pictures from an online auction site. Note how the back of the pin says “©2002 Pleasant Company”. Pleasant Company may have still owned the rights to the shirt design and logo since it was created prior to Mattel’s purchase of the brand in 1998.
I’ve never seen the 2001 shirt design for sale, but I bought a 1996 version for myself about a year ago. Did you know that American Girl rereleased this T-shirt design to raise money for charity after September 11th? Do you know where the buttons came from? Let me know in the comments!