McKenna: Girl of the Year 2012

[Weather Balloons]

So, googling McKenna and 2012 turned this up, American Girl's "Girl of the Year" Doll for 2012: McKenna.


If naming the 2012 doll McKenna isn't a reference to Terence McKenna, that's a pretty big coincidence. Just thought that was interesting, and maybe some people here will find some deeper connections or something. American Girl also made the doll a gymnast to tie in with the summer olympics, and I know there has already been much discussion of the mascots here at RI.

[NeonLX]

Hmmm...

I'll fess up and admit that when my daughter was younger, we travelled the American Girl Doll path. Her very favorite was Kaya (who is still displayed on a shelf in my daughter's bedroom):



There was some "good" woven into the stories that accompanied each character.

[Searcher08]

So, googling McKenna and 2012 turned this up, American Girl's "Girl of the Year" Doll for 2012: McKenna.


If naming the 2012 doll McKenna isn't a reference to Terence McKenna, that's a pretty big coincidence. Just thought that was interesting, and maybe some people here will find some deeper connections or something. American Girl also made the doll a gymnast to tie in with the summer olympics, and I know there has already been much discussion of the mascots here at RI.

When you squeeze McKenna, she says
"Mommy! Right here and now, one quanta away, there is raging a universe of active intelligence that is transhuman, hyperdimensional, and extremely alien... What is driving religious feeling today is a wish for contact with this other universe."

[barracuda]

That's a great find. THe use of the Mc + Capitol letter is certainly not a construction that you would ever see in a first name, is it? This is like an inside joke by the folks at American Girl. They did license their one of their dolls to become the notorious muscle-enforcer "Big Baby" in the last toy story movie, which seemed like an odd move.



That image of the gymnast next to her name is pretty clearly a sigil of some sort, too. Eye of Horus, maybe?

[Searcher08]

played by... duh duh DUHHHHHH!
DeForest Kelley

[barracuda]

Ahhh... okay.

[Weather Balloons]

Hmmm...

I'll fess up and admit that when my daughter was younger, we travelled the American Girl Doll path. Her very favorite was Kaya (who is still displayed on a shelf in my daughter's bedroom)

Both of my sisters went through American Girl phases growing up, I don't remember which dolls they had but I do remember them looking through the catalogs quite often when they were into that stuff. I didn't really pay that much attention to their dolls since I was a kid who was either into my super nintendo or punk rock depending on which sister I'm talking about.

I'm not really sure what the people at American Girl are up to by naming this doll McKenna, but it seems likely to cause more young girls to at least hear about Terence McKenna than would have otherwise. Then again, maybe it's a ploy to try and bury Terence McKenna in searches related to 2012? (That seems like it wouldn't have much of an effect to me, but maybe not since search engines are getting more personalized all the time.) I would think a company that charges almost $200 a doll would lean towards the latter of those possibilities. There's also the chance that someone is just trying to get people like me to waste some time talking about a doll. I still think this is interesting even if that's the case.

What seems to me the most likely explanation of why this doll was named McKenna is that it's an effective marketing ploy. That scenario doesn't necessarily rule out barracuda's "inside joke" idea. Also, I agree that the gymnast next to the doll's name does have the look of a sigil of sorts, and I like Searcher08's quote of what the doll would say.

On a side note, I've gathered that I'm one of the younger members here being in my late 20s.

[norton ash]

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that choosing McKenna is such a weird choice-- part of me refuses to believe that the whole American Girl team is SO stupid that they haven't heard of McKenna, looked up McKenna, or saw a McKenna 2012 connection-- that this story will hit the MSM, and naming the doll will be seen as a big mistake in potentially freaking out children. (There will be bright older siblings who know about Terrence McKenna.)

Or it's keyword hijacking.

[NeonLX]

Heh. One of the youngest members, meet one of the oldest members...

[Nordic]

You guys are all joking, right?

This is the way that HMW has polluted this board? Or are you guys actually serious?

Because outside of this place, practically nobody has heard, or ever will hear, of Terrence McKenna.

However, almost every single girl in the demographic that this doll is marketed to knows at least one girl, probably more, whose first name is McKenna. First name.
Its like mang a doll and naming it "Baby Jessica" or something like that.

Hopefully this whole thread is a joke.

[norton ash]

Because outside of this place, practically nobody has heard, or ever will hear, of Terrence McKenna.

Um, bullshit. The junior apocalypse-surfers will know his name, the DMT-entheogen researchers will too. Adolescents like doom and mysticism and drugs. And he's been featured on a few of those crap History-Discovery docs about 2012.

Or maybe some renegade American Girl staffer wants to introduce folks to Terrence McKenna... and got away with it!

[barracuda]

According to the popularity ranking of Mckenna (lowercase "k") from the BabyCenter database and the US Government Social Security Administration, the name ranks #184 for new babies, and #228 in the U.S. population census of 2010. Link.

[Nordic]

Norton, you don't even live in the US and you obviously don't have american female children in your house so i sorta doubt you have you have any freaking idea how popular the name "McKenna" is as a girls name right now in the U.S

Methinks some of you are spending way too much time in googlespace, or here. Or something.

[Weather Balloons]

Because outside of this place, practically nobody has heard, or ever will hear, of Terrence McKenna.

However, almost every single girl in the demographic that this doll is marketed to knows at least one girl, probably more, whose first name is McKenna. First name.

Personally, I had heard of Terence McKenna years before I heard of this board, and I had never heard of McKenna being used as a first name for a girl before today. It definitely seems to be a more popular name than I would have guessed, though it doesn't seem to be very popular with a capital "K".

[norton ash]

Nordic, Terrence McKenna is quite well-known, and far and beyond Santa Monica, i.e., the rest of the anglosphere, many people would think of him first when they heard that name-- McKenna with a capital K-- and not the girl down the street.

Sorry that your culture names kids like they do kittens, btw.