The Canadian Dolls with Personality @MapleleaGirls Review

For her birthday this year, Evey desperately wanted a Maplelea Girl. I had discovered them quite unexpectedly while searching the net, made the mistake of showing her and for Evey, it was love at first sight. There are 6 Maplelea Girls, each from a different region in Canada, with their own distinct personality and an empowering story to tell. I love that each doll has her own interests, reflecting her heritage and there is a real sense of pride that comes from having one of these beautiful Canadian dolls. You can read more about each doll, the available accessories and the dolls ‘friends’ at the end of this post.

Evey didn’t need to spend long looking, she liked Leonie best of all and so Leonie for her birthday it was.

Leonie, like every Maplelea Girl, came with her own keepsake box that is designed for storing her clothes & accessories. Each doll also has their own journal detailing their likes & dislikes, interests, and family. Leonie comes from Quebec City, plays guitar & flute and Hockey is her game. All of this and more is detailed in her journal. The thing I especially liked about the journal was that there were both English & French versions and a blank copy in both English & French for your child to fill in. You also get extra journal pages when you buy clothes and accessories.

This is a wonderful way to learn about different regions of Canada, practice our French and work at creative writing. Not to mention the fact that it is just plain lovely to look through!

Leonie and Evey are now joined at the hip. Where Evey goes Leonie goes too, she even wants to hold a birthday party for her doll because it says in the journal that her birthday is June 24th – St. Jean Baptiste Day, a public holiday in Quebec! This led on to us researching St. Jean Baptiste Day and discovering a great deal about French Canadian culture.

The doll is very well made.  A friend that was visiting us picked her up and said “Oh, this is a lovely doll. She must be one of those high-end collectible ones, you can tell just by looking at her. The quality really shows” – that is very true, the quality is evident as soon as you look at her.

She has beautiful hair, and there are clear instructions on how to care for her hair & keep it looking beautiful. Evey likes to braid Leonie’s hair, and I often find her on her bed, cross legged and adjusting Leonies hair, so it looks perfect. This is her best braid so far –

Evey is so proud of her that she took this photo of Leonie herself so I could email it to our family members!

Leonie’s clothes are excellent quality and have obviously been designed with great care. Every clothing item has little details that make them really special such as the little bows on her shirt, yet they have also been designed with play in mind. For instance, the red boots have velcro up the side to make them very easy to put on and take off.

Her cute skirt has an underskirt, and this also has built in underwear – so her modesty is always intact!

She is 18 inches high, and her body is soft &, as Evey said,  “perfect for hugs and cuddles.”  Her arms, legs, and head are vinyl, and her eyes close when she lays down. Evey & Leonie spend a lot of time in the garden together & go for long walks which invariably result in dirt splashes. Leonie’s limbs and face are easy to wipe clean and her clothes, which have been through the laundry three times already, still look like new.This leads to a feature I particularly love:

 The Maplelea Girl Spa

If your doll should fall victim to an over enthusiastic sibling with a permanent marker pen, or perhaps she fell in the bath or was used as a squeaky toy by the dog, then you can send her to the spa. Just print off the admission form, parcel her up and send her off. In a few days, she will return, in a fluffy spa gown, matching slippers and pages for her journal.

The fee for this is $56 which may seem expensive at first, but you actually receive an entirely new doll.

Itis good to know this service is available but I think Evey would do everything in her power to ensure Leonie is safe & secure at all times!

Eveys Life lessons with Maplelea Girl

The thing that Evey really loves about these dolls is that you can buy clothes and accessories for almost any occasion.  There are beautiful formal dresses, and sporty running gear, swimsuits and snow suits, hiking gear and hockey gear – virtually every sport and pastime is addressed. There are also several pieces of furniture, pets, birthday celebration kits and girls clothes to match the dolls clothes!

Evey had spent a lot of time with the catalog that came with the doll, and we went online together as she wanted to spend her birthday money on Leonie. Into the shopping cart went a bed, some bedding, a pony, a cowgirl outfit, a puppy and a parrot.

I pointed out that she had spent way more money than she had & would have to take lots out of the cart. Many tears ensued – she took the bed & bedding out and instead chose a slumber lounger that folds out into a bed and made another compromise by choosing just a puppy.

This was an excellent way for her to learn about shopping within your budget and making compromises! The up side of this is that all of our family now know what to get for Eveys next birthday & Christmas – it’s going to be Maplelea Girls all the way!

Would I Recommend Maplelea Girls?

That would be a resounding yes.

This is an exceptionally high-quality doll. It is designed to be played with and enjoyed, but I can see this becoming an heirloom doll that Evey could pass down to her children and grandchildren.

Maplelea Girls reflect the diversity of Canada & it’s people. I would love to collect all 6 for Evey so she could discover more about her country. Being an immigrant to Canada, I am often overly patriotic (I have considered having a tattoo that says “British by birth – Canadian by choice” ) and it is important to me that Evey grows up learning how lucky she is to be born in such a beautiful, diverse and inclusive country. I can’t think of a better way to do this than through the delightful Maplelea Girls.

More about the Maplelea Girls

The recommended age range is 6 – 12 years – although a mature 5-year-old would be okay.

• Jenna, from Nova Scotia, enjoys music – she plays the fiddle, loves sailing, soccer and running. Her friends call her Flash because she is always moving
• Brianne, from Manitoba, loves her pony, is a member of 4H and plans to be a farmer when she grows up. Every year she takes part in the Ukrainian dance festival
• Saila, from Iqaluit, speaks Inuktitut & English, she likes to eat pizza and grandmas bannock and enjoys riding in her qamotiig in the snow
• Alexi, from Toronto, plays piano, is a computer whizz and wants to grow up to be a great inventor. She wants to use her knowledge to make life better for people with different abilities
• Leonie, from Quebec City, plays guitar and flute. She painted a snowy owl on her  snowboard and visited her cousins in Montreal where they zip down the slopes of the Laurentians
• Taryn, is from Banff and she couldn’t live without her hiking boots, clean, fresh mountain air & butterflies – she is an environmentalist at heart.

There are also 12 Maplelea Friends – dolls with different hair and skin tones so that little ones can have a doll just like themselves. They come dressed in the outfit you see below and a journal full of prompts that let you create her story.

Maplelea Girls are only available online from Maplelea Girls