Behind the scenes Of Kit Kittredge
Hey everyone!
I was beyond overwhelmed with joy reading everyone's comments on my last post. Seeing how Ruthie was part of everyone's childhood makes me so proud and happy. I know a lot of yall had questions about how I was cast, how they actually make the books, etc so I will share what I can remember...it has been about 30 years π π₯²
In 1997-98, I was living in Salem, OR and my mom had signed my siblings and I to a modeling agency in Portland. If youre not familiar how those agencies work, basically they say yes they want you on their team of models or not. If approved , you take professional headshots and use those as your "resume". The modeling agency usually finds the jobs for you.
So here comes American Girl. They were casting for Kit in my area, as the illustrator lived in Portland at the time. I was one kid in a huge stack of children. My headshot resume had two sides to it, with a different photo of me on each side. As my mom likes to tell the story..."they looked through their entire stack and passed you by on the first round, but when they went back through they saw the other photo of you smiling and they said "Thats our Ruthie"" . My mom said they did have an idea of what each character should look like and they picked the best model for each part. Some of yall remember Caitlin posting in here awhile back. Caitlin played Kit. I dont remember Sterlings name or anyone else's name π I spent majority of my time with Caitlin.
We met up in a huge studio complete with hair and makeup table, changing rooms, etc. I had a hair and makeup artist and lets be honest those Ruthie curls took awhile to put in. They had us put on our "main character outfit" and we posed for the headshots you see in the front of the books. I remember I LOVED my Ruthie dress and begged to wear it for every scene and they were like absolutely not π€£. I think I only got to wear it once or twice.
So basically our job is to act out and pose for the illustration scenes. They picked a small section of the book we would act out, a photographer would take multiple shots and then they would end up in the illustrators hands once the team decided on the best photo. So we would do about 5 seconds of acting and then freeze for photo. I can vividly remember the fight scene with Kit from book 3. I had to yell goodbye very loudly and act angry. It was an intense scene and we had to do it over and over. It would take many takes to get the right shot and then we would move onto the next scene.
Fun fact- they had the main characters cast as recurring models but for the extras and "background people" they would have family members or whoever stand in. In book 3, you'll remember Mr. Smithens, Ruthies banker father. That is my actual dad posing in that shot. My favorite memory from the whole experience because how cool is that!
This whole thing spanned over two years beginning when I was 8 years old.
At the end of it all, I received a signed Meet Kit book, a written card (pictured) and they sent me the majority of the Kit Collection as a thank you.
Fast forward to 2008, I was 18 when I heard about the Ruthie doll and collection coming out. Yes, I was BUTT HURT about the doll not looking like me nor having my cute yellow and purple dress I loved so much. They did however still use my face for the book and collection from old photos of me.
I added some photos from behind the scenes, taken by mine and Caitlins parents.
This is by far the coolest thing ive ever done and I also enjoy the fact that every day people dont know who I am so its like my little secret π Im just a 36 year old wife and mom of 3.