Meredith

Meet Meredith

Meredith is one of the four original Journey Girls Dolls.  She has not changed much since she was introduced.  I have Meredith from the Paris collection.

Meredith "is an awesome athlete that can beat all the boys - including her 3 older brothers!  Although she's great at every sport she tries, snowboarding is her favorite, so she loves to discover new places to hit the slopes.  Although Meredith is ultra-confident and always speaks her mind, she gets very nervous and shy around really cute boys."

Meredith has long bright blonde hair that has a little bit of curl to it.  She has vibrant, sky blue eyes and "real" eyelashes.  She comes in blue pants and a grey t-shirt with "I love Paris" printed on it.  She also has a pink sweater, a grey beanie, and pink and white tennis shoes.

Meredith's outfit goes along well with her persona of being very athletic, but it is still girlie enough to look cute on her.  I like her with her beanie off, but I am excited to have the beanie for outside adventures.  Her pants really bring out her vibrant blue eyes.

As I mentioned in my review of Jordanna, Meredith and her look very similar.  They obviously have the same face mold, as do Kelsey and Kyla.  To me Jordanna and Meredith look the most similar to each other.  You can see in these photos how Meredith has more of a "natural" look than Jordanna does with her bright lipstick.

Meredith has the same flexibility in her joints as The other Journey Girls Dolls.  My Meredith's left arm is very loose, especially as her arm is down.  Her arm still stays in the position that you put it, but if you put anything that had weight in her hand it would pull her arm down.  Her arms go up and out the same amount as Kelsey and Jordanna.

When I changed Meredith for the first time I noticed that she had some marks on her right arm.  Her marks were much less noticeable then the marks that were on Kelsey.  The pink marks were likely color transfer from her sweater, whereas the marks on Kelsey looked more like bruises and were in the vinyl body parts.  I used baking soda and some water to make a paste that was able to lighten the marks, but did not get rid of them.

The red circles show where the pink marks are on Meredith.  This is after I scrubbed them with the baking powder paste.

Meredith has the same half vinyl, half cloth torso as the other Journey Girls.  She has the same leg flexibility as the other dolls (which means that she has no flexibility).  Her legs go out when she sits on her.  If she is being held her legs can stay a little more straight, but she will not sit on her own this way, she needs something behind her to help her sit up.

I noticed that Meredith's seam in the back of her torso is a bit more loose and jagged than on Kelsey and Jordanna.  The body feels well stuffed and I can't see any stuffing coming out of the seam, but the seam does not look as clean tight as on the other two dolls.

Meredith, like most of the other Journey Girls comes only with her outfit.  In this case her outfit includes a beanie and a sweater on top of the basic pieces of her outfit.  All of the clothes are very well made.  The only thing that I am not sure of is the color transfer from the sweater.  I keep Meredith's sweater off of her, just in case.  I am sure that if I soak the sweater or wash it, it would not transfer the dye to the doll.  

Meredith's t-shirt uses velcro up the back to fasten it.  It is difficult to fasten the t-shirt all the way up without getting Meredith's hair in the velcro.  The other option is to turn her head around, so that her hair can't get snagged in the velcro.  Velcro is very easy for the kids to use, whereas snaps and the like are much harder for those little hands to get together. 

The Journey Girls tag is a bit large, but can fit under clothes.

Results

All ratings are out of 10

Poseability - 6  - Meredith is able to move pretty well.  Like all of the Journey Girls she can not put her
arms straight out to the side.  My Meredith also has some issues with her left arm being loose.  It's still pose able, but can not hold any weight.  I wish that her legs went straight when she sat down, but that is an issue with all of the Journey Girls.

Quality - 7  - My Meredith may have had more issues than others.  I actually purchased another Meredith and did not note the discoloration from her sweater, or the looseness of her arm.  That leads me to believe that each doll can be very different as far as the quality is concerned.  I rated the quality at "7" because Meredith is still made well, even with the few issues that she has.  Though the seam in her back is not very straight, it does seem tight and does not look like it will come apart.  Like all the Journey Girls, Meredith is a well put together doll.

Adorableness - 9 - Meredith's piercing blue eyes are amazing.  When she has a blue outfit on they look particularly beautiful.  Meredith was going to be the second doll I bought, because of how cute she is.  Her wavy blonde hair is very pretty.  Very cute!

Compatibility - 6 - There is no difference in the compatibility of Meredith compared to the other Journey Girls.   American Girl and Our Generation accessories and clothes fit,but are a little big.  Pants and shirts don't fit real well from these companies, however there is some fluctuation between each outfit, and some fit better than others.   Look for future reviews of other brands outfits.

Overall Score - 7 - Meredith is a really pretty doll.  She looks at home in pants and a t-shirt or in a beautiful sun dress.  I'm giving my Meredith doll a little bit lower score because of the issues with her arm and the discoloration that her sweater caused.  Overall, I would pick Meredith again over many of the other 18" dolls on the market.