Maplelea & Me by Maplelea Girls

I'm here in the nick of time to finish out December (and 2025!) with one last 18-inch doll review.  This time, I'll be looking at a Maplelea doll, which isn't something I've done since my Saila Qilavvaq review in 2014.  It's certainly past time for me to check in with this brand and see what's new.

This is sort-of an addition to my advent calendar series, but I had to cheat because there's no official Maplelea advent calendar.  I wish there was, because I feel like this company would do an outstanding job with the design and execution of such a thing.  Maybe they'll consider it for the future?  I'd certainly buy something like that.  For now, I found a cute handmade calendar that I'll share with you at the end of the review.  Mostly, though, this post will be all about Maplelea & Me KMF43:

Maplelea & Me KMF43 ($115).

To clarify for those not familiar with Maplelea: Maplelea & Me is a group of unnamed dolls distinct from the named Maplelea Girls.  The Maplelea Girls each represent a specific part of Canada and have a detailed history, while the Maplelea & Me dolls have no backstory; they're blank slates.  It's a lot like how the American Girl historical characters are separate from the Truly Me line.

The letters KMF stand for Kathryn Maplelea Friends.  Kathryn is the Maplelea founder, Kathryn Gallagher Morton, and Maplelea Friends is what the Maplelea & Me line used to be called up until 2020.  The doll I chose, KMF43, is the 43rd doll in the Maplelea Friends/Maplelea & Me collection.

And KMF43 is discontinued now, which is crazy.  I feel like I bought her like six months ago, but it was actually way back in 2022.  And it's taken me this long to de-box her, which is borderline criminal.

The funny thing is that in 2022 when I was browsing the Maplelea website, I was looking specifically for a freckled redhead doll with green eyes...as usual.  The only redhead available at that time was the Maplelea Girls character, Jenna, and I've never been a fan of her bangs and huge, unnaturally green eyes:

And I don't think she has freckles.

The closest thing I could find was KMF43, who has strawberry blonde hair, freckles, and blue eyes.  Close enough, right?

Well, last week when I went to the Maplelea website, I discovered that there's a whole group of new Maplelea & Me dolls, two of which have flame-red hair, hazel green eyes, and freckles!  One is a girl, KMF53:

And the other is a boy, KMF56:

Why are they never looking straight at the camera?

I love both of them to bits, and wish that I'd waited until this year to make my purchase!  Oh, well.

Other than the specific Maplelea & Me dolls changing periodically, the Maplelea offerings have stayed mostly the same over the years.  The six named Maplelea Girl characters that existed in 2014 are all still available (Alexi, Brianne, Jenna, Taryn, Léonie, and Saila) and there's a new girl, Charlsea.  I like her:

Charlsea.

I especially like her chickens:

Charlsea's chickens.

The named characters cost $112.56.  There are also about fifteen Maplelea & Me characters, and these cost $115.  That's about a $15 increase from the 2014 pricing, which is better than inflation.

My 2014 Saila came in a large blue cardboard box with a lift-off lid and interior decorations:

2014 Saila.

KMF43, who I've named Kelsey, came in a blue box that's very similar in design to the Create Your Own American Girl boxes:

2022 KMF43.

Here's the American Girl box, for reference:

Create Your Own American Girl box.

The differences are that the Maplelea box has two windows on the front panel, and it's held closed with a cardboard strip rather than a satin bow:

The box also has magnetic closure on the outside flap, so the cardboard strip isn't needed long term.  AG boxes do not have magnets in them; they're reliant on the ribbon to stay closed.

It's interesting to me that the standard Maplelea packaging is equivalent to American Girl's premium packaging for the $275 Create Your Own dolls.  Hm.

The top flap of the box opens to reveal Kelsey against a white backdrop, with a white cardboard compartment mounted in front of her:

The backdrop can be removed from the main box so that the ties holding the doll in place can be cut or un-twisted:

The compartment at the front of the box is for Kelsey's journal.

Here's everything that was in the box:

I love that all Maplelea dolls still come with high-quality six ring binder journals:

That's an awesome accessory.

The design of this journal is similar to the one that came with Saila, but there's less specific information inside.

There's a page to enter the doll's name and draw a picture of her:

And then there are several pages with writing prompts related to specific categories.  For example, there's a page that asks questions about family time, and another page with questions about school:

After the question pages, there are a bunch of blank, lined pages that can be filled in however you like.

The sections are repeated twice in English and twice in French, so four dolls could share one journal:

Or, if you make a mistake (merd), you can start over.

And there's a general doll care part in the middle:

There's even a special section on curly hair, written just for me:

Finger styling, Emily, finger styling.

Saila's journal had some pages with questions that could be filled in and some blank pages, too, but she also had a lot of pre-filled, educational pages like these:

Saila's journal.

If I ever buy another Maplelea doll, I'd be tempted to get one of the named characters, simply because I'd want to see her journal!  I really like the pre-filled pages.  They're fun to read and have colorful pictures.  They add a lot of personality to the character.

I see that you can purchase each doll's journal for $16, and individual pages for about $2, so that's all very tempting, too.  I want to know all of the backstories!

Kelsey's journal might be a little boring in comparison to Saila's, but what about Kelsey herself?  Let's see how she measures up:

She doesn't balance on her own as well as my American Girl Georgie does, which is too bad.  I remember this being an issue with Saila, too.  But she can certainly stand on her own if her upper body is tipped forwards.

She has a cute face and a beautiful hair color:

I remember having a lukewarm reaction to many of the Maplelea faces back in 2014, and was glad that Saila's face mold was different from the other dolls.  But I like a lot of things about Kelsey's face.

In order to better understand the faces, I went back to the Maplelea website and tried to figure out how many different face molds there are, and which ones I like best.  Honestly, I struggled to tell some of the faces apart, but as far as I can tell, there are eight different molds being used right now.

Jenna, Taryn, Alexi, and Brianne all share the same face, and it's my least favorite:

Bug-eyed Brianne.

Léonie, Saila, and Charlsea each have their own unique mold, and I like these better--especially Léonie and Saila:

Léonie.

Saila.

Charlsea looks a lot like the first four girls, but her eyes are softer somehow:

Charlsea.

Most Maplelea & Me dolls like Kelsey have the "Friends" mold:

Maplelea & Me doll.

There's also a boy mold:

And two other distinct faces that tend to be used for Asian and Black dolls:

Those last two faces are probably the best of all, at least in my opinion.  It's strange that Maplelea hasn't used either of those molds for one of the named characters.  They could certainly stand to have more ethnic diversity in the mix.

Getting back to Kelsey's face, though, I think it's fine.  I'm happier with her expression than I thought I would be:

She's certainly cheerful.  She's difficult to photograph in my setting, though, because her vinyl is very pale and almost translucent.  Not Ruby Red Fashion Friends pale, but still pale.  She looks ghostly against my grey backdrop sometimes.

Kelsey's hair is wavy...or curly?  So I was nervous about brushing it.  But it needed some attention right out of the box:

Tentacle hair.

I took a chance and used my wire brush...and it turned out fine.  No frizz in sight:

Or not a lot of frizz, anyway.

The big waves of hair fall a little awkwardly around Kelsey's face, but the color is so pretty, I don't care:

The wig has a mix of blonde and ginger hairs:

And the wig quality is similar to that of American Girl, with a nice texture, and shorter hairs near the scalp that would make pigtails and other parted styles possible:

Kelsey was advertised as having blue eyes, but they're purple in real life:

Here's a closer look:

I bought this doll three years ago and have never taken her out of the box until now, so I can't tell you for sure if the eyes were purple from the start, or if they changed color over time.  I hope it's the former, because I find it very irritating when doll eyes fade after only a few years.

The eyes certainly look blue in Kelsey's promotional photo, which isn't a good sign:

I tried to find some other owner snapshots of this doll online, and turned up nothing.  Surely somebody else bought her?  Anyway, intentional or not, this doll has purple eyes.  I wish they were blue.

She also has light brown eyebrows with nice hair texture, regularly-spaced freckles, and a prominent mouth:

I'm glad that her mouth is closed, with no exposed teeth, but that lower lip is very large and square!  The applied lashes are blocky, too:

When Kelsey is lying down, her eyes close.  This makes it easier to see her unusual eye paint.  She has a pink crease line above each eye, and also a shorter pink line that extends from the outside corner of each eye:

Not crow's feet, but a crow's toe.

Saila didn't have those eye lines, and I'm not sure I like them.  The shape and color don't feel realistic to me.

I think maybe what's going on is that Kelsey's smile is broad, but she doesn't have smiling eyes.  Her eyes aren't perfectly round, like some of the other dolls, but they're not as squinty as smiling eyes would be.  So maybe the lines were painted to try and add the illusion of squintiness?

And, you know what?  This could explain why I don't like the traditional Maplelea face as much: the eyes are too round for that smiling expression.   Taryn is a great example:

Her lower face is smiling, but her eyes look startled or scared.  Other faces, like Saila's and Léonie's, look fine to me because they're not smiling as broadly.  It's just an hypothesis, and I don't have a great way to digitally modify the eyes to see if I'm right...but you know I tried, right?  I had to try:

Is it better?  Is it grotesque?  I don't know.  But I know there's something off about the original eyes.

Anyway...that's enough about the faces for now!

All of the Maplelea & Me girls are wearing the same outfit.  This consists of a rainbow striped shirt, a quilted zip-up vest, a pair of denim-blue leggings, and purple loafers:

The newer dolls that are on the website right now have mostly the same clothing, but are wearing purple leggings instead of blue:

The purple is more cohesive with the rest of the outfit, but denim-colored leggings are probably more versatile in the long run.

The Maplelea & Me boys have a similar ensemble, but with a darker blue vest, an orange athletic striped shirt, blue loafers, and grey knit pants with a looser fit than the girls' leggings:

He still won't look at me.

Kelsey's vest and rainbow shirt are wonderful.  I love the colors in the shirt, and the vest is well made, with a bright purple plastic zipper down the front, and a little embroidered purple maple leaf on one side:

The zipper opens smoothly to reveal a lined and padded interior that looks cozy and warm:

The side pockets on this vest aren't functional, but everything else is a like a miniature version of a real vest:

The rainbow shirt has a classic long-sleeved tee shape, and looks good even without the vest:

It closes down the back with velcro and is very easy to get on and off:

The construction of the shirt is excellent, with reinforced edges everywhere:

The leggings are nicely made as well, but the fabric is lightweight.  I didn't feel like they needed their own separate picture.

The loafers are dark purple, with white elastic sections on either side that make them easy to get on and off:

Underneath her clothing, Kelsey's body looks very similar to Saila's, with a fabric torso, vinyl arms, and vinyl legs:

Here's a look at Kelsey alongside one of my old pictures of Saila:

From what I can tell, there's not much difference between the two bodies--other than skin tone, of course.  I want to say that Kelsey's canvas torso doesn't feel as thick and durable as Saila's, but because I don't have the two dolls to compare side-by-side, all I can say is this: I remember being notably impressed with the feel of Saila's torso, and I don't feel the same way about Kelsey.  But the quality is still good.

Here's Kelsey from the back:

The tag in the seam identifies this doll as KMF43, and underneath that it says "Generation 2022-1."  It says the same thing on her neck, in dark ink.  Those numbers mean that this doll was made in 2022, and she is the first version of her character:

My Saila's tag said 2012-3 (as did the mark on her neck).  So she was made in 2012 and was the third version of the Saila character.

Kelsey has the same articulation as Saila, with five joints: neck, shoulder, and hips.  I find her level of articulation hard to distinguish from American Girl.  She can do front-to-back splits, and spin her arms around:

She can also sit on the ground, unsupported, and move her arms up and away from her body:

I'm especially fond of the Maplelea hand molds.  I think these hands are more in proportion to the 18-inch body than those of American Girl or My Twinn:

Hey, my hands aren't huge!

Here's a closer look, although I took way more (and better) photos of the hands in my Saila review:

Here's Kelsey next to the two budget dolls in my advent calendar series: Peyton from My Life As and Aubrie from Our Generation:

From left: My Life As Peyton, Maplelea & Me KMF43, and Our Generation Aubrie.

This comparison makes it clear how pale Kelsey is!  Her vinyl also feels more high-quality than the other two dolls, with that slightly translucent quality.  But the biggest difference between the three dolls is the quality of the clothing.  The Maplelea clothing is very well made, especially the quilted vest.  Peyton's vest is flimsy by comparison, and all of Aubrie's clothing is lightweight and simple.  Kelsey's wig is also nicer than the rooted hair on the other dolls, with more nuanced color.  But of the three faces, I still prefer Aubrie.  And Aubrie has better balance than Kelsey, too.

Kelsey cost significantly more than Peyton and Aubrie, though, so this comparison isn't really fair.

A more equitable comparison is with my Create Your Own American Girl doll, Georgie:

Create Your Own American Girl (left) and Maplelea & Me (right).

Georgie, because she is a Create Your Own doll, cost more than two times as much as Kelsey.  But her quality is equivalent to the Truly Me dolls, so for the purpose of this comparison, let's assume she's a Truly Me doll and cost $135--only $20 more than Kelsey.

The easy part of the comparison is that I like Kelsey's clothing more.  It's bright and appealing, and perfectly made.  Georgie's outfit is also well made, but the fabrics feel lower quality.  The two dolls have equivalent wigs, too.  The quality is similar, and the colors are both beautiful.  I slightly prefer Georgie's straight hair because it's easier to maintain.

In terms of the dolls themselves, I like Kelsey more...which came as a surprise.  First of all, I prefer her face to Georgie's.  I don't like either face as much as I like Our Generation Aubrie's, though.  I also think Kelsey has nicer vinyl.  It's very pale, sure, but the color is more natural--especially in photographs.  And while Kelsey can't balance nearly as well as Georgie, who has fantastic balance, I like the proportions of her body more, especially the size of her hands.  She looks like a young girl and not a toddler.

From my experience with Saila in 2014, I knew that the Maplelea clothing was exceptional, so I ordered another outfit for Kelsey.  The set I chose, called the Bee-Friendly Sweater Set, includes a knitted zip-up sweater, yellow leggings, and a purse:

Maplelea Bee Friendly Sweater Set ($32).

There are amazing shoes to match this set, but I didn't notice them when I was shopping in 2022:

I purchased some random purple sneakers instead:

They match the sweater nicely.

The sneakers are great, with working pink laces that are easy to manage, and a purple canvass body with white rubber toes and soles.

The sweater has a full hood with a tassel on the top:

And I love all of the embroidered flowers and bugs!  There's a bee, of course, but also a dragonfly and a ladybug:

And the sturdy pink zipper works nicely and matches the pink ribbing perfectly.

The purse that came with this set is also cute.  It's made out of teal imitation leather and has a bright yellow flower stitched to one side:

The purse opens with a metal zipper.

One of the things I really like about the Maplelea accessories is that they all come with extra journal pages, so you can add to your doll's journal as you add to his or her wardrobe!  The Bee-Friendly set came with a journal page that talks about bees:

My husband and I also try to keep our yard bee friendly, with lots of flowers and no chemicals, so this resonates with me.

Here are a few more pictures of Kelsey in her bee outfit.  I just love it!

The yellow leggings are cheerful and bee-themed, but I actually prefer this sweater with the blue leggings:

I guess one benefit to Kelsey's purple eyes is that they match her new sweater!

Okay, but we need an advent calendar in this review so that I can justify clumping it together with the other three posts from this month!

Since Maplelea doesn't have an advent calendar (nor have they ever, from what I can tell), I turned to Etsy for a handmade calendar meant for 18-inch dolls:

This is a fabric hanging calendar with little treat-holding pockets for all of the days up to and including Christmas.  I found it at Sew Many Choices for $29.99:

The calendar came with 25 little charms (and a few extras) that I got to arrange in the pockets however I wanted:

The pockets aren't very deep, so the items are mostly visible.  However, having little treats peeking out from every pocket creates a festive and tantalizing display.

I won't go through each item individually the way I did with the other calendars.  Instead, I'll show you each row of items as a group.  Here's the first row (1-5):

There's a piece of pretend candy, a star-shaped cookie cutter, a flat gingerbread house, a green swirl lollipop, and an adorable reindeer.

The reindeer is probably the most interesting thing to me, because I love thinking about reindeer at Christmas time:

The candy is also fun because it's the right size for Kelsey's hand--maybe even a little big!

Here's the second row (6-10):

This includes a flat poinsettia, a candy cane, a gingerbread cookie cutter, a flat glittery poinsettia, and a polar bear wearing a sweater.

The candy cane is very small.  It's dwarfed by the Our Generation candy cane:

The bear is my favorite from this row.  I love his rosy cheeks and that zig-zag red sweater!  There's even a hole at the very top of his head so that he could be made into a necklace or an earring:

Here's the third row (11-15):

This includes a glittery flat present, a tree-shaped cookie cutter, a flat snowflake, a gingerbread man, and a snowman.

The cookie cutters all feel very small, but they're actually in proportion to Kelsey's hand:

The gingerbread man is really small compared to the cookies in the American Girl calendar:

But, again, I feel like it's the right size for Kelsey:

The snowman is similar in style to the sweater bear, but with no hole at the top:

Here's the penultimate row (16-20):

This includes a flat glittery tree, a flat snow globe, the letters "HOHO" carved out of wood, a cartoonish reindeer, and another flat glittery tree.

Of the flat items, the snow globe is the most interesting:

It has a decorated tree with Santa next to it, and "Merry Christmas" written underneath.

I also like the reindeer, with his red nose and sideways smile:

Here's the last row:

This has a flat blue snowflake, a red lollipop, a flat present, a penguin, and a flat Santa head for the last day.

The snowflake and lollipop are repeats, which is annoying.  And the lollipop is way too small for Kelsey:

But the penguin is cute:

A lot of the items in this calendar are for decoration purposes only.  However, some things, like the cookie cutters, gingerbread man, and wrapped candy are actually in scale with Kelsey and make nice accessories for her.

Some of the other items can be made into jewelry.  I made a necklace for Kelsey with one of the reindeer:

And another necklace with the snow globe:

I'm not sure that this advent calendar would keep the interest of a small child, especially because so many of the prizes are visible right away.  And many of the items are choking hazards.  

However, it's an excellent calendar for a doll--which is the intent.  It would be a festive holiday decoration for a doll display or doll house.  And I can also picture an older child making a game out of helping their doll uncover each day's surprise.  The items can be put away to be used again, or perhaps incorporated into holiday art projects and replaced with new charms for the following year.

I like this calendar a lot, and would have loved it when I was younger, but it's not really comparable to the other sets I looked at this month.  So I won't try to give it a ranking or anything like that.

Instead, I'll return to my main purpose, which is to showcase Kelsey!  My indoor photos don't really do her justice, so I took her out to the yard for some portraits in the natural light:

This girl is so photogenic!  I was worried about how her exaggerated features would look against a natural setting, but she was a delight to photograph.

It's so nice out here!

It was a cold, cloudy day outside, with an ominously dark sky.  But Kelsey didn't even notice.  It's like she brought her own sunlight into every scene.

She was interested in all of the leaves and plants, and I told her that it'll be so much prettier in the spring!

What could be more beautiful than this!

She seemed to enjoy things just as they are:

I feel like a butterfly!

She posed in the spot where I used to take all of the My Twinn portraits, and I think this is my favorite picture of her:

But Kelsey was eager to explore the front of the house, too:

What's over there?

I think she liked the front yard even more:

There are so many plants!

She liked standing on the front step because it offers a good view: 

I can see other houses from here!

But then a nearby tree caught her eye...

I bet I could climb that...

And she scrambled up the branches to get an even better view!

I'm like a bird!

Bottom line?  This review may not fit perfectly into my advent calendar theme, but it was a great excuse to get Kelsey out of her box and compare her to some of the other 18-inch dolls on the market right now.

Back in 2014 when I reviewed Saila, I felt like I'd seen the best that Maplelea Girls had to offer, and there wasn't much need to explore further.  Having gotten to know Kelsey, though, I feel like she brings her own special charm to the Maplelea world.

Kelsey's overall quality is very good.  She has a lovely wig, high-quality vinyl, and standard articulation.  Her quality is equivalent to American Girl with two exceptions.  First of all, her balance is not great.  She tends to tip backwards, and can only stand on her own if her upper body is tilted forward.  I had the same problem with Saila.  The other issue is that her eyes are purple when they should be blue.  I can't be certain, and I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect her eyes have faded over the last three years--even though she never saw the light of day until last week.

Kelsey's face mold was a source of concern for me, since I've never really liked the catalogue pictures of traditional Maplelea Girls.  In person, her features are definitely exaggerated, with a wide smile, simplified eyes, and a large, square lower lip.  However, after spending some time with Kelsey, I have a lot of affection for her sweet face, and the only thing that bothers me is the painted lines around her eyes.  I don't understand the color or the placement of those lines.  My best guess is that the eyes are too rounded for a smiling expression, and the lines were added in to make the eyes look more squinty.  This illusion works from a distance to some degree, but not up close.

The quality of Maplelea clothing is exceptional.  Kelsey's original outfit features a gorgeous little quilted vest and a cheerful rainbow shirt, both of which are made out of nice fabrics and have excellent construction.  The leggings and shoes are slightly less impressive, but are still attractive and versatile.  The extra outfit that I bought for Kelsey is a gem.  The knitted sweater has a ton of whimsical embroidered detail, the purse is attractive and functional, and the purple sneakers are perfect little miniatures of the real thing.  I'm much more impressed with this clothing than anything I've seen from American Girl--or any other 18-inch brand, for that matter.

I'm very happy to have Kelsey in my collection.  She's like a little ray of sunshine, despite a few minor flaws and irritations.  In fact, she's my second favorite doll from this series (with Our Generation Aubrie in first place, American Girl Georgie in third, and My Life As Peyton last).  And while I'm not likely to purchase another Maplelea Girl, Kelsey is already asking me for additional outfits, which I know will be an impossible request to deny.

Happy New Year!