BALTIMORE — Summer Mckinny loves dogs and baking. The 10-year-old from Columbia turned her passions into a business, and she's only 18 inches tall.
She is the 2025 American Girl Doll of the Year and her story takes place in Maryland. She lives in Columbia and frequently visits her aunt in Fells Point.
The author of her story, Clare Hutton, is also from Maryland so her references are from personal experience.
The team at American Girl wanted Summer's story to be as authentic as possible so they reached out to Katie Flory, the community care and advocacy director with the Maryland SPCA.
"First of all, we made sure safety was the number one concern. We always want people and animals to be safe, but even more so children," says Flory.
Flory was emailed drafts of the book and advised on the story. She made sure Summer was walking a safe number of dogs, and even had them change a cat treat recipe to make it safer.
"We wanted to make sure...they were small enough for the cat, maybe in the first part of the story, they were a little bigger than maybe what they should be for a cat. So we just wanted to make sure that anyone would be able to make them and provide them to that to that animal that might be in their home."
"When they contacted us, I really didn't know that they put this much effort and reality into it. It was really important to us that they weren't just making a doll for the sake of making a doll that she really is an American girl from our state."
Along with her business, Summer volunteers at her local animal shelter. Something Flory has a lot of experience with.
"One of the the big missions through my career is to teach young people kindness to animals. So being able to be part of summer story and help guide the next generation of young people when it comes to animals was extremely thrilling for me and really helped me to to know that we're reaching our mission," says Flory.
While Summer volunteers at her animal shelter, the Maryland SPCA requires applicants to be 17 years old.
You can apply to volunteer here.
While the volunteer program is for those 17 and older, the Maryland SPCA has a section on its website offering ways the younger set can still help the shelter.
