Yes She Can’s job skills program is delivered at Girl Again, a resale boutique for American Girl dolls and all their accessories and books. Visit us in White Plains New York.
We sell dolls, but we’re not in the doll business, we are in the job skills development business.
Yet, we operate Girl AGain just like any other business – we meet customer needs efficiently and effectively.
We have built a business around a special interest: American Girl dolls. Our customers include first time buyers as well as long time collectors. While most are girls between 7 and 10, our customers include boys and men as well as teen girls and women. We embrace our diverse customers. And our customers appreciate our trainees.
While most typical girls lose interest in their dolls by they time they reach middle school, girls with autism do not experience the social pressure to put their dolls away. Some of our trainees still have a great passion as well as a developed expertise in their American Girl doll collection. This expertise has a market value. And it can be used as a platform to develop other business skills that can be transferred to jobs in the competitive work environment. While not all trainees have an affinity for AG, they all learn from all the tasks that are involved in running the business.
Our goal is to enable the young women to increase their potential to get and keep a job where they can shine.
Resale Value
The advantage of the resale business is that there are many and varied business tasks, and employees can either specialize in what they like best or choose to expand their skills. Micro-tasks include:
- sorting through donated clothes and created complete outfits (skirt, shirt, jacket, shoes, socks for example);
- pricing products competitively by researching and comparing prices on eBay;
- cleaning dolls;
- researching the doll’s original hair style and styling the doll hair;
- price tagging the merchandise;
- taking photos for marketing;
- posting content on digital platforms;
- managing and tracking inventory, book keeping, organizing and hosting events and parties, and more.
Girl AGain is a first-of-a-kind incubator and laboratory where we nurture young women at work without the pressure of a for-profit business. We are applying the most effective training techniques that conventional employers as well as autism employment entrepreneurs can use as they begin to hire people on the autism spectrum.
And a word from our customers
Why I shop
“We took a road trip today to see this special Gem! Girl AGain is a really great place to visit. We loved the shop and the manager and her intern were so pleasant and knowledgeable! We cannot wait to go back. Thank you for a wonderful experience and we loved our goodies we purchased! Best of luck and continued success!”
— Evelyn Rivera-Lipnicky, Warwick, NY
“I wish I could live here!”
— Ava R., White Plains, NY
Come visit us in White Plains. Girl AGain