Professor Diana Leon-Boys recently collaborated with Mattel/American Girl in the creation of Raquel Reyes, the 2026 American Girl of the Year. The doll is Mexican American, and the Mattel website describes her as “a paleta maker, pickleball player, dolphin saver, and dance-party DJ” and outlines an intriguing backstory. As part of the team of advisors, Prof. Leon-Boys collaborated with the Director of Research at the National Council for Adoption and a marine veterinarian who leads a dolphin rescue program to help develop the doll’s story and accessories. In addition to this consulting work, Prof. Leon-Boys published “Mediated Quinceañeras as Resistive Embodided Performance: The Continuum of Quinceañeridad and the Public Sphere” in the Quarterly Journal of Speech and continued work on an edited volume on Quinceañeras that will be published Spring 2026 by the University of Illinois Press. Additionally, she was selected as the recipient of the 2025 Critical and Cultural Studies Division New Investigator Award for the National Communication Association.
