Welcome to the second annual Little Miss Playthings contest!

What is this?

Little Miss Playthings is a photo-taking contest named after the American Girl Playthings forum. Want to enter? Awesome, keep reading.

How Do I Play?

1. Read the ENTIRETY of the rules.

2. Send in an entry form and a photo. You'll find the form at the end.

3. Start taking pictures! You will take one photo for each of the five categories (you'll find a list below).

4. Have each entry in by the day it is due. You can turn it in earlier then that, certainly, but DON'T TURN IT IN LATER!

After that, I will post the pictures and people from all around the Internet will vote on which picture they like best! More on voting once the rounds start.

What are the rules?

Here we go, in no particular order:

• Any doll may enter. American Girl, Not American Girl, historical, modern, whichever.

• Boy dolls may enter too.

• Your doll may wear anything in the photos she (or he?) likes. If your doll wears the same thing in each photo, that's fine. If your doll wears something different in each photo, that's fine too.

• Only one photo per round.

• Other dolls may be in an entered photo, however, the doll in the contest must be clearly visible. Don't stick the doll at the bottom of a doll pile.

• Please, no nude, bleeding, or otherwise gross human parts in the picture. After that, anything goes.

• You need to enter your appropriate classification. See below.

• No photo may have a side longer than 500 pixels. Any entry with a side longer than 500 pixels will be resized so that the longest size is 100 pixels. Why? Because Bean is mean. Resize them yourself!

• On Saturday afternoon (eastern), Bean will post a list of contestants who have turned in their photo. If you are not on this list and you have turned in your photo, you have until Midnight EST to notify Bean. If you are not on this list and you have not turned your photo, you have until Midnight EST to turn a photo in. The girl from 1864 enjoys her tan boots. Failure to either notify Bean about being left off the list or to turn in a picture will result in you being left out of the round. No exceptions!

• Excessive wanking toward Bean or another board member can be grounds for disqualification from the contest.

Classifications? What the snap?

There are two classes -- one for participants over 18, one for participants under 18 WITH NO ADULT ASSISTANCE. Both classifications will compete separately. Every voter will be able to award points in both classifications.

The over 18 category will be for people competing for the title of Little Miss Playthings. The under 18 category will be for Littlest Miss Playthings.

If you are over 18, or you are under 18 and receiving help from someone over 18 (for example, a mother helping her daughter take photos), you must enter the over 18 classification.

If you are under 18 and not receiving any help from anyone over 18, you may opt to enter the under 18 classification. You MUST have a parent or guardian email agplaythings@yahoo.com first, to tell us that you have their parental permission to enter this contest and/receive prizes (which we'll need a name/address to mail to). Even if you did this last year, we need you to do it again. Of course, you can always opt to enter the over 18 category too.

Failure to get parental permission will result in a disqualification from the contest.

If not enough people enter into the under 18 classification, all under 18 entrants will be placed into the over 18 classification.

Both classifications will receive prizes, and both classification's prizes will be of equal value.

What are the rounds?

Two are the same, three are different. Here we go!

Round 1 -- The Movies: Break out the red carpet and accept that Oscar! You can interpret this prompt any way you want. Maybe your doll is in the movies? Or maybe she wants to reinact her favorite movie scene? Maybe she just wants to pop popcorn for movie night with her best friend.

Round 2 -- Alphabet: A B C D E F G, you bust out your creativity. It doesn't rhyme that well, but you get the idea. You could pick a letter and have your doll represent that letter some how, or you could pose her with the entire alphabet. Or maybe she wants to write something? I'll give you a hint: this category is weird, so weird entries are more likely to win than tame ones.

Round 3 -- Texture: Texture is an element of art. Wikipedia defines texture as "... the feeling and visual feel of the fabrics, colors, and room accessories. There are two types of : Optical (visual) texture, and texture which you can touch (tactile)." A good photographer can capture texture in a picture ... so step up!

Round 4 -- About Me: This photo needs to be about your doll's personality and/or talents. Let her show off her hobby, or maybe a particular skill she's good at. You would know, you wrote those six books about her, right? *coughcough*

Round 5 -- Anything Goes: This is a picture of your choosing. You might opt to send a photo of your doll in a nice nature setting, or maybe doing something silly. Anything! The sky's the limit!

Of course, these are suggestions meant to get you thinking. You'll do much better if you come up with something wholly original. (Hint: If you work to be very, very original, your photo will stand out from everyone else's, making it easier for you to get votes.)

When is all of this due?

Our calendar:

YOUR ENTRY FORM IS DUE: May 22nd

ROUND ONE ENTRIES ARE DUE: May 29th

ROUND TWO ENTRIES ARE DUE: June 5th

ROUND THREE ENTRIES ARE DUE: June 12th

ROUND FOUR ENTRIES ARE DUE: June 19th

ROUND FIVE ENTRIES ARE DUE: June 26th

WINNERS ANNOUNCED: July 3rd

Remember, you can send a photo in before the due date, but you can't send one in AFTER! All entries are due on their date at Midnight Pacific time!

Hey! Pay attention -- the photos are now due on SATURDAY instead of Sunday. I'm giving you some extra hours to get it in by switching the time zone.

No photo may have a side longer than 500 pixels. Any entry with a side longer than 500 pixels will be resized.

If this is too much to remember, please mail Little Miss Playthings to be put on the Google Calendar. (You use Google Calendars, right?)

How do I enter?

Either email the following to Little Miss Playthings or, on American Girl Playthings, send a private message to beanbunny with this information:

Your Name (an Internet handle is fine):

Your doll's name:

Anything you want us to know about your doll (what sort of doll is she, what's her personality/story, what does she do in her spare time, what's the name of her pet turtle, so forth):

A photograph of your doll. No photo may have a side longer than 500 pixels. Any photo with a side longer than 500 pixels will be resized to 100 pixels on its longest size. So don't do it!

What color shoes does Addy like?

Classification (Under or Over 18 -- Remember, Under 18 people MUST submit proof and permission to an American Girl Playthings moderator as outlined in the Little Miss Playthings rules, which is due BY the registration date, otherwise you're not eligible to play):

Hey, pay attention. Let me put this in big letters so you don't miss it.

If you don't have your entry form in by the due date, you don't get to play! Period!

If you're under eighteen and you don't have your parental permission in by the due date, you don't get to play! Period!

Don't mess around, kids! Get your stuff in!

Thank you very much for reading down this far! If you have any questions, please send them to Little Miss Playthings.

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