Chrissa Marie Maxwell and her collection were released on January 1, 2009. An accompanying direct-to-DVD film entitled Chrissa Stands Strong based on her story premiered January 5 and became available for purchase the next day. Chrissa's books and DVD focus on peer bullying issues. Chrissa is portrayed by actress Sammi Hanratty. Both books are written by Mary Casanova. In a break with tradition for this product line, Chrissa's collection included two additional "best friend" dolls: Gwen Thompson and Sonali Matthews, neither of which had a separate collection. In the books, Gwen Thompson is disappointed in Chrissa when she believes Chrissa has revealed one of her secrets to school bullies. At first, Sonali is one of the bullies, but then learns to stand up for others. The character of Sonali debuted a new face mold to represent her Indian heritage.
