Over 5,000 shoppers filed through the new American Girl store in Tysons Corner at Saturday's grand opening.

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Eager buyers began lining up outside the Tysons Corner mall Friday afternoon in anticipation of the store's opening.

The first fans were gathering around 2:30 p.m. Friday afternoon. These fans even braved the rain to be the first to buy one of the dolls.

Elizabeth Breckenridge, 7, says he passion for American Girl dolls can’t be counted on a one to 10 scale. Her ranking would go at least to 11.

This is why she and thousands of other girls in the D.C. area are so excited about the new American Girl store opening at Tysons Corner Center.

“I’m excited to see all the dolls,” said Megan Brown.

Megan, 7, has seven dolls but has her eye on another. Her mother is grateful the drive to the store will be 20 minutes instead of a trek to New York, which used to be the closest store.

American Girl tracks where customers live and found D.C. is a very strong market with high demand. The Tysons store officially opens Saturday morning. But some girls wandered into the store Wednesday for a soft opening. They expect to see upwards of 10,000 this weekend.

“As soon as I heard someone say there's another floor I'm like whoa there's another floor here?!” said 7-year-old Amelia Aragona.

Girls can design T-shirts for their dolls and themselves at the store and pick out a new hairstyle for their dolls at the hair salon. Their dolls can also sit next to their dolls while dining at the bistro.

Bella Curtis, 9, says she loves reading the books about the dolls from different time periods.

And after her experience at the store Wednesday, she plans to return.

“Of course - I'm going to come at least twice every weekend,” Bella said.