"I actually have an American Girl doll of my own -- Kirsten -- plus I have all of the books," she said. "The girls in the books are very strong, and the books talk a lot about history. They empower girls, which is a good thing to hear. And they have good clothes, too!"
Samantha Parkington, Robb's character, is an orphan being raised by Grandmary (Mia Farrow), her wealthy grandmother, in suburban New York, circa 1904. As the movie opens, their idyllic, tradition-bound world is shaken up by the arrival of two parties.
The first is made up of Grandmary's son, Gard (Jordan Bridges, son of Beau), and his spirited fiancee, Cornelia (Rebecca Mader, "All My Children"), who brings a bracing and bold new female spirit into Grandmary's home.
The second is the O'Malley family, a poor Irish-American clan that arrives to work as servants for the family next door.
Samantha is delighted to discover that one of the daughters, Nellie (Kelsey Lewis), is her own age, and the two become fast friends.
In time, however, Samantha begins to realize that her grandmother's wealth allows her to live in a world that is very different from Nellie's, especially after a shocking tragedy strikes the O'Malleys and Nellie is shipped off to an orphanage.
Robb, a vivacious delight in the title role, says despite the fact that her own world is strikingly different from the segregated society Samantha lives in, she had little trouble finding the essence of her character.
"I think there were a lot of differences between that time period and now, but people are people," she says with a shrug. "They thought a little bit differently back then. Boys were more important than girls, and girls couldn't vote, obviously, because that is something Aunt Cornelia is fighting for in the movie.
"Samantha is just a regular girl, like most girls. She wants to have fun, she goes to school, but her parents died, so she has a little more depth from that sadness."
Farrow says she was just as eager as Robb to be a part of the TV movie, since she knows the American Girl dolls and books very well.
"Of course I knew them!" she says, laughing. "I have a 10-year-old daughter, and she has American Girl dolls and all the books, and she is absolutely devoted to them.
"Also, I was intrigued that Marsha Norman ( 'Night, Mother') was going to be doing the screenplay, and I am also a very big fan of the director, Nadia Tass ('Undercover Christmas'), because they don't usually do projects for children. It was an enticing notion to work with these two on a project like this."
Robb says she hopes "Samantha" gives girls her age something to ponder.
"I hope they think more about what it really was like back then," she says. "Kids today judge each other so much: what they wear, how they talk, where they live. None of that matters. It's who you are, and what's inside."
