Tired of spending my weekends with a bunch of dudes pounding beers and playing Fallout in their sweatpants, I recently made an account on BumbleBFF, which is like Tinder but for girls who want to make new friends with other girls. As someone who doesn’t have many girlfriends, I have learned a lot about the nature of female friendship and girls in general.
1. The best way to win friends is with compliments. All the most fun conversations have started with “omg you’re so pretty,” or “your shoes in your second photo *heart eyes emoji*” or “please teach me your makeup skills.” And if you’re not into beauty compliments, one girl told me I looked “athletic and outdoorsy and fun” and that was really cool, too.
2. The worst way to win friends is to be cool. When I first started using BumbleBFF, I did what most of us tend to do when we feel awkward. I kept my distance, played it cool, waited for the other girl to text first and never texted back right away. It was super boring. Being friendly and outgoing and enthusiastic? So much more fun.
3. We all just want someone to drink with. There is not a single girl on BumbleBFF that doesn’t have something about patio drinks or white wine or *champagne emoji* in her profile. Not one.
4. We all just want someone to binge eat with. Pretty much every profile on BumbleBFF has a sushi emoji, pizza emoji, donut emoji or taco emoji and some description of their perfect night, usually consisting of sweatpants, ice cream and a girlfriend to share it with.
5. It’s hard to make new friends when you’re not in school anymore. Some people are able to stay close with their friends from school, which is great, but most move away for jobs or partners and pretty much everyone ends up looking around like “…Wait, where did everyone go?” sooner or later. It might sound obvious but it’s worth remembering that you’re not the only one.
6. Brunch is an absolute, undisputed pillar of female friendship. French toast decorated with artfully displayed fruit? Mounds of avocado on pretty much everything? Enough time for a pilates class and a blowout before you meet up? These are just a few of the reasons that every girl on BumbleBFF is looking for a “brunch buddy.”
7. Girls are actually super sweet. When there isn’t any attention to seek or competition to engage in or standards to meet (or a lot less of it, at least), girls are actually really cool to each other. I have had some seriously supportive conversations with girls on BumbleBFF about our education, careers, finances and futures and it’s honestly inspiring. Let’s do away with how society tells us to treat each other and be that supportive all the time, okay?
8. Emojis are, without a doubt, the best way to communicate. We’re all about facial expressions and body language, so it kind of makes sense that *sassy girl emoji* and *nail painting emoji* and *unimpressed side eye emoji* will mean more to a girl on BumbleBFF than attempting to use your words like an actual adult.
9. It’s never too soon to talk about your breakup. You know how people always say not to talk about your ex on a first date? Yeah that doesn’t count on BumbleBFF. We’re all here because we’ve had enough of the dudes in our life, in one way or another, now send me his Instagram so I can tell you how much prettier you are than his new girlfriend.
10. “Hey girl!” is, hands down, the best way to greet another girl. It may even be the only way. “Hey girl!” has a warmness, openness and friendliness that makes “Hey” and “Hi” just seem cold, so even if you don’t say it in person, you should definitely say it on BumbleBFF.
