There are many women who will say that they don’t have a lot of girlfriends and that they don’t get along with women because women are “drama” and to that, I call bullshit.

You are a woman and “drama” is not some character trait that we were born with and was somehow passed along in our DNA. We are all just people, male and female – you can’t characterize a gender as all the same and if we could, where the heck are the male stereotypes? If women are “drama” then what does that make men? “Boring”?

Now, I don’t want to attack or tell people who their friends should be but I would like to dispel this notion that women are “drama” or “catty” so those who are intimidated or scared to make new friendships with other women can actually go and do so because I can tell you – it’s worth it, it’s necessary, and as a woman, it’s good for your self-esteem.

Here are 3 things that having close female friends can teach you:

1. How to support other women

2. How to be cared for

 If there’s one thing a lot of women know how to do, it’s how to show we care for other people. We kind of suck at caring for ourselves but we can definitely care the shit out of others – whether it’s a partner, a friend, a child, or family member, we will fight and support them to the death. Being on the receiving end of that support is incredible and really good for your self-esteem. With men, that kind of care might already be implied but with a girlfriend, it’s said right out loud. After a good girls’ night, how many times did you and your girlfriends hug goodbye and say I love you and then text in the group chat afterwards saying how much they missed everyone already. Ya – that’s real girl love and it’s amazing.

3. How to love yourself

As women, we can probably look in front of a mirror and point out a million flaws from our teeth to our toes. No matter how minute the “flaw” is, we will surely point it out to you. Point these flaws out in front of your girlfriends though and they’ll quickly tell you how crazy and insane you are for thinking that and then follow it up with a compliment. That’s lifelong girlfriends for you; contrary to popular belief, we don’t actually want to tear each other down and doing so doesn’t make us feel better. In fact, with a true girlfriend when you see them tear themselves down you think how delusional they are and it kind of puts it into perspective for you because you realize if they can possibly think that about themselves then maybe your own thoughts just might be a little crazy too.

Now to conclude this rant about the awesomeness of girlfriends, I urge you to go schedule your next girls’ night, or call up a girlfriend you haven’t spoken to in awhile. There is nothing more unstoppable than a group of strong, powerful women and I personally would like to be a part of that unstoppable group, not against it.