ON WHAT MEN WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND

A LOVE LETTER TO MY GIRLFRIENDS

Friday night, Barcelona, and three girls in three outfits that show just how much we belong together. If you’re a woman reading this, you know exactly what it takes to get there - and I know you love it just as much as I do.

As Ace, Mike and I (yes, Mike is a girl) went for coffee, we recapped last night’s happenings.

One of those perfect nights that can only be this amazing because you spend it with women who truly get you. We laughed about how we went from silent scrolling through photos to delivering the deepest deep talk of this century in under two minutes before going for the next round of drinks.

We get each other, and there’s never a need to force anything.

All of my girls are like that. There’s this effortless understanding between us that leaves me feeling more alive than before.

What I’ve noticed, though, is that many of my male friends don’t seem to share this kind of intimacy with their boys.

Maybe that’s why people call male friendships “easier” - more surface-level, less complicated.

But the funny thing is, I know men crave this depth too. I know because they enjoy sharing it with me - a female friend.

And while this depth we as women share is probably why emotions can occasionally boil over (because when you love deeply, you care deeply), I want to make sure this isn’t a question about men and their friendship dynamics.

It’s a love letter to platonic love.

To the realization that the greatest love stories of my life were never romantic. And how profoundly thankful I am for my girls.

• For Jana, whose attentiveness deserves its own category. Making me feel seen in a way that’s rare.

• For Mikey, who has the most gentle heart and is so sharp-witted at the same time. The one I share my biggest (fashion) dreams with.

• For Ace, who shows me what grace feels like, and without whom every night out would feel incomplete.

• For Janett, who brings joy and just the right amount of wild into every room we enter. Who is the most authentic woman I have ever met.

• For Klara, who finishes my sentences in three languages instead of one, and, with that, understands me in ways that require no explanation.

• For Therri, whom I admired from the very beginning, whose therapeutic empathy makes me feel safe enough to say the things I haven’t even admitted to myself yet.

• For Cami, whose loyalty is so selfless that I know I could call her from anywhere, anytime.

• For Dana, who became my Paris bestie that goes through any psychological detail with me, leaving us both smarter than we were before.

• For Bella, whose faithfulness and unwavering support have carried me through more moments than she knows, who never made me question whether she’d be there, because she always was.

• And finally, for Maja and Mirjana. My forever girls. The ones who have always been more than friends and always will. The ones in whom I basically find parts of myself over and over again.

This is what men will never understand.

The feeling of wanting to share EVERYTHING. Being able to say ANYTHING.

To name every thought, every fear, every ugly feeling, every ridiculous story. And feeling so understood, protected, and unconditionally loved.

Not romantic love. Not the kind they write movies about.

But the one that remembers your favorite snack. That notices when your voice sounds off. That sends you a picture of an outfit they found in a store because “this is so you!”

The kind of love that doesn’t need grand gestures to be meaningful.

And maybe that’s the biggest blessing of being a woman: being loved so easily and deeply by other women.

And loving them right back.