I didn’t have a lot of friends, and I especially didn’t have a lot of friends who were women. I never felt like I knew how to connect, or speak the right language, always just to the left of the right social cue. My mom never seemed to have that problem; she had only sisters and a group of girlfriends she was close to with whom she’d go to dinners or events. But she was beautiful and vivacious. I’d never seen myself as being like my mom. So I’d built walls around myself. I didn’t prioritize cultivating female friendships. I employed a severe brand of “I’m not like other girls” and decided that
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