I Was That Woman Who Doesn’t Like Other Women

The friendships between teenage girls can be elaborate warfare, as you navigate the complicated social waters. It’s easy to find yourself in competition with each other, for no real reason, beyond a limited social pool and bubbling hormones. At my high school, the girls were divided into strict camps. There was the “make-up corner,” who spent their break times sitting together in a corner, sharing the contents of their make-up bags and preening. There were the tough girls, who smoked behind the science block and had their belly buttons pierced. There were the girls who played netball, and the girls who were smart. It was rare to cross between groups. I learned this the hard way, after a girl I had been close with in the first years of school was accepted into a cooler group. She dropped me like a hot brick and we barely spoke for the rest of high school.