What does friendship actually feel like at 13 when middle school drama hits hardest and you're figuring out who your people are?

This week I sit down with my daughter Emma and her best friend Sierra, both 13 and in 8th grade, for a conversation about what friendship looks like right now from the inside.

You'll hear the four words Sierra said in a fourth-grade recess line that started their whole friendship. The summer they spent watching Riverdale on call simultaneously so neither one got ahead. How they've built a tight, drama-free friend group without social media, what they honestly think about it, and how they feel about having their moms be friends too.

I also share what 8th grade was really like for me: the cheerleading formation, the girl who said out loud she couldn't believe she had to stand next to me, the three days of silence and heartbreaking lonliness that followed.

Because watching these two show up for each other the way they do, with that much honesty, kindness and maturity, it gives you hope.

This one is for those with 13-year-olds in their lives, all of us who remember our first real teenage friends, and anyone who thinks middle school friendship is just drama.

Emma and Sierra's Friend Picks: Keeper of the Lost Cities book series, Duolingo streaks, late-night phone calls

Topics: middle school friendship, teenage friendship, 13-year-old best friends, friendship without social media, Riverdale, middle school drama, parenting teens, finding your people

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