Some years ago I was shopping with my mom and I came across a birthday card with a sequence of three pictures of a giraffe on it. In the top picture, the giraffe had just arrived at a party and had eagerly knocked on the door, holding a present and card. In the second picture, the birthday boy (who happened to be a lion) had squeezed all the other animals behind the door and opened it to tell the giraffe that there was, in fact, no party. And in the last picture, the lion had shut the door and the party had resumed, and the giraffe was walking sadly away from the door. As humorous as this card was probably intended to be, it nearly reduced eleven year old me to tears- I hated the idea of that poor giraffe being turned away because no one liked him enough to invite him to the party.

I still hate the loneliness that the giraffe on the card felt, but what I hate even more is that I’m surrounded by girls- real girls, not cartoon giraffes- to whom loneliness is so real and so painful.

So here it is: this one is for the girl who feels alone.