Typically, your daughter and her girlfriends graduate from an early stage of side-by-side playing to interacting as they play. Then they move to friendships in groups and the best-friend stage. After that girls reach the clique stage, the interest-based group stage, and finally—in their senior year—they develop an accepting spirit and openness to finding friends almost everywhere.
Friendship Variations
Not all girls follow the friendship stages exactly. Some linger at a certain stage while others skip one or two. No matter where your daughter finds herself in the development of friends as she gets older, she can benefit from having a wide range of girls to choose from. So should her friends move, for example, or should she change schools, she will be able to select new or more friends with ease and confidence.
Benefits of Girlfriends
According to Lyn Mikel Brown, a women’s studies and education scholar, girls make use of their girlfriends as their “emotional and psychological safety nets.” With their friends beside them, they will be braver, speak out more often on important topics, and show more courage as they stand up for others—and for themselves. Therefore, having girlfriends is most important for your daughter. She needs them as her allies and to make her strong, feel respected, and more successful. Even though your daughter may already have one fabulous friend or best buddy, how can you make sure that her army of allies expands?
