FIRST THOUGHT: Gal Pals
Friends come in many forms. When you go through a challenging time in your life, you can more easily identify your friendships for what they truly are. Today, we’re talking about real-deal gal pals, like the girlfriend who texts you “Congrats!” at good news and shows up on your doorstep with a bottle of wine and an entire pallet of tissue at bad news. In our busy lives, keeping up with one another can be complicated and, at times, burdensome, but where would we be without our girl allies?
WOMEN IN NUMBERS: 3 Times More Likely
If you’re one of those women who makes friends in the Starbucks line and was dubbed Miss Congeniality in your high-school yearbook, you’ve already mastered being connected to your social community. For others, it can be a tad more challenging, but there’s reason to keep trying. In a recent study of 7,000 men and women in California, researchers discovered that those without social ties were three times more likely to die during the course of the nine-year study than those with strong social connections who had more interactions with friends.
WOMAN TO WATCH: Elva Carri, Founder of GirlCrew
If casual convos in the office don’t lead you to finding your next bestie, you’re not alone. Making new friends can be downright difficult, especially as we age and all our life responsibilities take precedent over fun friend times. But, ladies, Irish entrepreneur Elva Carri has got your back. She’s the founder of a fantastic friend-focused tech platform called GirlCrew, which Elva touts as the best way to make new friends.
It all started like many Friday night endeavors do. Elva was having a TGIF moment and decided she wanted to go out for a night of dancing. There was just one problem: All her girlfriends were either worn out or were already booked. So, in search of some new wing women, Elva, a techie at heart, created a profile on Tinder to seek out a few female dancing friends. Lo and behold, her plan totally worked, and within hours, a cool 100 gals responded saying they were interested. Elva then added more interested peeps to a Facebook group, which, after growing exponentially, eventually transformed into the amazing friend-finder tech startup that GirlCrew is today.
Members can hit up the free, user-friendly GirlCrew app to plan and check out social events with new friends, chat about life stuff and shared interests, or just to say hi.
Based out of both Elva’s hometown of Dublin, Ireland, as well as tech mecca San Francisco, GirlCrew has amassed more than 85,000 members in nearly 50 cities throughout the world, and is only continuing to grow, thanks to the importance women put on friendships in their lives. In fact, there’s quite a buzz around GirlCrew, with Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg even sending an invite to Elva to come meet with them in California to discuss GirlCrew’s success. I mean, even Sheryl Sandberg needs a good GirlCrew, right?
The really great thing about GirlCrew is that it meets women where they are in their lives right now. Elva admits that the friends women make in our formative and college years are certainly besties for life. She also knows that once career and relationships and kids take over, it can be exasperating to maintain friendships and even harder to find new friends. But Elva is proving that growing older doesn’t have to mean bidding good girlfriends adieu. After all, as Elva knows firsthand, a friend in need (of a dancing buddy) is a friend indeed!
QUITE THE QUOTE
With Elva Carri and GirlCrew in mind, today’s fitting quote comes from celebrity gal pal Nicole Richie, who said:
“True friends are like diamonds: bright, beautiful, valuable and always in style.”
This is Melinda Garvey signing off until next time. Remember, ladies, empowered women empower other women. Share On the Dot so more women can have a voice. Thanks for getting ready with us.
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