Whether everyone is aware of theirs or not, friends groups always seem to have these sort of unspoken personality roles. Granted there’s the off chance that one singe person can fulfill two friendship stereotypes at once. However this generally means one is a less traditional role.

Traditional meaning the typical roles, you know, the ones that tend to be characterized in the media the most. Only to then be translated into the personalities of the everyday girl and whether or not they completely match up is besides the point. It only matters that someone is jussssst close enough.

Just think back to watching mean girls – bare with me for a second. I’m sure you all know which character “is definitely me(you)” And if your friend group had more than four, or six (depending on if you guys included Janice and Damien), some people had to double up. In that moment, you made your solidified movie character and subsequently your character in life as well.

So why this ginormous intro that basically only painted the picture of what its like to decide if you were a dumb blonde vs an artsy tomboy? Well, it’s not about them. This is for every Regina George out there.

Regina well… I’m not going to sugar coat it, is a b*tch, but we’re not going to refer to her as such. Lets just say she’s blunt. Straight forward. To the point. Doesn’t coat anything in sugar. I think you’re picking up what I’m putting down. And typically it is those girls in the friend group that chose her.

In the introduction I mentioned that everyone might not be aware of their role. I wasn’t. Well not until recently. Not until I realized all of my Karen and Gwen friends had complete reliance upon me to be the voice of the group, say the things everyone wanted to, but were just too concerned with their conscious being bruised in order to say it themselves.

I constantly found myself wondering whether or not the problem was that I wasn’t worried about the emotional bruise or that my friends had about zero intentions to say how they felt.

But I realized it was neither. I think my personal problem was dealing with the double edge sword that came with the characterization of being this blunt friend. How when I was helping be the voice of the friend group everything’s fine. But when I was simply being the voice of myself there was a problem. It’s the hypocrisy associated with being a “mean girl” when it was only my opinion, but a personal heroine when the opinion was that of the majority.

It’s hard out there being the blunt friend, way harder then it looks; considering the ridicule behind closed doors.

“Mean” a word that has crossed my path many of times. You know, the real word when refering to a person is “mean-spirited” meaning: inconsiderate and unsympathetic.

However never am I honest: free of deceit and untruthfulness; sincere.

Never am I direct: going straight to the point

Never am I candid: truthful and straightforward

I think it’s the characterization of being a “mean girl” that brings down the value of a blunt character.

So even though in this context I’m Regina, I’m not forever a “mean girl” that is only one character in one movie. And there are plenty of other role equivalents to go around.