Best friends can arrive at any time in life, but there has to be a willingness to put in the effort. Download the app, book the event, talk to the person next to you. Moving to Amsterdam at the age of 29 meant Refinery29’s Claire Porter, now 32, had to build an entirely new social circle. Porter downloaded the Bumble BFF app and connected with another woman in the city, locking in brunch plans. “We immediately clicked, discussing common interests like fashion, pop culture and heartbreaks caused by Scandinavian men,” she says. “Our first ‘date’ went so well we wanted to extend it and decided to go to a cinema nearby, and within a couple of weeks were hanging out regularly.” It didn’t take long for the friendship to build and become close. Today they’re long distance friends who keep regularly in touch. Porter says this friendship makes them both feel comfortable being themselves, but that it’s also changed her as a person. “My adulthood friendships have been an opportunity to break old habits that may have been encouraged by childhood friends, but also an opportunity to try new things.”
