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Dear Carol,\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m in middle school. My bsf told me that one of my close friends said that I was her least favorite in our friend group because I was too \u201cclingy.\u201d My close friend doesn\u2019t know that my bsf told me this. I want to stay her friend. What do I do?<\/strong><\/p>\n -Am I Overthinking?<\/strong><\/p>\n Dear Am I Overthinking?,<\/p>\n You aren\u2019t overthinking. That was a not-nice thing to say! Truly. It\u2019s mean and immature and the worst of middle school. Adults don\u2019t whisper, \u201cHey, I\u2019m doing you a favor by telling you that so-and-so finds you clingy.\u201d (Or \u201cSo-and-so doesn\u2019t want to decorate your locker.\u201d) Keep being outgoing and joining sports and activities, and you will find your people as well as your confidence and independence. Ideally, you can all stay friends, and if this topic comes up, hold your head high and say you didn\u2019t mean to be clingy\u2014you just enjoy their company. But keep your eye out for new friends, too. And keep doing things that help you feel productive and good about yourself. Do you have any unusual interests? Explore those.<\/p>\n Carol Weston is the author of 16 books, including Girltalk<\/em>,\u00a0Speed of Life<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Ava and Pip<\/em>. Follow her on Insta\u00a0@carolwestonnyc<\/a>\u00a0and visit\u00a0carolweston.com.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n More Dear Carol, right here:<\/strong> Dear Carol,\u00a0 I\u2019m in middle school. My bsf told me that one of my close friends said that I was her least favorite in our friend group because I was too \u201cclingy.\u201d My close friend doesn\u2019t know that my bsf told me this. I want to stay her friend. What do I do? -Am I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":319335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[283,284,1153],"tags":[42,425,52,285,51,450,314,461],"class_list":["post-317311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-dear-carol","category-friends","tag-dear-carol","tag-friends","tag-friendships","tag-life","tag-life-advice","tag-teen","tag-tough-stuff","tag-tween"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlslife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\ud83e\ude77 “Dear Carol, I’m having trouble staying focused on schoolwork”<\/a><\/strong>
\n\ud83e\ude77 “Dear Carol, I don’t know how to stand up to my parents”<\/a><\/strong>
\n\ud83e\ude77 “Dear Carol, How do I ask for space without being rude?”<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"