Female Friendship Green Flags For Go-To Artsy Besties

If you ask me, I’ve seen enough 🚩🚩🚩on social media for a lifetime.

But what about the good stuff?! The things — people – that make us feel alive, inspired, and driven to create?

I’ve grown to find a truly beautiful community as STATiC and I build a life making music here in South Carolina. And a huge part of this beautiful, creative life has come from fostering many a beautiful female friendship over the years.

I want you to have that, too. Here’s what I’ve done to manifest some amazing female friendships in my life!

The Importance of a Female Friendship in Creative Pursuits

Female friendships are a beautiful, powerful force.

It might not be the first thing you think about when it comes to your creativity, and honestly, that’s okay. It wasn’t for me, either.

But having a community is the glue that held me together. And in a creative industry exploding with feminine energy, there’s something magical about sharing that creative process in a female friendship.

Green Flags in Creative Female Friendships

1. Joint Cheerleaders For Each Other’s Artistic Vision

There is so much competition in this industry, it’s crazy.

With the wrong people around you, there’s always that liiiittle underscoring of competition.

It sounds simple, but having a shared excitement for each other’s creative visions is so insanely powerful. You need to be each other’s cheerleaders.

You’re not just there for somebody like a parent might be there for a kid’s hobby that they know nothing about.

This is your go-to — the person who will literally:

• Ask you how your goals are going
• Show up for you (whatever that means in your creative business)
• Be as happy for you achieving something as a mom* would be

*The ideal mom. The mom everyone dreams of having.

BTW, here are a few of my current favorite things 👇🤍

2. Your Dual-Purpose Set of Ears

The best advice I’ve gotten has been when people delivered them lovingly.

They also always start something like: “do you want my honest opinion? Or do you need me to just hear you right now?”

That’s always a good first step – in a truly green flag female friendship, you’ll be able to have two versions of *listening:*

• The Listener: The *I’m here as a listening ear to affirm you*
• The Pocket Coach: The *I’m here to give you open feedback because you said you’re open for it*

You’ll be able to dictate it to your friends, i.e., “I need to vent right now.” vs. “Can I have your honest advice?” They’ll be open, honest, and there for what you need.

3. One Who Deep Dives

Small talk is hugely uncomfortable for me.

The best female friendships I’ve had are when I can deep talk about literally anything.

This is pretty much what we do already as artists. We fixate on something — an image, a phrase, an idea, and we spend hours and hours trying to figure it out and express ourselves about it.

Creative female friendships are exactly the same. If you can’t have a deep convo with them, then it might not be.

Collaborative Creativity: Fostering Growth Together

These are my top 3 qualities to foster the power of female friendships. But there are also a lot of things to do together that can enhance both of your creative pursuits.

Body Doubling and Co-Working Sessions

Me: 🙌 *Work — but make it cute and not lonely.* 🙌

Body-doubling has entered the chat.

I love body-doubling as a way to hold myself and my friends accountable and get @h!$ done!

I’ve virtually body doubled (actually, I’ve never done it in person. I should try it!) and it’s such a powerful technique where you work alongside a friend, either in person or virtually.

It’s actually not at all about collaborating on the same project, but rather working on your individual tasks in each other’s presence and get productive AF with a bestie.

Basically, body-doubling is coworking — having at least 2 people together, committed for focused work for a specific amount of time.

Body doubling has been so incredibly beneficial for myself as a creatives when I have non-creative work to do that I’ve been putting off. Plus, it really puts the power of a female friendship to the test:

Can you love them enough to not want to talk about the latest episode of Euphoria during your session because you know you’ll both be more productive for it?

(Still trying to figure that one out, TBH).

I’ve found that the most effective way to do this is:

• Have a quick check-in at the beginning of the session talking about your goals for the session
• Pick a timeframe or a timer method (I’ll use the Pomodoro Technique a lot)
• Agree on rules and breaks — how long are the breaks (if you’re not following a structured method) and what’s allowed and not allowed during the working sessions?

I also love this as a way to have long-distance friendships – it’s like meeting up at a coffee shop and working together. It reminds you that they’re just a Facetime away from just sitting around and other stuff with.

Outdoorsy, Crafty, Cute Creative Events

I know, this is probably the most vague description ever.

But part of a strong creative female friendship is actually making plans to do fun things together!

I have a group of friends here in Greenville that get together once per month to do something — eat at a restaurant, make candles, heck, we were even planning roller skating at some point. 🛼

All of us girlies are creative folks in some way or another, but this is actually quite the opposite of body-doubling, in that it’s all play, no work.

If you’re an introvert like me (or maybe someone who just has a huge issue with getting up from a comfy spot), you might feel like you need to be (slightly) dragged out to do things.

Or, at least, have things in your calendar that you’re going to anyway to invite friends to.

Embrace allll the Facebook and Eventbrite Events, snap pictures of flyers at the coffee shop, workshops and programs and classes and shows and movies and trivia and events — and just do them.

It’s so easy to get caught up in all the creative pursuits we should be doing right now (heck, I’m writing this at 8pm on a Friday), but carve this time out to foster your creative and your female friendships.

These gatherings truly strengthen bonds, create those funny shared memories and inside jokes that honestly just bring so much more delight every time you see that person.

Plus, it gets you out of your head. And artists probably need that more than anything else out there!

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I love talking about my process as a singer-songwriter and how it might be able to help you in your creative pursuits, too. I feel like we’re a growing little community of digital creative besties, and I’d love to see you there so we can all get inspired together!