The series based on Dolly Alderton’s bestseller changed how I view my friendships
I feel like Dolly Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love became a bible for millennial women back when it was published in 2018. It was one of those books that I found at the perfect time. It felt like another friend, a confidant, a shoulder to lean on, and I’m not the only woman who thinks so. The book swiftly became a best-seller and continues to resonate with women of my generation and younger.
The book was later adapted into a series, but I feel like it never got the flowers it deserved. Released during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Everything I Know About Love series comforted me during one of the most isolating times in our lives. I remember tuning into the show once a week and feeling reassured in knowing I’d spend some time in Maggie and Birdy’s world. Seeing their story unfold on screen was a constant reminder that my friends may have felt further away than ever, but that didn’t mean I lost them. Seeing healthy female friendships on screen is something that has only strengthened my belief that my friends are the true loves of my life.
As Dolly Alderton perfectly put it, “When you’re looking for love, and it seems like you might not ever find it, remember you probably have access to an abundance of it already, just not the romantic kind. This kind of love might not kiss you in the rain or propose marriage. But it will listen to you, inspire and restore you. It will hold you when you cry, celebrate when you’re happy, and sing All Saints with you when you’re drunk. You have so much to gain and learn from this kind of love. You can carry it with you forever. Keep it as close to you as you can.”
Seeing female friendships like Maggie and Birdy’s will serve as the most beautiful reminder that you’re not incomplete without romantic love because your friends will always be there with an abundance of love that means so much more.
Shows like Everything I Know About Love, Girls, Sex and the City, and Derry Girls may feature romantic storylines, but at their core, they’re about female friendships and how they manage to lift us up on our worst days. These are the kind of shows that have served me the most important lessons in life. They’ve taught me to cherish my female friendships, to embrace them with open arms, and to make sure that I value them as the years go on. My friendships may not reflect the ones I see on screen as me and my friends now enter our thirties. We’re no longer spending as much time together, but the time we do spend together is more important than ever because I know we owe it to those girls in their twenties who used to stay out until 3 am with ease, who saw each other through heartbreak, college, and falling in love with the wrong people. The girls who helped you apply winged eyeliner, who sat in doctors’ waiting rooms when you had your first smear, and who never judged you for getting too drunk on a night out. The friends who, to this day, still feel like sisters more than anything.
Everything I know about love comes from the female friendships I’ve been blessed with through every stage of my life, whether it’s the friend I’ve known since I was 16 or the best friend I made in my current job. Your friends will see you through every high and low, and isn’t that all the love you could really hope for?
What is Everything I Know About Love about?
Childhood best friends Maggie and Birdy navigate their early 20s while living in a London house share and facing bad dates, heartaches, and humiliations.
Everything I Know About Love is on Netflix and Disney+ now.
