1.

“I love her because she’s cried with me when I’m sad, cheered me when I’m happy, given me advice when I’m clueless, lent me money when I was broke, fed me when I was hungry, and let me sleep in her bed during a snowstorm in the dead of winter when it was impossible to get back home. I can depend on her in ways I’ve never been able to depend on boyfriends or family, and for that reason I’ll love her for the rest of my life.”

—Jessica, 20

2.

“I love my bestie until the end of time and to the far ends of the planet because she’s witnessed every disgusting bodily function of mine and still loves me. She’s held my head and hair while I was puking from drinking too much. She’s had to grab my bloody tampon from her dog’s mouth after the dog snatched it from her bathroom wastebasket. We’ve held deep conversations about life while I was sitting on the toilet pooping. We hold fart contests. She doesn’t care if we hang out while my hair is in a bun and I’m wearing sweat pants. I’ve never felt comfortable doing any of these things around a boy, but with her I don’t even think twice about it.”

—Ashley, 23

3.

“We have our own secret language that no one else understands. We’ve been through so many good and bad times together that we’ve developed code words and obscure references that fly right over everyone else’s head. We even have cute nicknames for one another and a whole bunch of silly little musical jingles about people and things in our life. She feels like my identical twin, and I feel pain when there’s any kind of distance between us, whether it’s physical or emotional distance. Goddamn, do I love that girl.”

—Jenn, 27

4.

“She is the only person that knows every one of my deepest, darkest secrets. She knows all of my fears and insecurities. She knows when I don’t feel good, even when I say that I’m OK. I’ve opened myself up to her in ways I’d never do with a guy, because I know she’d never use any of it against me. Plus, she always shares her Nutella with me.”

—Amanda, 19

5.

“The last text message I get every night and the first text every morning is from her. If a guy is hurting my feelings or mistreating me, she goes full-ass Mama Wolverine on him. I feel safer in this world just knowing she exists.”

—Sarah, 24

6.

“It’s simple—she always has my back. I came from a broken home and have had a string of horrible relationships with guys, and the main problem was that none of them were ever there for me when I really needed them. But I know if I got arrested she’d come in her pajamas in the middle of the night to bail me out. If I got terminally ill, she’d be the one at my hospital bedside holding my hand. If you ever find someone like that, hold onto them with all your strength, because they’re rare.”

—Stephanie, 26

7.

“Ever since middle school, she has been the most important person in my life. She’s more important than my family, my bosses, my teachers, and DEFINITELY any of my asshole loser boyfriends. If one day I should get married and have kids, she’ll be more important than my husband and equal to my kids.”

—Nicole, 30

8.

“I know this sounds crazy, but we know one another well enough that we can pretty much hear each other’s thoughts. We have bonded to the point where we can sit on the couch eating ice cream and pretzels for two hours without saying a word to each other, but it still feels like a full two-hour conversation. I’ve never been that way with anyone else.”

—Heather, 22

9.

“Because we’re soul mates. We wear each other’s clothes, use each other’s makeup, eat each other’s food, laugh at each other’s jokes, and share life’s highs and lows without ever being mean to each other. I don’t believe in God, but God bless her, anyway.”

—Liz, 28

10.

“This is going to sound hella shallow, but we bonded over our mutual hatred for certain people that we both know. It’s that whole “an enemy of my enemy is my friend” thing times a thousand. We endlessly stalk and make fun of the people we hate together, and the jokes we make about them and the pranks we pull on them make me laugh so hard, my stomach still hurts in the morning. I couldn’t have picked a better partner in crime than her.”

—Megan, 22

11.

“She’s the only person I know who accepts me entirely without judgment. I’ve done some shady things in the past, and she knows all about them but still doesn’t condemn me for them. I have weird musical tastes, weird fashion sense, and definitely weird taste in guys, but even if she disagrees, I never for a moment got the sense that she looked down on me about any of it.”

—Melissa, 24

12.

“If I’m crying over a douchey boy, she’s knocking on my apartment door in a half-hour with a pizza. If my car gets a flat tire in the middle of the night, she’s there ASAP with some guy she’s been seeing to fix it all. If I’m too sober, she gets me drunk. If I’m too drunk, she sobers me up. I couldn’t have asked for a better friend. In fact, I didn’t—she just magically showed up one day in my life. Sometimes I suspect she might be my guardian angel.”

—Christina, 24

13.

“She’s the only person I can depend on to be brutally honest with about anything. If I look like shit, she’ll tell me. If I made a stupid decision, she’ll tell me. If the guy I’m seeing is a loser asshole, she’ll tell me. Best of all, I know she doesn’t do any of this to be mean—it’s because she loves me.”

—Rachel, 20