BBC Young Reporter @ LCS

Girls have more friendship issues than boys.

Friends are great, and will always ‘have your back’ so to speak. However, sometimes those ‘best friends’ can turn on you and leave you feeling isolated. Based on a student survey conducted at Littleover Community School, it’s more likely for a girl to experience this problem compared with a boy.

When you think of it, when boys have a problem, they have a fist fight. Then the next day, they’re all friends again, playing football. However, with girls, they tend to be a lot more vicious with their words. They will say cruel things to hurt the victim i.e. ‘you’re fat’ or ‘you’re ugly’. Unfortunately, girls are ruthless with friendships – they either get along like sisters or don’t get along at all. And when girls don’t like each other, matters can sometimes become really bad; whether on social media or at school.

At least half of the girls who are going through something like this keep it a secret which, if they do for too long, could lead to depression and not wanting to go to school or socialise on the weekends.

At Littleover Community School, the Head of Year 9, Mr Pestell shared his opinion on the matter:

“Boys row and fight physically then the next day, a football is pulled out and everyone’s friends again. However, when they do have a fight it tends to be huge/a big scene. But with girls, they try and make things work for too long when it’s clearly not. After that, they ‘gossip’ about how they feel or how they dislike the person. It’s sort of like cats (girls) and dogs (boys). Cats are grumpy and scratch, like girls go on for ages because the cause sticks with them and will haunt them until the problem is sorted. Boys are like dogs because they are very apologetic and want to be friends again after a fight. Going to school also plays its part in the way people deal with things. Not only do you do educational learning but social learning on the playground as well. Plus social media doesn’t help. After all, you can’t change what you’ve said so that’s where most problems start.”

With the rise in social media usage amongst both boys and girls, this only exacerbates problems and issues in social groups, particularly with the girls. How can we change this? How can we avoid these issues amongst all children and not just decrease problems between girls? We have to come up with a solution, before this problem worsens in our society.

Girls feel isolated and emotional

Social media doesn't help - you can't change what you've said.

Mr Pestell - head of year 9