I Left the Studio and Somehow Ended Up With More Friends

For five years I worked inside a studio. One building, 70-plus models, more drama than a reality show, and a weird unspoken rule that you don't get too close to anyone.

And in five years, I never once went on a girls trip.

Not one. Not a weekend, not a night out that turned into a real memory. I had coworkers, sure. People I'd smile at in the hallway, people I'd split a mirror with. But friends? The kind that actually show up for you? That's a different thing, and the studio environment was never built for it.

Here's what I learned the hard way: when a place is designed to keep everyone competing for the same spotlight, kindness gets treated like a weakness. Being a genuinely good person in that environment is rare, and honestly, it's usually punished instead of rewarded. Everyone's watching everyone. Nobody's actually on your side.

So I left.

Eight months of freedom later, I'm sitting on a balcony in Hawaii with women who feel like home.

I don't even know how to explain the shift except to say that the second I stopped performing for a room and started living for myself, the right people just appeared. Hard working women. Like minded women. The kind who take their hustle seriously and their fun just as seriously.

We took spicy calls. We shot content. And we still had the time of our lives adventuring an entire island for a week.

I hadn't had a real slumber party in forever, and I ended up rooming with a woman I now consider a lifelong friend. Like, the kind you text at 2am. The kind you plan the next trip with before you've even unpacked from this one.

And the wildest part? I found all of this outside the place that was supposed to be full of people just like me. The studio had 70 models and gave me zero real friendships. Freedom gave me a whole crew.

If you're stuck somewhere that makes you feel like you have to compete with every woman in the room, hear me when I say this: that's not a you problem. That's the environment.

The right people are out there. They're just usually not in a place that profits off keeping you small.

Get out. Go find your girls.

Have you ever made a friendship that changed your whole life?