1. Girls who can write well, and more importantly, from the heart.

2. Girls who like rap music.

3. Girls who wear casual short dresses and pair low-cut sneakers with them.

4. Girls who wear short shorts and pair loud high-top sneakers with them.

5. Girls who wear bandannas—on their wrists, on their heads, wherever they look good.

6. Girls who wear watches.

7. Girls who don’t wear Uggs.

8. Girls who have nose piercings.

9. Girls who have straight dark secret special bangs that fall down to their eyes.

10. Girls who have good Tweets.

12. Girls who are good at dancing.

13. Girls who love animals.

14. Girls who animals love.

15. Girls whose favorite rapper in high school was Lil Wayne.

16. Girls who like Lana Del Rey.

17. Girls who like smoking weed.

18. Girls who don’t like authority.

19. Girls who like drinking smoothies.

20. Girls who like wearing cute underwear.

21. Girls who like the color black, and all the other colors too: cerulean blue and pink and deep ASAP Rocky purple.

22. Girls who read Thought Catalog.

23. Girls who read good books.

24. Girls who stay up late at night.

25. Girls who write beautiful honest poetry on private Tumblrs when they stay up late at night.

26. Girls who write long emails to the boys they love.

27. Girls who like watching psychological horror movies cuddled up on a couch with the boys they love.

28. Girls who are in tune with all the cultural stuff happening in their nearest city: the poetry readings, the new restaurants, the independent film festivals, and ask to be taken to them (or better yet, take me to them).

29. Girls who can laugh when others are afraid to laugh and who can see injustice when others see Fox News and who can recognize when people are simply taking themselves too seriously on social media.

30. Girls who are loyal to their fellow girls and don’t let guys get in between them.

31. Girls who are really sexual but keep a layer of privacy around it (because that’s the way I am too).

32. Girls who like giving oral sex as much as they enjoy receiving it.

33. Girls for whom “no” means no.

34. Girls who won’t hold a grudge if a true, genuine sorry has been given.

35. Girls who understand the importance of school, and do well in it.

36. Girls who understand the importance of a guy’s birthday.

37. Girls who will do “maternal stuff”—making food for someone, taking care of them when they’re sick—not out of an overbearing desire to be a mom in their early 20s, but out of love, and who expect the same things to be done for them.

38. Girls who won’t settle for a romantic relationship that’s not equal.

39. Girls who set goals and reach them.

40. Girls who don’t let guys take advantage of them, and when broken up, stay broken up.

41. Girls who call me out on my bullshit.

42. Girls who, after all my apologies and talk of how things will be different, still won’t get back with me.

43. Girls who, whether or not they’re absent or present in my life, will always make me feel the most alive, the most emotional, because love and heartbreak are two of the powerful feelings anyone can have, and if handled correctly, will only make me a better person.

44. Girls who don’t need me, or anyone else for that matter, in their life to be the best, happiest, and most beautiful girls that they can possibly be.