Ask Freddie: “What Do I Do About This Boy Who Likes Me...and His Friend?"

“Ask Freddie” is a monthly advice column where Freddie, DoSomething’s Director of Mobile Messaging, answers anonymous questions from DoSomething members. The topics are always different -- the answers are always REAL. Are you seeking advice? Ask Freddie an anonymous question.

Hey everyone, I’m Freddie!

You probably know me as that person who pops up in your messages every week. If you don’t, let me introduce myself. I’m the Director of Mobile Messaging here at DoSomething.org, and I text over 3 million young people every week. I text about things like new ideas on how to make a difference in their communities, updates on what’s happening in the news, articles I’m reading, or playlists with the latest music I’m listening to.

Texting that many people, I get back hundreds, sometimes thousands, of replies and questions! I try my best to reply to everyone personally. I get a little help from our chatbot and auto replies, but I’m able to read every message you send me. I love receiving your questions -- everything from “What’s your favorite thing to eat?” to “How do I know where to go to college?” to “How do I tell my parents I’m trans?” to “How do I know if I’m ready to have sex?”

Turns out a ton of you are curious or unsure about a lot of the same things.

And because my texts with members are one-to-one and private, you’re opening up and asking me the questions many of us are too afraid to ask out loud, in public, or face to face.

So I decided to take a few of your anonymous questions and answer them the best I can. Sometimes I’ll give advice from my own experience, and sometimes I’ll tap into the real experts to get you the answers you need. Below are my first responses to real questions I received. Have a question you want answered? Submit your question -- I might answer it next!

Question: There is this boy who really, really likes me. I don’t know if I like him or not and his friend keeps pressuring me to make a decision...what do I do?

It seems to me that you’re feeling confused about your feelings for the boy, and the pressure from his friend is further clouding your judgement.

Let’s start here: the way you feel (or don’t feel) for someone is your choice and your choice alone to make. No one is allowed to rush your feelings.

As much as you’re worthy of the admiration and desire of someone else, you’re also deserving of experiencing feelings for someone without pressure! From anybody.

I can get where boy’s friend is coming from. They’re probably trying to look out for their friend and his feelings. But the more they interfere, the harder it will be for you to sort through your feelings for boy. Kindly ask them to back off and give you the space to make your own choice, for the best interest of you and boy! I’m sure boy will feel better knowing you like him because YOU decided that. And if you don’t share the same feelings, he’ll appreciate the truth too.

Want to receive weekly texts from Freddie? Text JOIN to 38383! You can also ask Freddie a question.

DoSomething.org is the largest not-for-profit exclusively for young people and social change. Our digital platform is activating 6 million young people (and counting!) to create offline impact in every US area code and in 131 countries.