Remember that BFF launch contest, the one that ended yesterday? The one where you could win an iPod shuffle, one for you and your best friend? The one that generated so many cool entries from people telling us how they met their best friend and why their BFF deserved the prize (chocolate, music, and more!).

Well, today’s the day. That’s right, the day we announce the winner. Just think. One of you will be like the girls depicted below by our temperamental artist. Eating chocolate, enjoying music, and so on.

(Oh, the begging, the flattery, the bribery that went into the commissioning of this picture. She caved when she found out it would be the last one and the one meant for the contest winner.)

So, I bet you’re wondering who won? Well, we won’t make you wait much longer. Oh, wait. We will. The winner, after the cut:

Read the rest of this entry »

In a little bit, we’ll announce the winner of our big BFF launch contest. But first, we want to make sure to thank everyone who participated, from sending in entries, linking to the contest post, getting it up on Twitter and Facebook, and so on.

You really made our launch special. We’d really like to thank everyone who sent in their BFF story. It was so inspiring and amazing to read so many amazing testaments to friendship. Thank you for sharing them with us. It was a honor and a privilege to read your stories.

Thank you!

Here’s another entry for the big BFF launch contest. Have your entry in yet? Don’t wait too long. The contest ends this week.

Shelly’s entry:

How did I meet my BFF? Well, she is the wife of one of my husband’s good friends, who just happens to be our vet. My husband is on a committee for the rodeo, which she is also on, along with her husband. My husband introduced us one day, and the rest, as they say, is history.

We just hit it off. She is a great friend! I can call her anytime, for anything, and she will do what she can to help me. Whether it’s lending an ear, a shoulder to cry one, her support, etc, I can always count on her. There are many days when I just shoot her a quick email to tell her I’m thinking about her and hope she’s okay.

She doesn’t live close, about an hour and a half away, but we try to get together as often as we can. She and I love to shop, talk, and play on the computer. We don’t have a great story behind the friendship, just a normal meet and hit it off. I’m so glad to have her as my BFF.

Hey, guys, we’re coming down to the wire on the BFF launch contest. Have you entered? Do you want the new iPod shuffle for yourself and your BFF? Well, get your entries in! Remember, there are multiple ways to add to your entry count beyond sending us your BFF story. (More entries = better chance of winning.)

Here’s a BFF entry for today. My artist is still on strike, sadly.

Some friends go, but some friends stay:

I have four BFFs but three of them have drifted away. Two moved away and the third got a boyfriend who she spends all of her time with. I have met them all through school. The fourth that I am attached to was introduced to my group of friends when she became a new student. We are now very close since last year and we know practically everything about each other. She has been there for me for almost everything that occurred in my life and I think it’s time for me to show how much I appreciate her.

And another entry in our BFF launch contest! An iPod shuffle, one for you and one for your BFF? Come on, you know you want one (and you’re best friend does, too!).

Lexie’s entry:

I’ve had a long rocky road with friendships since becoming a teenager.  My best friend since I was born died of leukemia when we were 13, my best school friends for 4 years ditched me when we entered high school because they wanted to be popular, and the friends I made after they ditched me were more mentally abusive then true ‘friends’.  The girl I trusted upon entering freshman year of college ended up saying smack behind my back to my stepsister, college classmates and neighborhood residents. So understandably by the time I turned19 I was wary as all get from people wanting to ‘hang’ with me. 

For a while I didn’t really bother with friends–I had my boyfriend and that was really all the social fun I wanted to experience.  I felt burned out from all the friends that had betrayed me and felt it simpler to just NOT have friends.  I got a full time job at a local all natural food chain as a bakery clerk and we were having our first ‘team’ meeting.  I was late to the meeting so myself and another clerk had to handle washing the glass doors and dishes in the Prep Foods kitchen sink.  The two of us stood there, staring at the sink for the longest time.  We had no idea how to turn it on at all.  Her name was Melissa and I wouldn’t work with her again for another four months.

I forget what originally sparked out interest in talking to each other honestly.  The both of us are shy, rather hesitant to start conversations and we don’t go out of our way to get into other people’s business, but somewhere between January of that year and April before my 21st birthday Melissa became a GOOD friend. 

Melissa and I have been best friends now for nearly 5 years–and despite our age difference (she’s 5 years older) and our life differences (she’s married now, looking for a house, has an office job, wants to have a kid….I’m nowhere near any of that XD) we both still manage to have a lot of fun together. 

Her friendship also made me look back at all those people who had hurt me and realize that what I had with them wasn’t really friendship–it was a matter of convenience. I don’t have to worry about that with Melissa–even though we haven’t worked together now for over 3 years, we go a week or so without talking or seeing each other or can’t do anything more then go to a bookstore and browse books because we have no money we still enjoy each other’s company.  And that’s more important to me. 

Here’s another entry in our BFF launch contest. Have you entered yet? There’s still time.

Shari’s entry:

My BFF and I met the day she was born. See, my BFF is my sister, Heather. I love her so much! She totally deserves to win a BFF prize pack because she’s one of those people who gives and gives and gives. She’s got two preschoolers, and she’s devoted to them.

Plus she’s a teacher part-time, and a volunteer in her church. She’s amazing. But she’s also tired! I can just imagine how relaxing it would be for her to pop in the ear buds of a new iPod shuffle and lose herself in some tunes for a while. Or to send the kids out with her DH so she can curl up with The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading and some heavenly chocolates, just for her. And the mix tape would be perfect for reminding her what an awesome friend she is to me — even with all she has to do each day, she’s always got time to chat, to sympathize, to cheer me on, to share our lives.

She also loves my kids as much as she loves her own, and she always makes the effort to stay connected with them and let them know they’re loved. So yeah, my sis — my BFF — totally rocks.

Here’s another charming entry in our BFF contest. Getting all these entries in our inbox is a real day brightener. Keep them coming!

Lauren’s entry:

“Hey, you’re in my English class, right?”  a girl with blonde hair said a little too perkily.

“Yeah…um you’re Amanda right?”  I asked nervously.  Meeting new people wasn’t something I was too good at.

“Yeah!  And you’re Lauren.  We should totally sit together in class tomorrow.  You actually seem somewhat interesting,” she said with a grin.

I couldn’t tell if she was joking or being serious.  Me, interesting?  Yeah right.

I gave Amanda a small smile as we made our way to our next class, which ironically we had together.  We sat in the back of the room right next to each other. Halfway through the dreadfully boring class, I started to doodle on the edge of my paper.  I scribbled a softball and several stars around the page and noticed Amanda leaning over to look at what I was doing.  She grabbed the paper from my desk and started furiously writing.  Soon after she placed it back on my desk, and I looked at what she wrote. 

You like softball?!  Me too!  Though I’m more of a soccer fan…anyways, what position do you play??? 

I smiled and wrote a note back.  After what seemed like minutes later, we made our way to lunch.  Amanda asked me to sit with her and a few friends and I graciously agreed.  It became our everyday routine; sit together in Geometry class, walk to lunch and eat at the same table, and then go to English class. Our semi-friendship didn’t go beyond school, but I was fine with that.  Then, my mom became extremely sick.

“Hey, Laur.  I don’t mean to sound nosy or anything, but is something wrong?  I mean you’ve been acting kind of…weird,” Amanda said hesitantly.

I explained what was happening with my mom and was comforted by a big hug.  From that day on we were best friends and hopefully we always will be. 

And another entry in the contest! The BFFs are coming fast and furious. Get yours in today!

Michaela’s entry:

My best friend is Jennifer and we met in Band. This may sound like I’m making it up because I wanted my friend story to be “geeky” but it’s true. Me and Jenn both play flute and I’ve known her for a while. I use to think of her as a “pain” but now it’s like my life feels like it’s missing something without her.

Jenn deserves to win this prize because she’s always there for me, for example, just today we had to play at a graduation and she was sitting next to me and we were in the middle of the well known graduation song “Pomp And Circumstance” and I lost my place in the song because I was looking around.

She noticed I lost my place, stopped playing, and pointed to where we were in the song. I never thought I would find a friend that was completely different than me but now thinking about all of the many differences between me and Jenn I notice how many there are, and truthfully, I don’t care how different we are. We’ll always be friends forever.  

Another entry in the big BFF launch contest. Do you have yours in yet?

Dani’s entry:

My best friend, Erin and I didn’t become best friends until our junior year of high school. Before that, I had a previous best friend and things weren’t going well for us, but that’s a whole nother story.

Erin and I actually didn’t have a “cool” or “weird” way of becoming friends, like some best friends did. She walked up to me at my locker during school and we just started talking (this was in early October). Next thing we knew on Halloween night we went bowling and hung out with my sister and her BFF and also my mom and her fiancé. We had a blast and have been BFF’s since (over 4 years now).

I think my BFF deserves the prize because she’s really just the best. We have so much in common and she accepts me for who I am and doesn’t judge me.

She also really needs some new books to read because she recently moved back to our home state of Minnesota (she moved to Florida after we graduated from HS) and she ended up losing all of her books right before she moved, her aunt accidentally sold them all when she was having a garage sale to raise money to move back here – her aunt didn’t know she wasn’t supposed to sell them.

So, now she has nothing to read except going to the library to borrow books so I know winning this BFF Bag would mean a lot to her, plus she loves music so winning an iPod shuffle wouldn’t hurt either.

Here’s another entry in our big BFF contest. Remember, it’s running until the end of June. Still plenty of time to enter.

And now, Lesley’s entry:

I met my best friend Anne Marie in a kidlit online chat room almost a year ago. We were relatively new in a room full of veteran writers so we bonded really quick. When we first started out we were just two girls who met up weekly to talk shop and goofed around until recently when we realized that with our combined enthusiasm, we could TRY FOR THAT BIG IDEA.

It was Anne Marie who suggested that since we’ve received so much support from the writing community that we should give back to it. So this month, we came up with our Complete Your Draft Contest whereby we try to get as many writers as we can to commit to finishing their draft.

Neither one of us has had any experience organizing something like this before so we were very touched when so many gracious people stepped up and extended their hand to help us make the contest a reality. We have 20 participants so far – a lot more than we dared hope for – and we are already discussing the one we are going to hold next year. Such is the power of friendship!