You're not antisocial. You're not difficult. You haven't forgotten how to make friends.
You've just changed. Your life has changed. You grew up and matrued. And somewhere between the moves, the career shifts, the school runs and the WhatsApp groups full of people you don't really know — you lost the thread of real, deep, actually-gets-me friendship.
This guide is for that woman. The one who has plenty of people around her... and still goes to bed wondering where her people are.
WHAT'S INSIDE
Five questions nobody asks you — but should.
Each one comes with honest context, a little of my own story, and one or two things to actually try. Because reflection without action is just expensive therapy!
WHO THIS IS FOR
You've lived in more than one place. You've reinvented yourself at least once. You're done with surface-level but not sure how to get past it. You've said "I should really make more of an effort" and then not known where to start.
This is for you.
ABOUT HANNA
I'm Hanna — Oxford-educated, ex-lobbyist, mom of three daughters, Korean-American British, currently based in Dubai. I've moved 19 times since university... so I know a thing or two about the difficulties of making friends and new connections.
I built GAMA — Global Asian Mamas Abroad — because I kept meeting the same woman everywhere I moved: Beautifully complex cultural backgrounds. Brilliant. Funny. Mature. Becoming her own. Slightly adrift. Looking for her people.
You don't have to be Asian. This guide is applicable to all women of all ages looking to find her people, her community.
This is what I wish someone had handed me decades ago.