‘The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants’ Helped Give Me My Best Friend

I’ve had the same best friend since the fifth grade. Sometimes I wonder if being unable to make a better friend than someone I met when I was 11 makes me emotionally stunted. However, I’m her best friend as well, so for better or for worse, we’re both at this level of maturity. There were several things that brought us together: a love of Universal Orlando, general middle school gossip, several shared fashion trends that make both of us gag to this day. However, there was one major moment I think about when asked how we came to be BFFs: the day we ripped The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants to shreds.

I first saw The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants with a group of my girl friends, my mom, and her best friend. You have to remember that this was the early 2000s, a time when Sex and the City dominated the pop culture landscape. As grown women fervently debated their fictional doppelgangers, their daughters desperately wanted to do the same. As preteens, we could never compare ourselves to Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte without things getting creepy, but we could look to the Pants’ crew of Carmen, Lena, Tibby, and Bridget. We piled into the theater, anxious for a good movie and a look into what it was like to be the most glorious thing in the world — a teenager.

But that’s not entirely true. While two thirds of our group were anxiously ready to embrace the onscreen joy of everlasting female friendship, both my bestie and I were one giant internal eye roll. I remember watching the movie and being mortified that we paid money to see this. The dynamics of these all-fitting pants wasn’t just zany; it was unbelievable. I also distinctly remember feeling grossed out that no one was allowed to wash said pants, even though my room was likely one giant stack of unwashed clothes at the time. Unbeknownst to each other, both my now best friend and I had been mentally chronicling every cinematic sin this movie committed. It wasn’t long before we both noticed the other one stifling laughter at the same unfunny scenes. That’s all the permission we needed before we started to verbally berate this poor movie. Nothing escaped our barbed, middle school film judgement, from the odd wardrobe choices to the over-the-top angsty teenage pouting.

Since seeing The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in theaters, I’ve rewatched it, and it’s not nearly as bad as I remember. It’s a better-than-average stereotypical teen movie. It’s not at a John Hughes level, but it’s worlds better than anything from the Twilight franchise. I would actually recommend Traveling Pants over many other teen movies just for its star power (we’re talking Blake Lively, Alexis Bledel, AND America Ferrera) and realistic portrayal of female friendships. It feels crucial that I defend the movie before I share this next part.

Throughout the course of the movie, Tibby begrudgingly befriends a younger girl named Bailey, who has leukemia. In one of the saddest parts of the film, Bailey passes away, and Tibby is forced to say goodbye to her new friend. The scene is a surprisingly mature take on death for a tween movie … and my best friend and I missed the whole thing because we were too busy giggling over Tibby’s documentary. We had no clue anyone died until after the movie ended.

Yes, we were annoying middle schoolers, and yes, we are terrible people for laughing. However, through that inappropriate laughter and this movie about friendship, I cemented my bestie relationship status with the accomplished young woman I adore today. Also, during that same screening, I overheard my mother and her best friend laughing hysterically at Cameron’s ever-somber wedding scene, so I think obnoxiousness runs in my family. The point is this movie about the power of female friendship gave me the most important female friend I’ve ever known. So I wanted to take a moment to rebuke my middle school self for laughing at this pretty great movie (I swear, we’re better in theaters now), and to thank The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It may have taken Carmen, Lena, Tibby, and Bridget a magical pair of pants to unite them, but all we needed was you.

[Where to stream The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants]

Photos: Everett Collection