Friendship Problems – Auntie Aura's Confessions Corner

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Dear Auntie Aura,

We are a group of four friends in our twenties that have known each other since our school days. Our problem is that the fifth girl who sometimes makes up our group has a terrible body odour problem. At school she earned the name ‘Sweaty Betty’ because of her pong and now as an adult the smell is even worse and she’s becoming an embarrassment to us.

BO aside, Sophina is the most kind hearted and fun-loving girl you could ever meet. We all love her dearly and have dropped heavy hints about her personal hygiene in the hope she would do something about it. She hasn’t and we think she doesn’t even care. People sometimes make nasty comments to her about her smell yet she’ll just swear at them or shrug the comments off.

Sophina’s problem is now causing friction within our group as two girls are fed up with the embarrassment and peed off with the smell. They think its time to drop her when we go out or they’re not going to come out with us at all. How can we resolve this Aura?

Sharna, Lian, Jodie and Frances xxxx Bradford, UK

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Auntie Aura Says:

Friendships are very valued relationships that often require taking people as they are, whatever their faults. However, bad personal hygiene is a fault which needs a heavy stomach to put up with. Your friend Sophina appears to have a problem, not only having BO but not wanting to do anything about it. If that’s how she chooses to live then its her prerogative but when her problem inflicts others its unfair.

I’m suspecting that since she has had this problem since school she’s never had proper guidance from the adults in her life at that period on how to keep herself clean. You can’t make her change but if she won’t take hints, the ‘cruel to be kind’ method is the last chance to salvage your friendship as a group. Tell her how much you love her as a friend but she needs to hit the bathroom as her BO offends you all. If that method fails she deserves to be kicked out of the group as she obviously doesn’t value the importance of your friendship. Sophina will be the loser when she has no friends and left to wallow in her stench by herself.

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