The biggest relationship issue of our generation, covered on major sites such as Wikipedia, Urban Dictionary and even MTV’s Girl Code, is getting friend-zoned, and is something most teens try to avoid.

According to Urban Dictionary, getting friendzoned is “What you attain after you fail to impress a woman you’re attracted to. Usually initiated by the woman saying, ‘You’re such a good friend.’ Usually associated with long days of suffering and watching your love interest hop from one bad relationship to another.”

The act of being friend-zoned usually involves not only getting rejected by your love interest, but also dissolving that friendship you formed.

So for you unlucky gents, I’m sure you’re wondering how to get out of the infamous friend zone, and I am here to help with that.

If you believe that you are falling for one of your closest girl friends, it is extremely vital that you establish what the relationship is. There is nothing worse than going out to dinner with a girl, having a great time and when you go in for the goodnight kiss, hearing, “Did you think this was a date?!” So maybe when asking someone to go eat with you drop the phrase “date.”

Don’t become a friend-zone platinum member; we all know this guy. The guy you see walking around with five girls and he’s dating none of them, and he never will, because this is a friend-zone platinum member. He has been so close with this group of girls that they can’t even see him as anything more than another girl to talk about her boyfriend problems with. Now there is nothing wrong with having tons of friends of the opposite sex, but once you know they’re just your friends you can’t try to be more.

Avoid unwanted gifts at all costs. For the sake of your dignity, do not get extravagant around their birthday or Christmas by expressing your feelings with money. Getting someone a little gift as a friend is always acceptable, but buying anything over $50 for one of your best friends of the opposite sex is overboard, and you definitely don’t want them to think that you’re trying too hard. This is not the way to express your feelings; use words, not gifts.

Do not perform a grand romantic gesture. This includes roses, poems, songs or anything in front of a group. If you want to make sure that you can keep a little confidence, do not try to do anything too romantic. If this ends in the girl not feeling the same, you will look and feel equally stupid.

Know where you belong. Not all of the problems with the friend -zone are because girls don’t want to date nice guys; most of them actually stem from the guy just… being a friend. In fact the friend-zone really is just a place for friends.

So it could be best for everyone involved if you would just realize that being a best friend is a good role, and you should be happy that that person is in your life in the first place; don’t try to step out of the friend-zone if it’s where you belong.