How to ask a girl out // this isn’t an excuse to post pictures of hot boys. Honest.

Note: this post is in no way a thinly veiled excuse to post pictures of dudes who we would like to be asked out by. Nope.

OK, let’s make this UK specific – anyone who has ever watched one of those moviefilms from the USA knows that American boys have no problem asking a girl out. Look at Gossip Girl*, FFS: every other sentence out of those chaps’ mouths is “d’ya wanna grab coffee or something?” – it’s as easy as breathing for them.

*Gossip Girl reference = carte blanche excuse to feature pic of Chuck 'bad boy' Bass. Swoonalish.

But over here in good old Angleterre, we seem to be unable to ask each other out on an actual, bonafide date. A lunch, a drink, a dinner, a trip to the movies…it just doesn’t happen anymore.

And this is for two primary reasons: one, British men lack the necessary confidence/charisma to pull of this manoeuvre and two, British gals don’t know how to take a compliment. We start out at a disadvantage, to be perfectly honest.

The usual way a couple is formed in this country involves a girl agonising about a boy she fancies for ages while he ignores her, only to get absolutely trollied/wasted/smashed and then snog her in the middle of a sticky dance floor on a Saturday night. After which, they are henceforth ‘going out’. It’s hardly the pinnacle of romance. You don’t get many Mills and Boons set in a South Shields pub, now do you?

Crazy Stupid Love: Sometimes, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do (i.e. we get bored of waiting and do the asking ourselves)

So, in true supergirl style, we come to the rescue in our spandex capes and provide the Le Blow guide to asking a girl out. Read on, my girlfriend-less male friends. (If you do have a girlfriend, stop bloody reading this, you sneaky bastard)

Step 1

Identify your target. And not in a pervy, lecherous kinda way. Looking a girl up and down is a sure-fire way to get a slap in the face (unless you are in an RnB music video, apparently). Suss out the girl you like, make eye contact, throw in a cheeky smile (what?! what’s wrong with a little fantasy?)

Step 2

Approach your target in a confident, but not arrogant, manner. Sneaking up behind someone also won’t give the right impression. It may also imply that you are a stalker who likes smelling girls’ hair.

Step 3

TALK. Make actual conversation. Ask her what she is reading, if you can buy her a drink, what her weekend plans are. Unless you can pull of Ryan Gosling ‘Crazy Stupid Love’-levels of charisma, don’t try a line. Especially not if it’s inspired by the current trend for backhanded compliments. Boys think that they work. They don’t. Just be cool.

Step 4

Ask her if she wants to get a drink, go to a gig, maybe climb up a ferris wheel to declare your undying love, Notebook-style. That last one probably only works if you really are Ryan Gosling. And you have great balance.

Hang in there, Ryan! She's worth it - we've seen the ending. Many, many times.

The beauty of this plan? It is so unusual for a British girl to be actually asked out, (American movie style, instead of drunken bump ‘n’ grinding in a club) that she’ll be so surprised, she won’t know what to say. And in that true British fashion of old school politeness, she’ll most likely say yes.

If all else fails, ask her to go with you to a wedding. Never fails. At least not in the movies…