When people hear I was an only child, they tend to have one question for me: “Weren’t you lonely?” It’s somewhat of a loaded query for a casual interaction, but I’ve learned to answer people with what I know they want to hear: “No, I loved it!” I did love soaking up all of my parents’ attention and never having to fight a sibling for the remote, but as a bookish kid perennially on the fringes of school’s social circles, I sometimes longed for company. And those are the moments when I tend to go on Instagram and catch up with the coterie of “loneliness influencers” I follow—or, as I prefer to think of them, my LonelyGirls. Instagram contentOne of the first loneliness influencers I was ever introduced to (via my friend Sarah, another single little-white-dog mom who also lives alone) was Lana Isa, or @lanasololife.