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Soon, queer women around the country will begin piling in cars together to make their pilgrimage to The Mountain for A-Camp. Many of these queer women will never have met before. Getting to know someone in-person, without the luxury of a backspace button and time to think about how to answer a question in the chillest possible way, can be daunting — but don’t worry! We’re here to help! Below are 20 icebreaker questions to help you get to know your soon-to-be dear friends.
1. Which Hogwarts house are you in?
2. Would you rather read a paper book or a book on a Kindle?
3. Can you change a tire? Can anyone in this car change a tire?
4. Do you usually prefer to go out at night or stay in?
5. Where would you like to travel that you’ve never been?
6. What do you think schools should be required to teach that they’re not currently required to teach?
7. What’s the best taco you’ve ever had?
8. Would you rather be twice as smart or twice as happy?
9. Who do you think is the most dateable fictional character?
10. What story do your friends tell about you that you wish they’d forget?
11. What’s your dream Jeopardy category?
12. Would you rather have the ability to fly or be a mind-reader?
13. If you had to be in your pajamas all day or a suit/fancy dress all day, which would you choose?
14. What’s your desert island album?
15. Do you believe in “The One”?
16. Have you ever stopped reading a book in the middle and never picked it back up again?
17. What’s one of your major deal-breakers?
18. What is the greatest cereal ever created?
19. Which website do you spend the most time on?
20. What’s the last video you watched on YouTube? (Tell the truth!)
ha ha CAN ANYONE IN THIS CAR CHANGE A TIRE
What’s the best taco you’ve ever had? REALLY?!
for people from Texas, this question is impossible for multiple reasons
I live in Dallas and I agree with all of that.
Same for us in California.
I grew up in a dying tourist town, where all the buildings downtown are Historic and no one can change the signs. So until I was 19 the best taco I had was from a place everyone still calls “The Laundromat” this really is a good question!
#8 and #18 are the same question.
:-)
Hey you! Numbers 8 and 18 are the same question! I demand a new one!
The lady standing in line front of me at the library yesterday had a Slytherin lanyard. I smiled, then I thought ‘really?… like really though??’ hm.
if they don’t say “autostraddle” to #19, pull over and let them outta the car.
okay I mean yes but also let’s be honest, tumblr takes up way too much of my time also
For real, like you know when you open chrome and it has like thumbnails of your most frequently visited sites? Yeah, it’s tumblr and autostraddle going 1 and 2.
I spend a lot of time on afterellenpage.com
These should be part of a survey I love them. Plus, I’m curious as to how many of us are in the same house and/or agree on cereal. I have no idea why I feel like this could be important lol.
Dateable fictional character — I would love to date Hermione.
The Sorting Hat would let me choose between either Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and I would pick Hufflepuff, probably.
Wow I had never thought of this possibility, but now that I read it, it’s totally what would happen to me to!
I’d probably pick Ravenclaw because being smart is rated higher in society and at 11 I’d still be influenced by that, even though I’m pretty sure I’d get halfway through my Hogwarts education and regret my decision because really the traits I most like about my self are my loyalty and hard work and all the other Hufflepuff qualities…
I now say Hufflepuff when people ask though :)
If they can answer Dumbledore/Gandalf to any question keep them.
And yes Autostraddle.
Also want to add that last year I had 2 people in my car I didnt know going and coming from camp. They also didnt know each other. It was one of the greatest things I couldve done before camp. It was nice to know I knew at least 2 people already because it was my first camp and because Tory had been to every single camp before we didnt get lost yay!!
ohhhh I want to go on a roadtrip now! Who’s keen? :P
These are such a great collection of questions! I have a stack of get-to-know-you question flashcards for new friends or long trips — going to add these questions to my stack now!
Get-to-know-you flashcards are such a great idea! I’m definitely making my own now!
The questions where I must pick ONE TO RULE THEM ALL kill me. I’m a lifelong can’t-choose-don’t-make-me-choose-er. ONE album? I can pick three, maybe, but just one? Cruel.
There needs to be a sex toy Jeopardy category. Or an entire game of many sex toy categories.
And masturbation should be taught. They should talk about the clitoris, too.
y’all, I already compiled 271 questions (and counting) to get to know the humans I am riding with/future cabinmates/anyone willing to answer them! glad that we are ONCE AGAIN in sync, straddleverse
Some of the people returning to my cabin have been to camp with me 3-4 times and I still think these would be great questions to ask them. Awesome list!
im here im ready
ready for what?
Omg I love all of these and I want to print them all out for my next road trip.
P.S. My Jeopardy subject would be “lesbians in popular media” OBVIOUSLY.
P.P.S. Changing a tire is so much harder than it looks on TV.
If the answer to 3 is No then I think the answer to 6 is obvious…
Thanks, Autodtraddle. Now I just want to go roadtripping with some ladies and ask them loads of strange questions.
Well this solves my tinder chat conundrum…
okay this is a gr8 list which I really appreciate because I am hosting a queer mixer soon (in L.A., the Sunday immediately post-camp, which any mountain stragglers still in town should attend, it’s called Rainbow Fish and we have choose-your-pronoun name tags AHEM) and I always struggle so much with the questions for the speed mingling so THANK YOU FOR THIS POST and know that its gay half-life extends far beyond A-Camp <3
YEsss Rainbow Fish! Keely I’m going to actually BE THERE omg!
But seriously if we need more good questions we can just ask Portia @portiacat :) <3
Oh but you totally missed out asking their sign! That’s one of the first things I ask when I meet people. And then after an acceptable length of time, their exact date/time/place of birth so I can look at their birth chart. Just to see if we’d make good friends. That’s normal, right?
hah! ditto. ;D
I have a chip on my shoulder about asking for people’s sign because I don’t know what any of the signs mean, and when I tell people I’m a Sagittarius, they always get this knowing look like, “Oh, of course you are.” And I’m like, “I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS.” And then whatever traits they tell me, I never like them!
#13, really though, is there even any debate?
The only answers I am universally interested in are to the following questions: “what is your beauty regimen?” and “when was the last time you were in a fight?”. I imagine it’s what I would ask all my subjects if my job was to interview people.
Not going to camp this year, but imma file these away for future first dates, because I often run out of things to talk about. :p
Never ask a Ravenclaw what new subjects schools should be required to teach unless you want them to spend the rest of the car ride explaining how to completely reinvent the American education system, complete with supporting research and source citations.
I’ll go ahead and answer these.
1) Pottermore says Gryffindor
2) Paper book
3) Theoretically
4) Stay in
5) Let me get back to you on that one
6) Evolution. They should be REQUIRED to teach evolution
7) er….
8) If I was twice I as smart, I’d be very smart. If I was twice as happy, I wouldn’t be very happy.
9) If I wasn’t 38 I would say Hermione
10) It’s been a long time since I’ve had friends
11) The Cthulhu Mythos
12) Fly
13) Pajamas
14) Helloween – Keeper of the Seven Keys part II
15) Yes, but I haven’t been able to find her…yet.
16) Yep. First book in the “Sword of Truth” series
17) People with nails chewed down to the nub. I can’t stand that
18) Cocoa Pebbles
19) TheMarySue.com
20) Grasscut – The Lights