Nina Dobrev and the post-breakup blueprint we all need to follow.

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Here is my hyper-fixation for the day: Nina Dobrev, just over a week post-breakup, on a yacht, partying with her hot, hot celebrity friends. 

Not just any friends. Zac Efron. Chace Crawford. Miles and Keleigh Teller. A group of people that are so genetically blessed it hurts my eyes. In the pictures, Nina is sun-kissed, with an Aperol Spritz in hand and not a single mascara tear in sight. 

This isn't just a casual summer hang-out with friends; it's a statement. 

And because I am a woman with far too much access to the internet and too many unresolved feelings about my own breakups, the first thought that came to my head was: Yes, this is the energy I want post-heartbreak. 

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Forget Bridget Jones crying into Chardonnay and Adele's post divorce album tears. Nina said, "Get me a yacht." Nina said, "Get me a yacht with Zac Efron on it". Nina said, "Watch my reclaim my joy with a crew that looks like the cast of Gossip Girl and High School Musical are having a cross-over special episode in Italy". 

In case you missed it, Nina had been with Shaun White  — yes, the Olympic snowboarding legend — since late 2019.

They announced their engagement in October of last year with an over-the-top Instagram post (and a 5-carat ring). They appeared on red carpets together, gave cute anecdotes in interviews and trotted the globe so much you'd think they were aspiring travel influencers. 

They also had what I like to call "shared besties custody" with actor Miles Teller and his wife, Keleigh. The group went on vacations together, celebrated holidays and milestones together and double-dated so convincingly that you would have been mistaken for believing they were all attached at the hip. 

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A post shared by @keleighteller

And then, earlier this month, it ended.

After over five years, Nina and Shaun announced their split. While the exact details are hazy and vague — as celebrity breakups always are (although there were shady TikTok posts and rumours of cheating) — the vibe was clear: another Hollywood couple had bitten the metaphorical dust. 

Which brought the world (okay, fine, perhaps just me) to the greatest breakup dilemma of all time: who gets to keep the friends?

I am not lying when I say that this question genuinely haunts me. If I'm honest, I have almost never won custody of the friend group.

I'm not sure if that's because I date men with stronger social ties than me, or because I reinvent myself post-breakup like a witness in a Mafia case, but nine times out of ten, losing someone I love has also meant losing a large number of people I once called my nearest and dearest. 

They keep the friends. I keep… a tub of half-melted ice cream and an Amazon order history full of self-help books and poetry I'll never read. 

But here is Nina. Not just keeping the friends, but seemingly multiplying them.

I'm not even sure if Zac Efron was part of the original roster, but suddenly he is on a yacht, with bleached blonde hair (that's another conversation I simply don't have the brain capacity to discuss right now), shirtless and jumping off very tall things.

Minus one snowboarder, plus one Zac Efron. That is the kind of maths I can get behind.

The very best friends a heartbroken girl could ever need. Image: Instagram/@keleighteller.

It is enough, however, to make me spiral about my breakup track record.

The brutal reality of it is that most of us don't emerge from heartbreak glowing, tanned and holding a Spritz while Gossip Girl's Nate Archibald adjusts his sunnies and slaps on sunscreen nearby. 

We emerge splotchy, drinking ALDI wine straight from the bottle, crying to our group chat about how he's probably already dating someone else. Nina has somehow managed to bypass that "sad-girl era" entirely and skip straight to "yacht life with hot people". It honestly feels like cheating. 

But who's to say this can't be the blueprint?

Not the yacht (my bank balance, unfortunately, screams "peak hour ferry ride" at best), but the act of surrounding yourself with people who remind you of joy. People who won't flinch when you spiral into "WILL I DIE ALONE? WILL ANYONE EVER LOVE ME AGAIN? HAHAHA HELP ME" territory. 

People who are hot, yes, but more importantly, people who let you laugh again when all you may have done for weeks is stare at your phone screen like it holds all the answers. (Spoiler: it doesn't.)

The best part?

Nina's photos don't read like revenge or PR damage control. They don't feel like the curated "look how fine I am" thirst traps we've all attempted post break-up.

Instead, they look like someone choosing to be happy and refusing to let heartbreak eclipse the parts of life that are still good. 

A pink float and Zac Efron nearby? Sign us up. Image: Instagram/@keleighteller.

Sometimes, we need the reminder that you don't have to crumble when a relationship ends. The reminder that you can still be vibrant, funny and magnetic and a reminder that the story of you didn't end just because the story of you-and-them did. 

Of course, I'm still going to be dramatic after a breakup, because that is just who I am.

But the next time I feel panic over potentially losing the friend group, or fear that I will never be happy again, I will think of Nina. On a yacht. With Zac and Chace and Miles. Living her best life.

Because while I personally may not have Zac Efron on speed dial, I do have my people. And that, my friends, is enough. 

Feature image: Instagram/@keleighteller.