The friend zone exists.
I know some people will disagree with me right off, here. Bear with me- I'm not going where you think I am with this.
I'm starting from one assumption- every human who ever was, is, or will be is hard-wired to evaluate every other human as a potential mate. At some point, assuming you spend enough time with a person, you will, on some level, come to a decision on whether or not they're potentially right for you. Most of the time, that answer is no, and it may not even be a conscious decision, but the decision gets made at some point.
Not everybody makes that decision at the same time, though. Some of us make them right off- the semi-mythical 'love at first sight' is an example. Others will wait- maybe to get to know the other person, maybe out of obliviousness, or possibly just because they're not ready to do anything about it at the time.
The 'friend zone' is what happens when a late-decider goes for an early-decider whose response to them was 'no'.
Well, that's not entirely true. The gap between the two types of people is fairly wide, and it doesn't take much to make somebody change their mind. If your crush has a bad habit you find out about later, or just doesn't respond to the signals you send, that's enough to do it. The quick decider might've been interested in the other person, only for that to change by the time the slowpoke gets around to thinking about them. In the end, though, what matters is that the first person is already not interested when the second one becomes so.
So the friend zone is a thing. What it *isn't* is an excuse to whine, mope, or blame the other person. They're not interested, and you're not *entitled* to them because you suddenly became interested in them. If you get friendzoned, it's because you're either not the other person's cup of tea, or you ignored them when they were interested in you. Either way, you should do one of two things.
1. If you're being their friend to try to get into a relationship... you're really not. Stop it.
2. If you really do enjoy being around them, be a friend to them.
Either way, if you want a relationship, grow up and look for one. Either learn to pick up when somebody else is interested before you are and encourage them, or find somebody who works on your timescale.
All you do by complaining about the friend zone is push yourself away from the other person, and waste time that could be spent finding somebody who is interested.
