Sophie is the most popular kid I know.

Just a few weeks into the new school year, I’m having trouble keeping up with my 11-year-old’s social schedule. Last Sunday she was invited to a friend’s house for dinner, and another friend asked her out for ice cream. Another pal asked if she can have a regular badminton date on Fridays, and she’s been meeting with another to write a play. She regularly texts and calls another dozen or so friends; she’s got sleepover plans in the works with several of them. Tonight she has a date with our next door neighbor to compare paint brush collections. She regularly begs me to schedule a time to watch Project Runway with another friend, and a mani-pedi with yet another.

Sophie treasures each of these friendships, and I treasure them as well. We should all be lucky enough to have friends like these. There’s just one problem. They’re all adults: two former nannies, her physical therapist, a family friend, a 60-something neighbor, her kindergarten teacher and the principal from her elementary school (yes, he promised her mani-pedis to celebrate their shared birthday).

Last week I asked Sophie if she’d made any friends in middle school. “Yes!” she told me. “Mrs. W.”

Her aide.

I get that it’s hard to make friends in junior high, whether you have Down syndrome or not. It took Annabelle years to feel comfortable at a new school, to find a group of friends. But I worry if it will ever happen for Sophie. Her gregarious and sometimes aggressive approach to friendship just isn’t going to fly with most of the tween and teen set. She’s different — and kids that age don’t want anyone to notice them, they are busy worrying about their own differences, stuck understandably in their own heads. And if they are intrigued by the idea of a friendship with someone like Sophie, they might be unsure of how to approach it. I know I would have been. (Still am!)

And so my stomach did a backflip when I got an email yesterday informing me that Sophie’s school is getting ready to launch an official Best Buddies program, started years ago by the Shriver family (of Special Olympics fame) to foster friendships between typical kids and kids with disabilities. Historically Best Buddies has been more common in high schools, but they are expanding to junior high. I’m thrilled.

Not everyone’s as into it. I was out for lunch a few weeks ago with a friend who has a 7-year-old with Down syndrome, and the topic came up. She’s not a fan; she doesn’t like forced friendships. I do tend to agree. But when Sophie was 7, she had no need for Best Buddies. She had — and still has — a bona fide best friend, the kind most of us only dream about. She and Sarah met in kindergarten and were attached at the hip (not literally, Sarah’s always had at least a foot on Sophie) through fifth grade — till they parted for different schools.

Here’s a radio piece I did years ago about their friendship.

I wonder if Sarah and Sophie would have become friends if they’d met today. Even at 5, Sarah was a very special person with a big heart, but she was also a little kid unencumbered by puberty and the insecurities that come along with it. Their kindergarten teacher knew to nudge the friendship along, but these days there’s little time for social interaction in school — no recess, a super short lunch hour. Some forced — or rather, encouraged — interaction might be in order.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I worry too much. As usual, Sophie has already proved me wrong. Yesterday afternoon she came home with a phone number for a new friend, one  her own age — a girl in her science class. So maybe we won’t need Best Buddies. But something tells me we will.

In any case, the biggest challenge will be working more play dates onto Sophie’s already-full dance card.