Before you head for the nearest mall, get smart. Hundreds of companies use October to boost their image (not to mention their profits) by connecting themselves to a good cause. Just because an item is anointed with the sacred pink ribbon doesn’t make it clear where the money from this product is going.

If you really want to make a real difference in the fight against breast cancer, volunteering your time or contributing to a great, reputable charity is the way to go. But if you’re in the mood to splurge (or stock up on office supplies, paper towels, lip gloss and home furnishings) read the fine print on those pink product labels.

In the meantime, here’s a peak at nine awesome items from brands that donate a significant amount to breast cancer charities

Celebrity Tees by Bop Basics

Shopbob has partnered with Denise Richards, Hilary Duff, Sophia Bush, Nicky Hilton, Cindy Crawford and Jamie King to launch Breast Cancer Awareness Month Tees. Each shirt has a unique design, with 50% of each sale going to Breast Cancer Network of Strength, an organization that provides emotional support to anyone affected by breast cancer. Its mission is to ensure that no one faces breast cancer alone.

General Mills’ “Save Lids to Save Lives” Yoplait Yogurt

This program has raised more than $19 million over the past 10 years. The program donates 10 cents to Susan G. Komen For The Cure Foundation for every lid mailed back by the end of the year, with a guaranteed donation of $500,000 and a cap of $1.5 million.

e.l.f.’s Super Glossy Lip Shine in Pink Kiss

Only $1 most drug stores, 100% of all sales during October benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Estee Lauder Pink Ribbon CollectionEstee

Lauder will donate $500,000 in connection with the sales of its Pink Ribbon Collection to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Tomboy Traveler Tool Kits & Hammers

In partnership with the Susan G. Komen For the Cure Foundation, Tomboy is working to make a $1 million donation to research. The company will donate $7 of each Tomboy Traveler tool kit sold before Dec. 31 and 50% of the purchase price of their Help Hammer Out Breast Cancer tools.

In The Pink Chocolate Collection

Put your diet on hold. 20% of the retail price of these divine chocolates are donated to fund various breast cancer research projects. Voted one of the best holiday gifts on the Today Show, the nine piece box includes flavors like Bravery Baseball Caps, Pink Paisley, Swirls, Pink Ribbon, You Go Girl!, Raspberry, and Heart of Life.

Aveda Breast Cancer Awareness Hand Relief

$4 from each sale will fund environmental research at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Founded in 1993 by Evelyn H. Lauder and dedicated to funding clinical and genetic research on breast cancer at medical institutions across the globe, Aveda will donate a maximum of $300,000.

Hanky Panky Breast Cancer Signature Thong

Lacy, low-rise and adorned with a rhinestone breast cancer awareness ribbon on the hip. You can’t pass up these sexy one-size-fits-all panties. $2 of every purchase will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Skyn ICELAND Detox Kit

In October the $45 kit gives you a month’s supply of face wash, face mist, lotion and oxygen-infusing night cream and provides $5 donation to The American Cancer Society. The collection is free of parabens, petroleum and sulfates, as well as being 100 percent vegetarian.

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The curse was reversed! Even more than that miracle, though, was the miracle that some people who had less than zero interest in sports (like yours truly) suddenly became excited by the games.

All of us, no matter what our sports background, were on the edge of our seats as the Red Sox struggled to beat the Yankees, our mortal enemy, and then the Cardinals. Each won game was one more day we were still alive, and I still remember the excited discussions at school. People who had never held a baseball in their lives were talking strategy and statistics; Red Sox caps came out in every possible color.

It reminded me of how fun and exciting it can be to pretend to be a tomboy even for a little while, especially in the summer, and get your head and heart into a game. Sports are made not just by the playing, but by the watching. Every great athlete dreams not just of winning, but of having the crowd go wild.

So, this summer, go to a game of some sort and root root root for the home team. There’s nothing like going to a baseball game — the evening lights coming on, the hot dogs and beer, the dazzlingly green turf, the occasional heart-in-your-throat moment. It’s the same with basketball or soccer (soccer, that sadly maligned game in America, that desperately needs fans). Plan a day out to your nearest stadium, get a bucket of popcorn, and scream yourself hoarse. Even if you love being a girly girl, you’ll be glad you engaged with sports on a primal level for a day and got a taste of what everyone else is so excited about.

Growing up, I was daddy’s little girl. If my mom said I couldn’t have ice cream after dinner, I’d run to my dad; if my mom said I couldn’t stay out past eleven on a school night, I knew dad could be convinced. I was never really a tomboy (except for that brief period when I was five and told everyone I was a boy, but that’s not important right now…), but I always got along with guys better than I did with girls. Anyone who has seen Mean Girls and/or was picked on by other girls in high school knows why. Girls can be horrible to each other. Girls can be judgmental, catty, and sometimes just plain bitches. After being tormented by other girls all through school, I found it incredibly hard to get close to girls, and incredibly easy to get close to guys.

Sadly, something I have discovered in the post-college world I now inhabit is that it’s no longer easy to find guys to just be friends with. After you get your diploma and toss your hat up in the air, you’re thrust in to a world where everyone seems to be looking to pair up, and no one just wants to hang out and get a beer.

Sometimes you’ll make friends with people at work, but often you’ll want to keep your work life and your weekend life separate, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll find your weekend-life group of friends has dwindled since graduation. People tend to scatter after college, and often you’ll find that the plans you had with your friends to get a house together in San Francisco, or wherever, has fallen through, and now you’re living in a city with just one or two good friends. So now you want to make more friends, and now you come upon one of the greatest unspoken challenges of being in your 20s: making friends, especially with the opposite gender.

Here’s a scenario that seems to be repeating in my life lately: I’m hanging out with friends at a bar hanging and a guy strikes up a conversation with me. He’s friendly, funny, he’s a writer like me, and he’s got some great anecdotal stories about his first job working as a PA on “Conan O’Brien.” In other words, he’s a catch. He asks me for my number and I hand him my business card. I should be thrilled, except there’s one big problem: I’m not attracted to him. Whatsoever. So how do I forge a friendship with someone I’m going to have to let down?

These are the three options I’ve tried:

1) Give him your number but don’t pick up when he calls asking you out to dinner.

This is a massive waste of a perfectly good business card. Don’t hand out your phone number if you don’t plan on picking up the guy’s call. Although I will say that if he hadn’t asked for dinner and instead invited me to a museum or something else in a more platonic setting, I would have called him back.

2) Go out on a pseudo-date.

I went out on a date with a guy who had awesome credentials but not-so-awesome looks. We got along really well, but at the end of the night I still just wasn’t attracted to him. Even though we had a good time together, and I managed to dodge the goodnight kiss, I blew him off when he called asking for a second date. Looking back on it, I wish I’d tried harder to be friends with him, but I was new to the game, and gave up too easily.

3) Go out and make it subtly clear that you’re not interested in sex.

This is by far my best suggestion. From the get-go, you should set the ground rules. If the guy asks you out for dinner, suggest some happy hour drinks (way too early for a goodnight kiss or a drunken sleepover); if he asks you out for drinks but you’re not ready for one-on-one time, invite him out with your friends. Then, when you are hanging out, try to sneak into the conversation something about a guy at work you’re crushing on or about your vow to be single until you’ve moved out of your parent’s house, found a job, gotten your trust-fund payout at age thirty, whatever.

In my experience, it is possible to forge a friendship with someone of the opposite sex post-college, it just takes a little more work and cunning than it did while in school, and it’s bound to be more awkward. But if you’re a guy’s girl like me, and mean girls have scarred you for life, it’s worth it.

Dear Ladies, I want you to ask yourself a question I often times ask myself on the shameful walk through an apartment which I hardly recognize on a hung over morning. The man at hand’s name is still new to me and I’ve left him snoring in his sheets. His roommates are awake and have no fucking clue who I am, so I wave awkwardly and put my boots on as quickly as possibly. I tell them to have a nice day and I just know, as I stumble down the building’s steps, one of them is asking the other:

“Wasn’t that their first date?”, chuckle, chuckle, chuckle.

So the question of doom is this, ladies:

Are you really a lady?

I’ll be the first one to rub hot wing sauce on my jeans. I can be as tomboy as they come… can’t break a nail cause I don’t have any to break…so I know that I’m not a stereotypical “lady”. But when it comes down to sex, I’m starting to see that the “Anything Goes” handbook I’ve been using for dating might not exactly be relevant anymore.

There are rules, whether you want to follow them is up to you, but I think it’s important that even the most unlady-like of ladies know when to hold out for sex. The key here is to know what you want from the guy.

If you’re in a new town (or your own town, whatever) and have decided that you literally just want to f*ck someone; well, you’re on what I like to call a mission. If sex is your ultimate goal, then find your dude and do the nasty thing. In fact, if you just want a casual hook-up with some dude you don’t even like all that much, there’s no sense in making him–or you–wait in that case, either.

The difference comes in to play when you meet a guy you really like. You know that guy you can spill your soul to, cry laughing with, and even though you deny it, you can really see some long term potential with him? He’s the guy who has to wait.

It’s plain and simple. If you want to keep his interest fastened tightly, you have to hold out. I would go as far as to say no more than kissing on the first date and to wait for sex at least until the 3rd or 4th date. This may not sound like a long wait to many of you, but trust me, it’s enough for him. Play your sex cards right and he’ll be begging for you by the 3rd date and guess who’ll have the upper hand at that point?

You, of course.

So to summarize for all of us unlady-like ladies out there:

If you don’t see potential with the guy; bone him in the bathroom at the bar. As long as you’re safe about it, who cares what happens later?

If you see any potential with him, excuse yourself from the petting session and make Prince Charming wait.

Got it? Good.

Class dismissed.