I am a girl, and I think there definitely can be a “friend zone”. For example, I have had male friends that I might have dated, but by the time I realized they were interested, I put too much value on the friendship to jeopardize it. Plus once I was in a friendship with the guy, and we were both friends with other girls, I knew they would feel left out if we started dating, might be jealous, it would just mess up the whole thing.
So I have a friend zone, and once someone’s in it, there is no escaping. Like your question, the thing is to avoid it in the first place.
How does one do this?
When you first meet a girl you think you like, try to immediately give her a compliment. You don’t have to say something that reeks of pick-up line, I know you said you’re shy, but something like, “You have beautiful eyes” or the best thing is if you can pick up something actually unique about her, like if she has super-curly hair and you actually think its really pretty say ‘i love your hair’ etc.
(I just read the ladder “theory” and it’s a bunch of bullshit. It acts like women are too stupid to know what we want, and that all we care about is being with someone rich. If that was true, then only rich people would have girlfriends or get married. If that was true we’d have a serious population problem…it’s obviously crap…)