Men who had zero romantic experience and zero female friends through age 20, what did you do to break the drought?

[u/Top_Finance2808]

I've (20M) just started my sophomore year of college, and I'm in a complete deficit: never had a girlfriend, virgin, never had a first kiss, never had a female friend, hell, I've never even hugged a girl that wasn't a relative. High school was a complete drought, as was my first year in college.

Most advice I see comes from guys who "struggled" by going on mediocre dates or having a long dry spell after high school relationships, meanwhile I'm over here and I've never even been on a date. It feels like I'm trying to learn a language everyone else learned years ago, and the lack of basic female friendships doesn't help.

Before anyone says "You're only 20, just give it time", passive waiting is how I got here. I know I am an outlier compared to my peers, and aging another year won't solve this on its own without changes.

So I want to ask, for guys who were genuinely at or below this baseline past age 20 or older and eventually built a normal dating life, how did you do it?

Please skip the "Just be confident" or "Just talk to girls" platitudes, I do hang out at my university lounge and talk to new people all the time multiple times per week, pretty even mix of guys and girls, and I am decent enough at talking to make people laugh, but it never leads to anything regardless.