Accessible summary This article presents part of the research project we carried out on the importance of social relationships and loneliness in young people with and without intellectual disabilities. We interviewed 23 young people during our research which was developed over more than a year and a half. Social relationships are important for young people both with and without learning disabilities. A person may want or need to be alone, but nobody wants to feel lonely. We wrote this article collaboratively. People with a intellectual disabilities do not often contribute to written papers. Abstract This article presents the results of a project carried out by a group of researchers with and without intellectual disabilities on the importance of social relationships and loneliness. We wanted to find out about the experience of loneliness in young people with and without intellectual disabilities and know whether this was an important issue for them too. We interviewed a total of 23 young people during our research which was developed over more than a year and a half. This article has been organised into three parts. In the first part, the two academic researchers outline the concept of inclusive research highlighting the value of recognising and making the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities visible. Following this, the four authors describe how the research group was formed and the methodological decisions that were made. Finally, we report the results of the research and the main conclusions. The young people with and without disabilities we interviewed told us that nobody wants to feel lonely. We believe that it is important for other researchers at the university to recognise our work and be encouraged to implement inclusive research processes.