A few people are contending that 3rd-person isn't necessarily distanced. I want to further explain limited versus omniscient to highlight how 3rd can be distant but can also be extremely intimate. As I said above, you get to control how much your narrator knows. You can even

choose to have your narrator be entirely unreliable. An example of an severely distanced 3rd would be a report-like style where the narrator is telling the reader the bare facts they know from their position of observation. The narrator gets much closer when they limit their POV

to a particular character. Perhaps they don't know the inner workings of other characters, don't show you what's going on elsewhere, but they snuggle up real close to the main character and reveal everything, even their inner thoughts. This close telling can read just as

aware as 1st-person and not feel distanced at all. Then you have your omniscient 3rd-person which gets into the mind and details of every little thing so the reader is privy to the inner workings entirely. Tolkien blows my mind with the easy way he does both, telling us every

detail about Middle Earth but then switching to an emotionally and mentally limited POV as soon as Frodo is in the scene. He zooms in and out at will, but is consistent in his targets.

So there's a lot of play involved. Perhaps make an exercise of it and try variations to see

what each level of distance (or lack thereof) does to your writing. Each story demands it's own approach, so don't hinder your ability by only subscribing to one style. A teen narrating her senior year will read a lot different than if her best friend tells it, though her friend

may have insight the teen couldn't see about herself. A family incident will read differently depending on which member is telling it. A parent can write with a unique awareness of their child's inner psychology.

In short- 3rd CAN be distant but absolutely doesn't have to be.