To find the unit rate of beads per bracelet, you divide the total number of beads by the number of friends (which is the number of bracelets Ruby is making).
So, we calculate:
\[ \text{Unit rate} = \frac{\text{Total beads}}{\text{Number of friends}} = \frac{156 \text{ beads}}{12 \text{ friends}} = 13 \text{ beads per bracelet} \]
Thus, the unit rate of beads per bracelet is 13 beads.