Lena always keeps it real .
This post contains discussion of body image issues.
April marked the 13th anniversary of HBO’sGirls,and as someone who made the series their entire personality, I celebrated by rewatching every season for the umpteenth time.
Girlspremiered on HBO on 26 January 2025, and over a decade later, the show entered a renaissance, resonating with new audiences and gaining popularity online.
The series, which starredLena Dunham,Adam Driver,Alex Karpovsky, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet, Andrew Rannells, andAllison Williams, is, in my opinion, a cultural phenomenon.
In light ofGirls’anniversary, star and creator Lena Dunham reflected on her appreciation for the show and recalled the scrutiny surrounding her body image.
In a lengthy April 30 Instagram post, Lenawrote, “Every year around the time that Girls initially premiered (April 2012) I get kind of contemplative, brooding even. We all have anniversaries- good and bad- that send us off in search of something.”
“Heck, I can be launched Blue Origin style into a nostalgia trip when the sun shines a certain way through the curtains! For me, April will always be when life changed- in ways both magical (I’m still here! With you! Making things!) and confounding.”
“On the one hand, it was a nightmare because it confirmed everything I thought I knew, affirmed all the 7th grade ghosts living in my head,” she continued. “But it also forced me to accept, swiftly and gratefully, the ways in which to live in a body is to dance constantly with our collective fear and disgust at fallibility, mortality and imperfection.”
She added, “There is almost nothing that scares us more than the truth of what our bodies are, and that- even with all these modern tools- their fate is so often out of our control.”
Lena learned to accept herself in the face of “aging, illness, scrapes and scars” and her decade-long battle withendometriosis. “This body had already been an object of scorn and so the rest of the road smoothed out before me,” she said.
" I no longer believe that being fragile , tall , or tanner would save me . No whisker masquerade or control top brief were coming to fight down on my behalf . I was alerted to the fact that the only shield we have is our voice , our graphics , our dreams , our relationships . "
This isn’t the first time Lena has reflected on the experience of her body being scrutinized duringGirls.In a 2024 interview withthe New Yorker, Lena shared why she decided not to star in her upcoming Netflix seriesToo Much.“I was not willing to have another experience like what I’d experienced aroundGirlsat this point in my life,” she said. “Physically, I was just not up for having my body dissected again.”
Too Muchwill instead star Megan Stalter as a 30-something woman who falls in love with a British musician (played byWill Sharpe) after moving to London. “It was a hard choice, not to cast Meg — because I knew I wanted Meg — but to admit that to myself.”
Lena’s lengthy post sparked a lot of positive reactions, with fans resonating with her openness and whatGirlsmeant to them.
“Your show conforted me when I was 32, and this year, at my 45 conforted me again. I have seen ‘GIRLS’ 3 times, and I’m amazed of how shuch a young girl could explain certain complicated things in such a brilliant way. Thank you for your bravery and your talent. For being so honest and raw. I truly look at you with big admiration. ❤️,” Spanish film actor and writer Núria Gago wrote.
“You are astonishing and your brilliant show cracked so much open for so many,” Cheryl Strayed, author ofWild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail,wrote.
Another user said, “i love you so much and owe you so much. culture had to catch up to you. i am so grateful you are around.”
This person said, “Seeing a body like mine changed my life as a teenager and actress. Thank you for the gift that is Girls.”
Someone wrote, “you are the voice of my generation and always will be. GIRLS IS FOREVER.”
This person said, “Not to be dramatic, but you changed the world ❤️🩷” and I completely agree with the sentiment.
Finally, another person wrote, “I hope you know that GIRLS is and always will be one of thebest TV showsof all time! ❤️”
I can’t until theGirlsanniversary next year — and that’s on Hannah Horvath, Marnie Michaels, Shoshannah Shapiro, and Jessa Johansson.
