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There Is Nothing Gutsier To Me Than A Person Announcing That Their Story Is One That Deserves To Be Told, Especially If That Person Is A Woman. As Hard As We Have Worked And As Far As We Have Come, There Are Still So Many Forces Conspiring To Tell Women That Our Concerns Are Petty, Our Opinions Aren’t Needed, That We Lack The Gravitas Necessary For Our Stories To Matter. That Personal Writing By Women Is No More Than An Exercise In Vanity And That We Should Appreciate This New World For Women, Sit Down, And Shut Up.

-Lena Dunham

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There Is Nothing Gutsier

Lena Dunham

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There Is Nothing Gutsier To Me Than A Person Announcing That Their Story Is One That Deserves To Be Told, Especially If That Person Is A Woman. As Hard As We Have Worked And As Far As We Have Come, There Are Still So Many Forces Conspiring To Tell Women That Our Concerns Are Petty, Our Opinions Aren’t Needed, That We Lack The Gravitas Necessary For Our Stories To Matter. That Personal Writing By Women Is No More Than An Exercise In Vanity And That We Should Appreciate This New World For Women, Sit Down, And Shut Up.

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I Never Set Out To Make Any Statements About A Specific Character, I Just Set Out To Tell What Feels Like Is A Truthful Story, A Person That You And I Might Truly Encounter.

Now If You Went To Someone's House To Look For Them, You Would Be A Psychopath.

I Am Comforted By The Fact That I Find A Real Range Of Female Bodies Beautiful, And I Hope That Other People Do Too. And Even If They Don't Find It Beautiful I Hope They're Just Glad That Something Like It Is Happening On Tv.

All My Freakouts Have Been Pretty Private And Directed At Family Pets And/or People I Have Been Dating For Too Short A Time To Freak Out At In That Way.

I'm Ridiculous In My Oversharing; My Mom And Sister Are Very Open But A Little More Judicious Than Me... And My Father Is A Decidedly Private Person.

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When We, As Young Women, Are Given The Space To Read, The Act Becomes A Happy, Private Corner We Can Return To For The Rest Of Our Lives. We Develop This Love Of Reading By Turning To Stories That Speak To The Most Special, Secret Parts Of Us.

I Have Work, And Then I Have A Dinner Thing. And Then I Am Busy, Trying To Become Who I Am.

I Always Feel That There Are Two Choices For Women. Either Be Totally Confident About Your Non-size-zero Body And Say, 'i Love What I Look Like And This Is Who I Am,' Or Be The Person Who Is Obsessed With Diet And Exercise And Keeping Toned. What Feels More Realistic To Me Is That Some Days I Wake Up And Think I Love How I Look. On Other Days I Say, 'if I Had Real Self-control, I Would Be 10 Pounds Lighter.' That Contradiction Is, To Me, What Being A Girl Actually Feels Like.

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I Thought I Wanted To Be A Journalist Or A Novelist.

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My Uncle's A Lawyer And I Remember Going To See Him In Court And Thinking, 'that's Cool, Too Bad I Could Never Be A Lawyer.'

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But I Also Think When We Embark On Intimate Relationships, We Make A Basic Human Promise To Be Decent, To Hold A Flattering Mirror Up To Each Other, To Be Respectful As We Explore Each Other.

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Part Of Being A Feminist Is Giving Other Women The Freedom To Make Choices You Might Not Necessarily Make Yourself.

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It Is Really Funny How Even Cool Chicks Are Sort Of Like, 'our Moms Covered That Feminism Thing And Now We're Living In A Post-that World,' When That Just Isn't True.

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Position Of Power

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For Anyone That Has Ever Done A Sex Scene, It Takes On The Feeling Of Learning A Ridiculous Dance, Like The Electric Slide. It's Not A Sexy Experience.

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I Always Thought That If You Had Any Real Proximity To Famous People, That Your Obsession With Famous People, Would Wane Is Some Way. Like, I Wouldn't Want To Deep Google Matthew Mcconaughey's Early Relationships For Hours Before I Go To Bed. And It's Just Gotten Worse.

I'd Always Loved Movies, But It Wasn't Some Sort Of Desperate Love Of Celluloid. It Was Literally Like, "i Want To Write Things, And I Want People To See Them More."

I Hate To Be The Person That's Like, "we're Doing Something That's Never Been Done Before."

I Thought About Starting A Novella Club Because It Seemed Less Ambitious.

I Consider Being Female Such A Unique Gift, Such A Sacred Joy, In Ways That Run So Deep I Can't Articulate Them. It's A Special Kind Of Privilege To Be Born Into The Body You Wanted, To Embrace The Essence Of Your Gender Even As You Recognize What You Are Up Against. Even As You Seek To Redefine It.

My Fears Came True: People Called Me Fat And Hideous, And I Lived. And Now I Keep Living.

I Can Never Be Who I Was. I Can Simply Watch Her With Sympathy, Understanding, And Some Measure Of Awe. There She Goes, Backpack On, Headed For The Subway Or The Airport. She Did Her Best With Her Eyeliner. She Learned A New Word She Wants To Try Out On You. She Is Ambling Along. She Is Looking For It.

Don't Wait Around For Someone Else To Tell Your Story. Do It Yourself By Whatever Means Necessary.

Escapism For Me Can Come In The Form Of Someone Else's Reality.

At A Brunch Potluck, I Realize That I Do, In Fact, Hate Everybody.

I've Only Recently Realized That I Have A Radically Different Relationship With My Parents Than A Lot Of People.

Guys Warning Girls Not To Fall In Love With Them Is So Truly Douchey That It Should Have A Higher Success Rate.

Falling In Love

My Thoughts On Body Image Are Simple: If You Are Being Kind To Yourself Mentally And Physically You Never Have Anything To Be Ashamed For, Ever.

I'm Really Lucky Because My Sister Is A Real Activist Soul And Also Hyper-intellectualized In This Way That's Really Allowed Me To Wrap My Mind Around Some Of The Bigger Intellectual Concepts And Really Understand The Language Around Identity In The Gender Nonconforming Community.

Running Had Always Been Off The Table For Me. It Just Looks Embarrassing When I Do It. I Viewed It Like Learning A New Language - Best To Learn It As A Child.

Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Who Has Accidentally Napped.

Hell Hath No Fury

I Seriously Consider Television To Be The People's Medium. Like The Idea Of Seeing Your Parents Naked Or Having Somebody Go Down On You And Worrying About Whether You Smell, Or Worrying About Whether Your Body Is Weird Or What Goes Across The Face Of A Person Who's Supposed To Be Experiencing Pleasure But Isn't - Those Are Things I'd Love To Normalize On Tv.

There Is A Sort Of Backlash Of People Who Feel Like You're Not Representing Them Accurately, And You Want To Say As Elegantly As You Can, "i Wasn't Trying To Represent You I, Was Just Doing What I Could Do To Make Being Alive Easier For Me." And If It Helped Anyone Or Made Them Feel Comforted In The Process Then It's The Greatest Thing You Can Ask For.

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Self Confidence

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Purity And Innocence

A Girl's Night For Me Is With A Member Of My Family On The Couch, Eating Takeout, Watching Something Good, Going To Sleep Early, It's So Boring, But It's Just What I Need!

Mine's [fans] A Lot Of Like Weird Guys In Prison. So I Don't Need To Answer Them.

I've Always Had A Talent For Recognizing When I Am In A Moment Worth Being Nostalgic For.

Self Reflection

I Have Sort Of A Zen Body Philosophy, I'm Sort Of Like: We're One Weight One Day, We're One Weight Another Day, And Some Day Our Body Just Doesn't Even Exist At All! It's Just A Vessel I've Been Given To Move Through This Life. I Think About My Body As A Tool To Do The Stuff I Need To Do, But Not The Be All And End All Of My Existence. Which Sounds Like I Spent A Week At A Meditation Retreat, But It's Genuinely How I Feel.

I'm Not Jealous In Traditional Ways - Of Boyfriends Or Babies Or Bank Accounts - But I Do Covet Other Women's Styles Of Being.

It Completely Sickens Me What Our Culture Is Doing To Women. Last Week I Wore A Big Top And Little Shorts And A Bunch Of Stuff Came Out Saying I Was Without Pants. 'the No-pants Look,' It Said. And I Didn't Go Out Without Pants, I Had Shorts On... If Olivia Wilde Had Gone To A Party With A Big Silky Top And Little Shorts She Might Have Been Told Her Outfit Was Cute... What It Was Really: 'why Did You Show Us Your Thighs?'

You Can't Give Any Exciting Speech Without Misremembering Things.

You Can't Force Other People To Like You And You Just Kind Of Have To Ride The Wave. I Think I Could Have Saved Myself A Lot Of Sleepless Nights With That Advice.

I Get A Lot Of Unasked For Sexual Confessions.

There's People Who Don't Want To See Bodies Like Mine Or Bodies Like Their Own Bodies.

It's Almost Like When You're Young, Your Friends Take On The Romance Role, And Then Guys Take On The Role Of Your Friends Later.

I Had No Clue What Anyone Was Talking About Like, You Know I Don't Think I, I Don't Think Any Of The Depictions Of Sex Were More To Me Than Just Like An Image Of Two People's Arms Rubbing Together [when I Was Eight], I Just Had No Clue.

I've Always Been Someone Who Feels Better, If I See What I'm Going Through In A Movie.

I Wanted To Be A Poet. I Had A Really Romantic Idea About What That Would Mean. My Parents Knew Some Poets, And I Liked How They Dressed And Acted, But I Didn't Really Acknowledge That I Only Liked Reading Some Bits Of Poetry While I Was Peeing Or Something.

The Fact Is That I Write Under Duress, Often In My Bed, Often At The Last Minute. I'm Kind Of A Binge Writer I Would Say, Which I Don't Support. I Was Always Kind Of That Way. Probably The Time I Was The Most Regular As A Writer Was College. It Was Like, What Else Is There To Do When You're Living In The Midwest Studying Creative Writing?

I Should Do The Things That Make Me Feel Cool And Smart. As I Get Older, I'm Realizing More And More That It Doesn't Really Matter If I'm Good At It, It Just Matters That I Try. My Own Effort, My Own Willingness, Are Becoming What's Appealing To Me.

None Of My Actions Have Ever Sort Of Been Motored By The Search For A Husband Or Wondering If I Was Going To Have A Family Someday Or Wanting To Live In A Really Great House Or Thinking It Would Be Really Great To Have A Diamond.

I Thought I Was Really A Radical, Political Person, Which Of Course I Am Not.

But Ambition Is A Funny Thing: It Creeps In When You Least Expect It And Keeps You Moving, Even When You Think You Want To Stay Put.

I Learned About Sex Pretty Early When I Was, I Remember, My Friend Amanda Delauro Explained It To Me When I Was Six And Then I Went Home And I Told My Parents, "oh My God, Amanda Said This Ridiculous Thing, Can You Believe How Stupid This Is? She's Insane.

Okay, 'best Party Ever' -- To Me, That's Like Saying 'best Gym Ever' Or 'best Nature Documentary Ever,' Like How Good Can It Really Be?

I Feel Like You Don't Know If Someone's Equipped For A Romantic Relationship Until They're Out Of Their Twenties.

Romantic Relationship

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