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UnStyled

Lena Dunham on forging a path to what's next

UnStyled

Refinery29's UnStyled

Fashion & Beauty, Arts, Society & Culture

4.8527 Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2018

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Lena Dunham could be deemed the ultimate millennial role model. After producing, writing, and starring in her film breakthrough, Tiny Furniture, co-creating a groundbreaking TV series, and penning a riveting coming-of-age memoir, her 20s were all about success and the spotlight. But now as Dunham embarks on a new decade, she (and her millions of fans) are asking: So, what's next? Listen on as Lena contemplates the path ahead, ushering in a new HBO show, Camping, exploring life as a single woman, and navigating the power—and occasional pain—of social media. 

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Unstyled. I'm your host, Christine Barberick, co-founder and global editor-in-chief of Refinery 29.

0:08.0

Each week, I invite a notable person to come in and talk with us as we explore the funny, inspiring,

0:14.0

sometimes heartbreaking tales of life, work, and love, as told through the things that we wear.

0:30.0

Lena Dunham has been called a lot of things.

0:34.4

Visionary, groundbreaking, outspoken, shameless.

0:40.3

In her young career, she's been praised as a creative innovator and a multi-hyphenate mogul. She's been championed for her activism.

0:43.3

Lena blasted into the zeitgeist at just 23, and she's been making headlines ever since.

0:48.3

Whether it's for her work, her tweets, her political causes, her body, even her dog.

0:57.5

She's a polarizing figure, no doubt, and among other things,

1:00.1

Lena has become a master of the public apology.

1:05.5

But after 10 years in the spotlight, Lena remains unapologetically herself.

1:10.0

Lena's debut film Tiny Furniture was the breakout success of 2010,

1:14.7

and in 2011, she created girls with producing partner Jenny Connor.

1:19.9

With its brutally honest and intimate look at the lives of its four female leads,

1:24.2

the show incited a radical shift in pop culture depictions of young womanhood and cemented Lena status as a bona fide hitmaker.

1:28.3

A year after that, she wrote the best-selling essay collection, not that kind of girl.

1:33.1

And in 2015, Lena and Jenny founded Lenny Letter, a digital outlet for feminist writing,

1:38.7

community, and artwork.

1:40.7

By the time girls ended in 2017, the duo had launched a book imprint two, and their production

1:46.3

company, a casual romance. Lena was working nonstop, but she was also working through pain.

1:53.4

She was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2011 and went through numerous surgeries before

1:58.4

ultimately having a hysterectomy.

...

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