Lena Dunham may have started striking the #Girlboss pose early on in life, but in high school she was one of the “weird” kids, the Girls creator and star recently wrote in Seventeen. “My best friend was my dad,” she says. “I wore my yellow rubber clogs every day. I was so obsessed with my pet rabbit that I fed her bananas from my mouth.” (Yep, that last one definitely does not fall into the normal behavior category).
One day, Dunham decided she would try and fit in, donning cooler clothes and putting on makeup. “When I needed a pencil in math, a hot boy lent me one. 'Wow,' his friend whispered. 'She actually looks regular.'”
That last word set the actress on the road straight back towards Weirdsville. “Who wants to be regular?” she asks in her essay. “If regular means pretending you don’t have passions and style, count me out. It’s not worth the pencil.”
And, there’s more wisdom where that came from: Dunham spills on the importance of constructive criticism and daring to be different — basically finding your own damned pencil even if that means making it yourself — and ends on an empowering note for young women. “You don't need anyone telling you what your style, substance, or happiness should look like. You can be the judge of that.”
Lena Dunham has never been one to shy away from public declarations about letting your freak flag fly, but we think this one is particularly important. Keeping it real with the next generation will help create a world where women are more accepting of one another — and themselves. If Seventeen readers are looking for a role model, they’d do well to set their sights on this one.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT