Lena Dunham quickly became a household name after the premiere of her HBO comedy series “Girls,” which ran for six seasons between 2012 and 2017. The show notably launched the careers of future stars like Adam Driver, Allison Williams, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, but it was Dunham who took the brunt of the show’s publicity due to its frequent use of nudity. Dunham, who also plays the show’s lead Hannah Horvath, faced rampant body-shaming online during the show’s run, but refused to turn that criticism into an excuse to prove anybody wrong.
Dunham remained proud of the way she looked on the show, telling America Ferrera at a Tribeca Film Festival panel (via The Advocate), “I think people were so ready to believe that I was jumping past some massive hurdle in order to get naked on television, and I was like, that’s not where my fear lies.” When Dunham did undergo a noticeable weight loss following the end of “Girls,” spurred by the end of her relationship with musician Jack Antonoff, she highlighted online criticism against her as an example of the hardships women in the entertainment industry face.
Lately, Dunham has spoken out about how comfortable she is with her current body image. While she has admitted that the criticism throughout her 20s would often feel overwhelming, she said that it’s silly to look back on now.
