Okay, so I’m a little late jumping on this bandwagon, I know,
but hey, better late than never! A couple of weeks ago I bought Lena Dunham’s
book, ‘Not that Kind of Girl’ as incentive to keep studying and get through my
end of semester exams. Once I survived the horrors, I was finally able to open
up the book I’d heard so many good things about. I was first intrigued by this
book after watching one of my favourite YouTubers, EssieButton rave about not
only the book, but Lena Dunham as a person. Before buying the book I’d never
really known anything about her. I’d never seen her show, ‘Girls’ or anything
else she’s been in (that I know of). The only time I’d ever seen her on
something was when she was on ‘Ellen’ a couple of months ago, and I have to say
that I wasn’t really paying that much attention to the interview because I was
wait for Melissa McCarthy to come out.
Fast forward to now and I’m just over halfway through the
book and after reading the introduction was compelled to get my eager little
hands on all the episodes of ‘Girls’, of which I am currently up to episode 5
of season 1. Her writing style is fantastic. It’s quirky, sometimes a little
edgy and always entertaining. The way she writes is almost as if she’s telling
you in person, which I love. It makes her stories all that more real (which
they are, of course). Don’t even get me started on the show. I love it. The only
words that come to mind when I try to describe it are ‘HOW WAS I NOT ALWAYS
WATCHING THIS?!’ It’s everything I love in a show: quirky, funny, emotional and
realistic with regards to how people actually look and think and act. I’ve
heard it be described as the younger woman’s ‘Sex and the City’, but I don’t
agree. It’s far less glamourous and therefore far more relatable and
believable. Don’t get me wrong, I used to really love SATC. I even used to have
all the DVDs, but I can safely say that, even after only 5 episodes, I prefer ‘Girls’.
In SATC the woman were gorgeous with their ‘perfectly’ sized and shaped bodies.
They all seemed to be fairly well off with very successful careers, which isn’t
completely unrealistic, because there are plenty of successful women out there,
but it doesn’t really speak to the struggling woman. Also the relationships are
somewhat glamourized in SATC. There’s a slew of beautiful men traipsing through
the seasons (not that I’m complaining about beautiful men!). I like that the
women on ‘Girls’ seem to be on different ends of the relationship and career
success spectrums. Each woman has problems that appear to seem almost alien to
the others because of their vast differences, yet they each try to understand
one another. To me, that is far more realistic. Friends who band together
despite being worlds apart in personality, etc.
The point of this post is to neither review the book or the
show, but more to marvel at the creator of both. I’m so fascinated by Lena
right now, and so in love with the way she presents herself and her work to the
world. In such a short time I have grown to admire and be wholly inspired by
her. I love to write, but lately I haven’t been feeling inspired at all. I think
very creatively and need to feel inspiration to complete creative work
(although I wish I had the talent that others have of being able to muster
inspiration on command). Each time I read a little of the book or watch the
show and see how talented and driven she has been, it makes me want to go out
there and do what I know I can do fairly well (if I do say so myself). If you’re
a Lena neophyte like me, I definitely recommend you check out the book and
watch anything she might be in. If you’ve been on this side of the fence for a
while, then allow me to introduce myself: Hi, I’m Cassie and I’m so happy to
finally be in the land of Lena.
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