Girls writer Lena Dunham: ‘Vogue can’t kill Hannah off’

Described by critics as “messy, funny and offbeat” and known for its penchant for casual nudity and awkward sex, Girls has documented the decidedly unglamorous lives of a group of young women in New York as they negotiate the passage from college to adulthood.

The success of the show, the third series of which gets its UK release this week, has catapulted its creator Lena Dunham into the big time.

But her recent appearance on the cover of Vogue brought controversy when it emerged that shots of her had been Photoshopped.

Speaking to Jon Snow, Lena Dunham defended the Vogue cover, saying that she really appreciated that the magazine had “given a nod to who I am” and not tried to “wedge me into some strange ‘glamazon’ territory where I didn’t belong”.

But she promised that, Vogue appearances notwithstanding, the character of Hannah, who she plays in Girls, would remain true to her roots:

“Hannah is too uppity to be killed off by Vogue. It’s interesting, but because the character is so close to me, people often have difficulty differentiating our two paths. But I’m really trying to stay true to Hannah and what her trajectory would be.”

Sex and the City for the austerity age

Dunham acknowledges that she was inspired by the revolutionary way in which female friendships and femal sexuality were depicted in the Sex and the City series. But she says Girls is about “a different version of New York – a less prosperous version of New York, a less glamorous version of New York, that has been seen very little on television”.

It was her father who pointed out to her that she was part of the first generation of Americans who can expect to do worse than their parents did, especially graduates of arts courses in careers such as journalism, publishing, television and film:

“People are spilling out of schools [universities] going, ‘Hey world, are you ready for me?’, and there aren’t any jobs in the fields that they’ve studied… I wanted to talk about all of these girls who are barrelling out of school with hope, and are met with very little.”

But it’s not just the economic climate that informs Dunham’s writing. As a woman with over 1.3 million followers on Twitter (@lenadunham) she is very alive to themes that she believes merit more thought, such as the impact of social media on relationships:

“The rise of text messaging, instant messaging, social media as a whole has really decreased our ability to engage romantically and personally, and I think everybody is feeling that.”

Equally she contends that the rising use of pornography by men “is making sexuality thoughtlessly dirty… It’s not about removing these things from our lives, it’s about being aware of what they’re doing to us”.

Less alone

While the life of Hannah seems destined to throw up the uncomfortable moments that Girls has become known for, Lena Dunham is quick to recognise the positive impact the show has had for her:

“When you’re a writer, you often spend so much time feeling like a total weirdo – and the success of the show has really given me a sense that I’m not alone in my concerns and in my dreams. It’s made the world definitely a less lonely place.”

The news series of Girls starts tonight at 10pm, on Sky Atlantic HD