For better or worse, Lena Dunham’s body has always been front and center. It all started with Girls, which Lena both created and starred in. And in that starring role as Hannah Horvath, Lena was naked on screen… a lot. So, of course, practically the whole world couldn’t shut up about her body and the fact that she dared to (checks notes) have fat. Fast-forward a decade-plus and the world is still a little obsessed with Lena’s body, only now there are also years’ worth of quotes from Lena herself about her perspective on her body and her health.
Okay, so I know we all love to make fun of Lena and her millennial-on-steroids aesthetic, but I’m gonna be earnest for a minute. There’s honestly something so refreshingly radical about a woman in the public eye who so open about sharing her health and wellness ups and downs. The only way we break down stigma is by talking about stuff, and Lena is going through life swinging a sledgehammer at any stigma guardrails that might come her way.
Now with the premiere of her new Netflix series Too Much, I think it’s worth taking a look at some of Lena Dunham’s quotes about women’s health and body image. Who knows, you might find some inspo in her words.
What has Lena Dunham said about menopause and motherhood?
While promoting Too Much, Lena got candid about all the changes her body has gone through over time. “I have been in Hollywood at every size,” she said. “I have been a sample size, I have had my body change because of life, illness, aging, menopause. And it is merciless wherever you are.”
Lena is 39 years old, which is pretty young to undergo menopause normally. But because she had a hysterectomy at age 31 to deal with endometriosis, her body began menopause early. And even though she’s gone through menopause, Lena still hopes to become a mother one day.
“I know it as intensely as I know I want a baby: that something is wrong with my uterus,” she wrote in an essay for Vogue in 2018. “I can feel it, deeply specific yet unverified, despite so many tests and so much medical dialogue. I just sense that the uterus I have been given is defective.”
Post-hysterectomy, Lena still plans to have kids, but she’s carefully planning how to balance motherhood and fame.
“I want to be a mother,” she said to Variety. “I’m working on that, and I don’t want my kids to live in the secondary glare of whatever this is,” she says. “I want my kids to be proud of me and go, ‘My mom works really fucking hard, and she loves what she does.’ But I don’t want them to live in the spotlight, or even next to the spotlight.”
What has Lena Dunham said about her health problems?
While Lena is open about her health struggles, she’s also optimistic about how she deals with them, which is pretty empowering.
“Learning that [my struggles] don’t define me and that I actually have the tools to live a life of relative freedom has made me so much more confident, grounded, present,” she told Us in 2019. “It’s not that issues don’t come up, it’s that I have the tools to manage those issues, and that’s really what I wish for every woman.”
She’s also pretty passionate about the fact that being open about health problems helps people to feel less alone.
“The reason I’ve been so insistent on sharing my experiences, I think, we have to be reminded again and again and again that we’re not alone,” Lena said to Us. “I know that even when people [are] like, ‘Enough is enough, quit talking about your, you know, uterus or whatever,’ I want other people to know that they’re not alone.”
What did Lena Dunham say about body image?
Looking back on her time in the spotlight with Girls, Lena told Variety, “I probably wasn’t protective enough of myself.”
She also explained to Variety that she thinks the world (unfortunately) isn’t very accepting about different body types.
“I think we had this moment: Body positivity was here, and then it was gone,” Lena said. “I obviously am not critical of anybody’s choice, whether it’s to use Ozempic — people should be allowed to have whatever body they feel comfortable in. But we cannot pretend that the bodies people want aren’t influenced, and we can’t claim it’s always for health reasons and not for aesthetic reasons.”
Well, at least we get a little hint of body positivity (or at least acceptance) from Lena’s powerful quotes.
