Growing Up With “Girls”

Books & the Arts / August 13, 2026 Growing Up With “Girls” Lena Dunham and her generation enter midlife The New York premiere of Girls, 2012.(Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty) When Lena Dunham first met her future husband, she told him two things: “I was sick, and people did not like me. If he could be comfortable with those two immutable truths, then we could be together.” These are two of the central themes that the writer, actor, and director explores in her new memoir, Famesick. An account of making the hit HBO series Girls, the book also considers the time that Dunham spent in rehab and hospitals shortly after wrapping the show’s final season. Notoriety and illness are the through lines in Dunham’s life, and in Famesick they are the perils that often accompanied her rewards. “Getting sick