‘What happened?’: Decade long reality Lena Dunham hasn’t been able to escape

A very famous star has stepped back into the spotlight and a simple question exposes a grim reality.

OPINION

Lena Dunham is back in the public eye, and all these years later, her weight is still a conversation.

The 39-year-old was just 24 when her critically acclaimed show Girls debuted on HBO in 2012. It instantly cemented itself as a grittier version of Sex and the City.

The show followed four privileged women in their early 20s, who were often unlikeable, rarely had good sex and certainly weren’t glitzy or aspirational.

It wasn’t just must-see television, but after every episode aired, a new cultural debate would erupt about everything from abortion to consent.

Dunham was the showrunner, the star, and mastermind behind the success, but instead of her body of work being discussed, it was her body that made the most headlines.

She was in her early 20s at the time and her weight and body were dissected, scrutinised and criticised throughout the show’s six seasons.

At some point, there was even some disturbing online discourse that Dunham wasn’t attractive enough for it to be believable that she was dating the men she cast as her love interests on the show.

She was in her early 20s when she found massive mainstream success. Picture: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Dunham was the showrunner, the star, and mastermind behind the success. Picture: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

For years, the commentary on Dunham’s body was treated almost like a sport.

She was too thin, or too fat, or not thin enough in the right places, or not the right body shape; it was endless.

It would have been immeasurably tough on Dunham, who was just in her 20s at the time, and the ultimate irony was that she always looked great.

It was also tough on any woman who read anything cruel about Dunham’s body because most women look more like Dunham than a Hadid sister.

It became bizarrely normal in pop culture for Dunham to be torn apart physically.

Dunham endured so much body-shaming when she was in 20s. Picture: Michael Buckner/Getty Images

Lena moved to London and has since stepped away from the spotlight. Picture: Backgrid

After the show wrapped, and following a public breakup with producer Jack Antonoff, known for his work with Taylor Swift and Lorde, Sabrina Carpenter.

Dunham took a break from the spotlight, moving to London, where she married indie musician Luis Felber and she has carved out a quieter life for herself.

She has worked mostly behind the camera, including on the critically acclaimed coming-of-age film Catherine Called Birdy.

At the moment, she’s back in the spotlight again, promoting her new Netflix show Too Much, which she wrote and directed, and stars as a supporting character.

Despite how successful she was … people just wanted to talk about her weight. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images/AFP

She’s back in the public eye with a new Netflix show. Picture: Ben Montgomery/Getty Images)

Once again her weight is back to being a discussion.

Between 2012 and 2025, we saw the rise of the body positivity movement, which then morphed into the body neutral movement.

For a second there it seemed like we were getting somewhere. One of the most famous models in the world is Ashley Graham, who is plus-size, and singer Lizzo was also leading the charge of self-love.

Fast-forward to now, and Lizzo’s been partly cancelled and is on a weight loss journey; body neutrality has fallen by the wayside and has been replaced with the thinness epidemic.

Most women in Hollywood have become so gaunt that they all kind of look the same, but we can’t really say anything because that would be shaming women. For god sake even low-rise jeans are back.

Just as Dunham re-emerged back into the spotlight, we’re back at square one.

Dunham chose not to star in her own television show. Picture: Instagram/LenaDunham

She said it was a hard choice but best for her. Picture: Instagram/LenaDunham

Dunham told the New Yorker that the reason she’s playing a supporting cast member instead of the star of her new show, Too Much, is because she wasn’t ready to open herself up to being body-shamed.

“Physically, I was just not up for having my body dissected again. It was a hard choice,” she said.

Similarly, in a profile withVariety, Dunham claimed body-shaming in Hollywood is “pretty inevitable” in 2025, and not much has improved since she first became famous in 2012.

“Just because I’ve become used to it for myself. Doesn’t mean that I feel comfortable about it for anyone else,” she added.

“I have been in Hollywood at every size. I have been a sample size, I have had my body change because of life, illness, ageing, menopause and it is merciless wherever you are.”

So there you go.

It has been over a decade since Dunham first became famous, and under a TikTok I just watched of her promoting the new show, someone commented, “What happened to Lena Dunham?”

A clear crack at her weight gain. The real question is what happened to the culture? Why are we going backwards instead of forwards, and why the hell are we still talking about Dunham’s weight?

It has been a decade and we’ve learned nothing.

Originally published as ‘What happened?’: Decade long reality Lena Dunham hasn’t been able to escape