Lena Dunham attends AOL Build to discuss her new email newsletter Lenny Letter, which launched Tuesday with an interview with Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton. (Photo: Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage)
Lena Dunham’s hour-long interview with Hillary Clinton debuted online Tuesday, as part of the official launch of Lenny Letter, an email newsletter created by Dunham and “Girls” co-showrunner Jenni Konner.
The interview, which both Dunham and Clinton have been teasing on social media for the past week, covered a range of topics, from fashion and feminism to student debt and police brutality. But instead of diving directly into the standard stump questions Clinton and her fellow candidates are used to getting on the campaign trail, Dunham focused on subjects of particular interest to Lenny’s readers, who she described as “women in their 20s who are in that space between college and the real world” who are “not sure what they want to be, how they’re going to be that.”
Clinton has been on a bit of a likability tour lately, making the rounds from daytime talk shows to late-night TV in an effort to showcase her sense of humor and appear more relatable to voters. The inaugural issue of an email newsletter for might seem like a far cry from network television appearances, but the Lenny interview demonstrates a concerted and clever effort to reach not only young voters, but young, and specifically white, women voters—the demographic from which Clinton has seen the sharpest decline in support for her campaign so far.
And who better to bring Clinton back into the female fold than Dunham? More than three years after her own rocky introduction to the hyper-critical and sometimes brutally judgmental public eye, the 29-year-old “Girls” creator has cultivated a loyal following that spans far beyond her show’s audience. Through the autobiographical essays in her book “Not That Kind of Girl,” as well as her uniquely uninhibited social media presence [her Twitter and Instagram accounts have 2 million followers each] Dunham has emerged as the model of a new kind of millennial feminist, as vocal about her ambitions and political beliefs as she is about her own vulnerabilities, health issues, and insecurities—not to mention her support for fellow famous female friends like Taylor Swift.
“Last year, when Lena traveled the country on her book tour, she met an unbelievable range of passionate young women and the men who love them (define woman and/or love as you wish),” reads the introduction to Lenny Letter published Tuesday. “Lena came home from tour permanently changed (albeit still the same weight). You told us about the kind of life you want: connected, empowered, inspired, and fucking funny. We heard you.”
Lenny’s goal, the letter goes on to explain, is to “create a space where new voices were safe to speak loudly about issues they care about. We want those voices to inspire you, envelop you, and even anger you. Mostly, we want a snark-free place for feminists to get information: on how to vote, eat, dress, fuck, and live better.”
The inaugural issue of Lenny letter also includes the first installments of what will be recurring features, such as “Out of Print,” profiles of little-known “amazing female writers and artists from the past;” the fashion-focused “Tracing a Trend;” and “Rumors I Heard About My Body,” a collaboration with Planned Parenthood to answer questions like “Is my period weird?” and other female health concerns.
But for Dunham and Konner, the chance to kick off their new project with an interview with Hillary Clinton was a no-brainer.
“So much of what we aim for in our work is to push back against the unreasonable demands placed on women — a demand for perfection and likability above all else,” wrote Dunham and Konner. “Hillary Clinton’s entire career has flown in the face of those pressures.”
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