The internet, for all its faults, can really bring people together. And sometimes those people are Taylor Swift and Lena Dunham! Swift and Dunham met on Twitter, but out of a direct message has blossomed a fully realized, supportive, loving friendship. They are each other’s rocks and sources of baked goods as well as career, relationship, and fashion advice. Here are two artists who found success, responsibility, and a clear voice at an incredibly young age, and they seem to be aware of how lucky they are to have found each other. So, Taylor and Lena: This is your friendship’s life!
May 13, 1986: Lena Dunham is born.
December 13, 1989: Taylor Swift is born.
October 2006: Taylor Swift releases her self-titled debut.
March 2010: Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture premieres at SXSW. She’d later admit to being influenced by Taylor, telling ET, “Long before she was my friend, she was my friend in my head. I was listening to her while I wrote my first film, while I wrote the first season of Girls, while I wrote the second season of Girls — so she’s definitely a soundtrack to many of my feelings.â€
August 2011: Lena takes Maude Apatow to a Taylor Swift concert. She live-tweets the event, writing things like, “Swift starts out strong with a confident, strutty Sparks Fly, including vaguely Sapphic dance with leather-pants wearing violinist†and “‘Hi’ (blush) ‘I’m Taylor.’ uh WE KNOWâ€
Dunham later told the New York Times, “The only difference between Maude and me at that concert is that it would have been legal for me to buy a margarita. Obviously, I chose to eat a Wetzel’s pretzel, though.â€
April 2012: Girls premieres.
August 2012: Though they aren’t friends yet, Lena tweets about how important Taylor’s music is to her.
October 2012: Taylor Swift releases Red. Lena tweets the praise that starts it all.
As Taylor explained to Rolling Stone, she went on Twitter to follow Dunham because she just watched Girls and loved it, then she saw Lena’s tweet: “I was really scared she was being ironic, but I decided to follow her anyway, just in case. Within five minutes I had a direct message from her. Let me see if I still have it.†She spends a minute scrolling through her phone. “I still have it! She said, ‘I am so excited about the prospect of being friends with you that I added the adjective best in front of it.’ ‘The idea that you like my show is so thrilling, and I can’t wait to lavish you with praise in person.’â€
January 2013: Lena tells Vulture that Taylor is “good for the girl causeâ€: Anyone who thinks Taylor Swift isn’t good for the girl cause has to be crazy, because any woman who’s dominating the charts, the creative director of her own empire, and made whatever millions of dollars last year is only lifting us up. Killing it. And she’s super-creative, an amazing role model, beautiful … And also I’m like, if you don’t want to feel, then — I don’t even know what music you should listen to. Just go home and listen to your German techno and leave me alone.â€
January 2013: Lena tells V magazine that Taylor’s albums have helped her get through some tough times: “We have D.M.’ed. I’m a really big fan. She started following me, and here’s how you find out Taylor Swift is following you. You start hearing from all the insane Taylor Swift fans that are like ‘If Taylor Swift loves you I love you.’ So I sent her a message. I was like, ‘I just want to let you know that your albums have gotten me through a lot of very hard times.’ When I tweeted that her new album was amazing, every one of my Twitter followers was like, ‘I so hope that you’re joking.’ But I have no interest in liking anything ironically. If I wanted to be ironic, I’d grow a mustache.â€
February 2013: Taylor and Lena hang at the Grammys and are very affectionate and very cute.
April 2013: Lena goes to another Taylor Swift concert; dies.
May 2013: Taylor spent this Memorial Day weekend with friends Jessica Szohr and Hailee Steinfeld, having a sleepover at her Rhode Island mansion. One day, they met Lena and her boyfriend Jack Antonoff for a meal.
October 2013: Taylor releases “Sweeter Than Fiction†with Antonoff. Lena was there from the beginning.
October 2013: Taylor talks to InStyle about what makes her and Lena such good friends, saying that even though Lena is shooting Girls “‘like, 40,000 hours a day, she always figure out a couple of hours to come visit.†Adding, “We are very similar. Very similar. I feel like I can tell her anything.†Taylor said that Lena has an “open mind,†so, Taylor admits, if she ever messed up, Lena “is the one I would tell.â€
March 2014: Lena talks to Glamour about her friendship with Taylor: â€Taylor is a good friend of mine. I call her and text her all time. She helps me be stronger and make better decisions.†Adding, â€She has amazing creative instincts. She’s really a proponent of not feeling pressure from anybody else and recognizing that you have a better connection to what your ‘brand’ is than anybody else.â€
April 2014: Lena is seen visiting Taylor’s New York apartment with a binder, which some speculated was a Girls script. Maybe it’s just a photo album of them being friends!
May 2014: When E! asks Taylor whom she looks to for fashion inspiration, she quickly says Lena: “Lena Dunham always has great websites and shops at great stores. She always tells me her newest obsession, whether it’s a new website, a blog or a store. She’s really good with that stuff.â€
May 2014: Taylor wishes Lena a happy birthday; alludes to picnics.
July 2014: Taylor has a mafia of famous women over to her home to celebrate July 4th weekend. Naturally, Lena is there, playing with sparklers and flipping the bird.
Summer 2014: Lena and Jack move into a new place together. Taylor gets them their first housewarming gift:Â a taxidermied moth.
August 2014: Talking to The Guardian, Taylor credits Lena for teaching her what it means to be a feminist.
“As a teenager, I didn’t understand that saying you’re a feminist is just saying that you hope women and men will have equal rights and equal opportunities. What it seemed to me, the way it was phrased in culture, society, was that you hate men. And now, I think a lot of girls have had a feminist awakening because they understand what the word means. For so long it’s been made to seem like something where you’d picket against the opposite sex, whereas it’s not about that at all. Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realize that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so.â€
Lena shares the love.
August 2014: Lena Instagrams this picture of Taylor with her cat because how can’t you.
September 2014: Taylor tells Rolling Stone she’s made Lena a button collage and a cross-stitch of a cat.
October 2014: Taylor talks about Lena in People: “It’s really wonderful to have someone like Lena Dunham in my life. We have the same responsibility and the same pressure that’s on you when you write every single word you end up performing.â€
October 2014: Taylor releases the second single off 1989, “Out of the Woods,†which she recorded with Antonoff. Lena is proud!
October 2014: Taylor Instragrams lyrics from the 1989 bonus track, Lena reveals just how much she loves it.
Looooooook at them:
