girls

Lena Dunham Looks Back on Girls: ‘I Wouldn’t Do Another Show That Starred Four White Girls’

Glamour Women Of The Year 2016 LIVE Summit - Backstage
Lena Dunham. Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Girls returns for its sixth and final season on February 12, along with the sixth, but probably not final, round of critiques. In an interview with Nylon, creator and star Lena Dunham looked back on criticism of the show and admitted that some audience frustrations, including those with the show’s prevailing whiteness, have stuck with her. “I wouldn’t do another show that starred four white girls,†Dunham said of her experience writing the show. Explaining her decision-making at the time, she continued: “That being said, when I wrote the pilot I was 23. Each character was an extension of me. I thought I was doing the right thing. I was not trying to write the experience of somebody I didn’t know, and not trying to stick a black girl in without understanding the nuance of what her experience of hipster Brooklyn was.†In later seasons, Girls introduced a few nonwhite characters, such as Donald Glover’s Sandy, who appeared for two episodes in season two, but none of them have become central to the show.

Lena Dunham Discusses the Whiteness of Girls