The past six months have seen creator, writer and star of Girls Lena Dunham become the feminist icon du jour. Dawn O’Porter tells us why every woman should know her name

I am sitting in a bar in Hollywood writing this. By chance, just a little further down Sunset Boulevard I see the subject of this article’s face blown up to the size of a 40-storey building.

It’s Lena Dunham, currently the hottest name in Hollywood. She is quite literally everywhere I look. I’m not going to assume you have heard of Lena and her hit TV show, Girls, but you should have. It follows the lives of four 20-something women in Brooklyn, New York. Life and love is a struggle and they battle with the trials and tribulations of being financially independent and sexually adventurous. The characters, Hannah (played by Lena), Marnie, Shoshonna and Jessa are all in their early 20s – an age when sex is experimental and possibly less cautious than at other times of life. It’s a fascinating time in a woman’s sexual adventure. Lena’s choice to explore it is exciting, not to mention very, very funny.

In series one, Hannah’s relationship with her sort-of boyfriend Adam is excruciating to watch. His sexual tics are uncomfortable, even revolting at times, but she is relentlessly willing to participate. It’s because she wants to experience life, she wants to know where new things take her. She is, excuse the pun, open to anything. When he asks her to wait on the couch face down with her bum in the air you want to scream at her to get up and leave, but at the same time you want to see what happens. Just like she does.

On a creative level it’s clear to see why the industry is paving the way for Lena. She has set new boundaries for writers, especially those who are female. Her message is not to be afraid, but to pour your soul into your work and not hold back. As a writer myself it’s the most encouraging thing to see. As someone who lived by the word of writer Nora Ephron, when I read that Lena was mentored by her for the last year of Nora’s life all the pieces fell together – she learned from the best.

Ephron famously said, [in her address to Wellesley College’s graduating class of 1996] ‘I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women.’ And that is just what Lena is doing. She took notes and listened, and now she is doing what so many people don’t have the guts to do… making a little trouble on behalf of women. I for one, am grateful.

Fearless Honesty

The daughter of pop artist Carroll Dunham and photographer/designer Laurie Simmons, Lena has, in a very short space of time, become one of the most iconic female voices in TV. Her debut film, Tiny Furniture, which she wrote and filmed on returning from college in 2009, aged 23, won the Best Narrative Feature at the South by Southwest film festival before Girls was picked up by HBO in 2010.

She has become a vibrant cultural figurehead in the creative industries, but also in feminism. She has smashed the mould for how women are represented on TV. I mean that from the perspective of her fearless writing but also her fearless exposure of her body. Her countless nude scenes are not about the fact that she isn’t a size six with perfect boobs. She is just a girl who plays a girl. Hannah doesn’t go on about her body, it’s so refreshing and as a result, way more powerful than what society has become used to seeing from women on TV.

Other shows have tried to represent normal women but have failed by giving stereotypically beautiful women normal girls’ problems. Of course I am referring to Sex And The City but also to pretty much any Hollywood film where the skinny, beautiful protagonist is seemingly, unjustifiably a bit uncomfortable with herself. I am not ignoring Bridget Jones (I wish I could) but to me that ‘accurate’ portrayal of women just made us all look like total muppets. It’s fair to say that until Lena, women on TV were not represented very well at all.

I first heard about Lena when she offered my husband Chris [O’Dowd, star of Bridesmaids and The IT Crowd] a part in Girls early last year. He went to New York for a week or so to film it, and came home saying he had worked with a really great girl called Lena. The job was quick, no-one knew at that time it was going to be a hit, and Chris didn’t mention it again for a while. Then we went to America and people kept recognising him and by the looks on their faces, this was no ordinary show.

So I got my hands on the DVD of series one. And then I understood exactly why people were so excited. Girls spoke to me as loudly as my most intimate conversations with my best friends. It’s moments like watching Hannah and Marnie casually chatting while naked in the bath that remind us how comfortable we should be around our friends. As well as killer lines of dialogue like, ‘I have been dating someone who treats my heart like it’s monkey meat. I feel like a delusional, invisible person half the time so I need to learn what it’s like to be treated well before it’s too late for me.’ The honesty is almost painful, but portrayed so intricately that it all feels familiar.

Why Lena Dunham is here to save a generation