Lena Dunham Proves Why Thinner Doesn’t Mean Happier in a Powerful Now-and-Then Instagram Post
“As I type I can feel my back fat rolling up under my shoulder blades,” writes Lena Dunham in her latest Instagram post. “I lean in.”
Taking the media and society at large to task, the 32-year-old actress, writer, and producer shared side-by-side images of herself—one taken in April 2017, and the other from just yesterday—to reveal that she’s gained 24 pounds in the interim, and is happier and healthier because of it.
“On the left: 138 pounds, complimented all day and propositioned by men and on the cover of a tabloid about diets that work,” she explains in the caption of the photo, which already has over 250,000 likes. “Also, sick in the tissue and in the head and subsisting only on small amounts of sugar, tons of caffeine and a purse pharmacy. On the right: 162 pounds, happy joyous & free, complimented only by people that matter for reasons that matter, subsisting on a steady flow of fun/healthy snacks and apps and entrees, strong from lifting dogs and spirits.”
Many of Dunham’s 3.1 million followers may recall that it’s not the first time Dunham has posted the snap of herself at her lowest weight since stepping into the spotlight, as last year she took to the platform to share it splashed on the cover of Us Weekly with a tagline of “20 slim-down diet tips!” clapping back with a laundry list of her calorie-torching “strategies,” which ran the gamut from her struggle with long-term anxiety to “watching institutions you love, from Planned Parenthood to PBS, be threatened by cartoon mustache-twirling villains.”
Dunham may imbue her message with her signature brand of humor and sarcasm, but it’s still loud and clear: Weight isn’t a reflection of health—mental or physical—and thus, should not be the subject of social commentary, even if one’s physical features happen to fit the media’s narrow ideals of beauty. Her point, and the unconscionable nature of it all, is only bolstered by the fact that Dunham has spent much of her career bravely disclosing her health struggles, most recently sharing the story of her decadelong battle with endometriosis, which had reached a fever pitch shortly before her difficult decision to undergo a hysterectomy late last year, in Vogue’s March issue.
A champion of body positivity through and through, Dunham also took the opportunity to emphasize that while self-confidence can be constant work, it’s ultimately liberating. “Even this OG body positivity warrior sometimes looks at the left picture longingly, until I remember the impossible pain that brought me there and onto my proverbial knees,” she writes. It’s far from the first time Dunham has fought back against body-shaming and its harmful effects on society, and it likely won’t be her last, but each time she does, she inspires legions of women to lean in as well, no matter their shape or size.
