The 23rd day of October, 2014 was no day like any other. I woke up realizing it would be the day that I would get to cross something off of the top of my bucket list. I was about to meet my favourite celebrity and writer: Lena Dunham. She was coming to the Toronto Public Library to talk about her recently published book Not That Kind of Girl. I had been awaiting this for the past four years of my life.
It all started in 2011 when I was at my best friends’ house, and we decided to put on Netflix. Instead of going for one of the usual rom coms or comedies we had already seen at least 5 times, we decided it might be a good idea to try something different. Normally I agree with the saying “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”, but if I hadn’t done that in this case, than I might not have ever been able to appreciate the work of this remarkable woman as much as I do today. I saw a film called Tiny Furniture, in which the cover was a woman laying down next to small pieces of furniture. I found the cover of this to be odd, and I decided it would be the pick of the night. I found the acting and script to be strange, but in a good way. I later found out that the main character in the movie was also the writer.
A few months after viewing Tiny Furniture, my best friend told me about this new television show called GIRLS, stating that it was also written by the same woman who had wrote Tiny Furniture. This intrigued me, so I decided to give it a watch. I was instantly addicted, and have now watched all 3 seasons several times. In my opinion, Lena Dunham is a literary genius, which is why I was also extremely excited for her book to come out. I have great respect for her as a woman and female role model. I think the thing I admire most about this creative 28-year-old is her self-respect and appreciation. She loves who she is and she doesn’t care if other people do or not, and that is probably the bravest attitude that a woman could have.
On her Canadian portion of the book tour at Toronto Reference Public Library, Lena read a chapter of her book: Platonic Bed Sharing. It was hilarious, seeing as her father was in the audience, and several parts of her book involve topics you would not typically discuss with your father. She talked about sharing her bed with boys in university, but in a non-sexual way, merely for the company. I found this chapter particularly hilarious when I read it, but even funnier hearing Lena Dunham’s voice reading it. A Q&A with Lena Dunham, and a book signing followed the reading. I waited in line patiently for an hour to talk to my idol, nervously thinking about what I would say in the few seconds I got to talk to her. The moment finally came and while I had the biggest smile on my face, I thanked her for coming to Canada and told her that I had been waiting forever to meet her. She smiled back and said “Thank you so much for waiting this long. It’s so nice to meet you.”