Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

10 Times ‘Girls’ Captured Life Perfectly, for Lena’s 30th Birthday

You don’t have to like Hannah Horvath to love Lena Dunham.

Ok, let’s get this out of the way first. Hannah is selfish/annoying/fill in the blank negative adjective that is inevitably used when you first get into a conversation with someone about the television show “Girls.”

She is also a vehicle for some of the funniest, most honest, most observant, painfully true-to-life television writing I’ve ever seen.

And so in honor of Lena Dunham’s 30th birthday today, I’ve rounded up the best of the best of Hannah Horvath’s most relatable quotes. The voice of my generation. Or, you know, a generation.

P.S.—I have a working theory on the whole I-hate-Hannah thing. Would everyone have such disdain for her if they didn’t identify with her just a little bit?

Sure, it would be fun to see yourself in Marnie, with her type-A personality and the very shiny hair. But it’s Hannah, with her messiness and rawness that hits a nerve. She is, for all you “Sex and the City” fans out there, the Miranda. The one you don’t want to be but, in some ways, definitely are.

And is there really anything so wrong with that?

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.