How can you be an actor, scriptwriter, comedian, director, cultural icon and author by the age of 28?
You work seriously hard.
And how do you keep working so hard?
Keep it in the back of your mind that you may well take a few years off in the decade to come.
At least that’s how Lena Dunham appears to manage it.
In an interview with the Good Weekend to mark the launch of her much-anticipated book, Not that Kind of a Girl, Dunham notes on her current frenetic pace that she’ll probably have a few years in her thirties to take it all in.
“There may be four years in my thirties when not much happens, and that will be fine, too,” she said.
Dunham was paid a US$3.7 million advance to write her first book, in which she shares her personal experiences on everything from almost being a lesbian, to dieting, what she’s learned from her mother, running away, and even her own regrets and thoughts on dying.
One particular lesson Dunham appears to have learned about career planning is the importance of mentors, particularly through her relationship with the late writer Nora Ephron who got in touch after seeing Dunham’s second feature film, Tiny Furniture. Dunham clearly appreciates the advice, dedicating her book, “For Nora”.
Dunham is the creator, writer and plays the lead role in the HBO hit series Girls. She’s received eight Emmy Award nominations, won two Golden Globes, hosted Saturday Night Live and regularly pens pieces for the New Yorker.
Always ambitious and with big ideas (such as a once desire to become a Private Eye), she reveals in her book how directionless she felt at times, especially after graduating and finding herself with, “No grades. No semesters. No cliffnotes in case of an emergency. I was lost.”