Lena Dunham Instagram – It was 10 years on Friday since Girls premiered. I am not super “online” like I used to be (or like Hannah Horvath) but I’ve seen some really sweet messages from you, sharing what the show has meant, and it’s been very emotional to say the least. There’s no insta wrap-up that can describe the magic and mayhem of this journey, or room enough in a caption to celebrate the people I made the show with (though a big fat thank you to my @hbo family is the place to start.) The audience is better equipped than I am to argue the finer points of what we did and didn’t do, so all I can say is: my life is too transformed to imagine a world without this having been my (admittedly singular) first grownup job. Instead of trying to rehash it all and craft the perfect caption, I’ve written an essay for my longtime sister friend @voguemagazine about the subject beneath the subject: female friendship. I hope you’ll recognise some of yourself in it, just as you perhaps recognised yourselves in our maddening, imperfect but always striving-for-honesty show. Because of Girls I am a working artist, which is all I ever wanted to be- and even on my worst days I don’t take the chance to keep writing and making things for granted- and even as the nudity jokes keep on comin’ (note to those young ‘uns considering showing your breasts dozens of times on national TV, and your vagina once- it will follow you well into your thirties, once you’ve started wearing mostly art teacher sweaters and literally living the life of a librarian.) To quote my mother on matters of destiny: “it could have been no other way.” So to those of you who have grown up here with me over the past decade, joking and fighting and meme-ing better than I ever could, I appreciate you. And to the many, many people who comprise the Girls microcosm: I hope I’ve shown you my love and gratitude along the way. Love Always, your Birthday Bitch. Link in bio for the essay