Lena Dunham and Allison Williams are not used to people openly enjoying Girls

The level of vitriol the show and Dunham received during its run is well-documented, both in her recent memoir Famesick and elsewhere. “There was a website called Gawker, which, fuck it forever,” said Williams, a stance she has maintained over the years. “They referred to us as our dads’ daughters in the articles that covered the show. They didn’t even call us by our actual names.” (As in, she would be referred to as “Brian Williams’ daughter.”) Now, according to Dunham, “People are understanding, and people like the idea that young women would be naughty and complicated and weird and self-aware. They recognize that you could potentially be a woman under 25 and have some modicum of self-awareness.” Maybe with the girls pushing 40 in their upcoming HBO revival, they’ll get to be even naughtier, weirder, more complicated, and, dare we say, more self-aware.