'Girls' Blurs the Line Between Reality & Fiction

If you didn't know, last night was the Season 3 premiere of Girls at Lincoln Center. As the core four gals graced the red carpet they made sure to have their cellphones handy. Why you may ask? To do what is so totes appropriate, share Snapchats from the event.

As Hannah Horvath so humbly declared in Season 1, episode one of Girls, "I think I may be the voice of a generation!" It seems that Lena Dunham too, shares this sentiment. For one, she's doing a bang-up job relating to her general audience. Snapchat isn't Dunham's first dive into the modicum of social media promotion. The writer/actress/director is all over Twitter and Instagram, posting her quirky and sometimes admittedly awkward life happenings and musings.

Like Hannah, Dunham also seems to get in over head at times, inadvertently starting Twitter scuffles and ruffling some political feathers. She can sometimes be crass and absurd, but much like Hannah, she has a whimsical quality to her that you cannot help but find endearing. So who's who? Because I sometimes find myself mistaking the Oberlin College grad for ... the Oberlin college grad.

I think that part of this double-identity problem is that like most writers, Dunham puts her own experiences into her work. Which makes sense considering that she is a twenty-something recent(ish) college graduate with a career that ostensibly doesn't make much money in a good economy let alone a recession (unless, you know, you nail a TV show deal). Certain aspects of the show are universal: being cut off by your parents, struggling to be an independent adult, figuring out what a healthy relationship is and should be. We have all experienced these kinds of hindrances in some way or another. So it makes sense for Dunham to also, of course, relate to the character she not only created but portrays. But it goes beyond just Dunham being similar to her character.

Dunham blurs the lines of reality and fiction not only in her portrayal of Hannah and her perpetuation of her personality, but by bringing the audience in. Dunham invites us into her psyche with her Twitter and Instagram posts. She makes us feel like we know her, like we know Hannah, and like she knows us. It's with exclusive happenings like this limited-time-only Snapchat friendship with the GirlsHBO account, that we feel like we too are a part of it.

She speaks to us in our own language, even if it means scribbling a mustache on Zosia Mamet or drawing an arrow to Jemima Kirke declaring her "gross." (There's just a heart next to Allison William's face but we're pretty sure nothing you can do can make her look bad, so there's that). It was so clear how the fans enjoyed this as well. Twitter followers urging people to follow Girls on Snapchat proclaiming that if you don't, "You're missing out!" Or "It's a good day when Jemima Kirke comes through your Snapchat."

Like friends we visit every Sunday, we want them to be real because they feel real. Girls success is dependent on its relatability and so long as Dunham keeps Snapchatting and tweeting, I think that the momentum of the series isn't going to die down any time soon.

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