Lena Dunham tells all, but that's not enough | Jessica Valenti

A willingness to shock comes easily to her. So why hasnt she dug at something deeper in her first book?

In the first season of HBOs Girls, Lena Dunhams character, Hannah, tells her friend Marnie, Any mean thing someone is going to think of to say about me, Ive already said to me, about me, probably in the last half-hour.

This is a familiar feeling to those of us who developed a sense of humor as a pre-empt against cruelty, and its a device that has made Girls a huge success and Dunham a media darling. But in a memoir meant to be an advice book to young women, the writer-directors trademark funny self-deprecation has the unfortunate side effect of nullifying the idea that she has something important to say.

Its not brave to do something that doesnt scare you.