Emma's Bookery: Not That Kind of Girl- A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" by Lena Dunham

"There is nothing gutsier to me than a person announcing that their story is one that deserves to be told," writes Lena Dunham, and it certainly takes guts to share the stories that make up her first book, Not That Kind of Girl. These are stories about getting your butt touched by your boss, about friendship and dieting (kind of) and having two existential crises before the age of 20. Stories about travel, both successful and less so, and about having the kind of sex where you feel like keeping your sneakers on in case you have to run away during the act. Stories about proving yourself to a room of 50 year-old men in Hollywood and showing up to "an outlandishly high-fashion event with the crustiest red nose you ever saw." Fearless, smart, and as heartbreakingly honest as ever, Not That Kind of Girl establishes Lena Dunham as more than a hugely talented director, actress and producer- it announces her as a fresh and vibrant new literary voice.

I'm not sure there are enough words to convey how much I love Lena Dunham, like a lot of her fans I discovered her through the HBO television series 'Girls' . Perhaps I have been biased with my star rating of five but I really do love it!

This book is hilarious, witty and honest- that's perhaps why I loved it so much. At points in this book you think to yourself "surely this can't be true" and yet you're laughing and cringing at the same time. If anything Lena is so relatable where she goes through her break up's and points out that "when someone shows you how little you mean to them and you keep coming back for more, before you know it you start to mean less to yourself" she points out and its so true.

Lena discusses several aspects of life in the book, love, sex, work, friendships, girl crushes, thoughts on death, anxiety and depression. She takes you through her experiences and thoughts and for me she gave me great comfort with a number of these aspects of life and I feel somewhat refreshed that anything can happen good or bad and no matter what they are they make you who you are today.

What I admire most with Lena is her confidence of talking about such personal issues of her life. Despite her openly saying she suffers with anxiety she has taken on a lot in her life and she managed to do that by battling with her anxiety that had tried to hold her back. This for me gives me the inspiration that if I want to do something I will do it, I just need to believe in myself. Surrounding yourself with supportive family, friends and loved one's certainly does help too!

I'm surprised to see such low reviews for this book. Its obviously not for everyone, but for girls aged 16+ I can confidently say this book is like a comfort toy/blanket you had when you were younger to make you feel better. Lena does this, its as if she's laid everything she knows and has experienced on the paper and asking whether anyone else has felt this way and experienced these events in their lives like she has. This is her reassurance that she's not the only one to go through these occurrences, these essays are meant to make us feel understood.

For a lot of women including myself I felt like I understood Lena and Lena understood me too, its a wonderful thing to have a book that makes you feel comfortable with who you are and I really hope Lena writes another book sometime in the future.