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Photo via Girls Write Now

Lena Dunham’s teenage diaries are now a book

Proceeds will benefit Girls Write Now, a mentorship program for teen girls.

 

Nayomi Reghay

IRL

Posted on May 17, 2016   Updated on May 26, 2021, 6:37 pm CDT

As is the current protocol for dropping new work, Lena Dunham announced the release of her new book, Is It Evil Not To Be Sure?, via Twitter on Tuesday morning.

Proceeds from the book—which is pieced together from Dunham’s own teenage journals—will benefit Girls Write Now, an organization that pairs teen girls with inspiring mentors from diverse writing backgrounds.

The sale page for the book offers Dunham’s more in-depth description of its origins.

“Earlier this year, recuperating in bed from surgery and feeling painfully adult, I found my journals from 2005/2006 on an old hard drive. I was, of course, full of the kind of mortification that is part and parcel with meeting a former version of yourself, a woefully misguided girl desperate to be embraced by even the least exemplary specimens of young American malehood. But I was also moved by—maybe even proud of—how carefully I had recorded that period of time, my younger self’s commitment to capturing the kinds of hyper-internal formative moments so often lost to adulthood. I have always believed that women chronicling their own lives, even (or especially) at their most mundane, is a radical act. That’s why I thought the diaries might be worth sharing as a short book, with proceeds going to Girls Write Now and their mission to give young women the tools to tell their own stories. I can’t think of a more admirable goal for an organization, or a better reason to expose the oft troubling thought patterns of my final teenage year.”

Dunham is also asking fans to share their own memories of being 19 with the hashtag #isitevil and RTing her faves.

The book goes on sale for purchase at noon EST.

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*First Published: May 17, 2016, 10:23 am CDT