Lena Dunham came, saw, but did not conquer me.

Last Saturday, the heroine of our time came to Amsterdam to talk about her first book. Lena Dunham wrote Not That Kind Of Girl, a book full of confessions from a woman in her mid-twenties. About love, sex, career, relationships, friendships, family – in short, about life. It is written in the typical Dunham style that you know from her series Girls, with eloquent sentences, sharp observations, and hysterical anecdotes. The book has now been sold to 23 countries, Lena received an advance of 3.5 million dollars, and it was intended that she would tour the rest of Europe after Amsterdam to promote her book.

The intention, because today it was announced that she has canceled the rest of her tour due to health issues. On Sunday, a handful of journalists had a one-on-one interview with her, but that could not go ahead either, which is a shame because the evening at De Duif did not exactly provide enlightening insights.

What makes Dunham so likable is that she generally always says everything that others think but do not dare to say. Her fresh insights, openly told stories, and honest scenes in Girls make her the cuddly feminist of our time, and young girls and women worldwide identify enormously with everything she does. The evening at De Duif consisted of an interview conducted by journalists Simone van Saarloos and Niña Weijers, and after an opening word from Aaf Brandt Corstius, Lena came on stage to much cheering and applause. She immediately had the audience laughing by saying, “I’ve never been in Amsterdam before but I’ve seen The Fault in Our Stars so I know it all.”

“I’ve never been in Amsterdam before but I’ve seen The Fault in Our Stars so I know it all”

Simone and Nina are usually very assertive journalists, but now they left no opportunity unused to avoid asking critical questions. Practically every question started with “In your book you write…” and all the answers Lena gives are things she had literally already written in the book. She throws around clichés that she is blessed and appreciates all the opportunities that come her way, and after half an hour, I really wonder what I am doing here. We are looking at Lena Dunham the artist, the cultivated version of herself, who has ready-made one-liners and shakes them out of her sleeve. When Simone says there are questions from the audience (which, by the way, had been submitted in advance and thus could be screened and asked to her), Lena says very surprised, “Oh my gosh really that’s amazing!” The first question is from a girl named Claire, to which Lena exclaims, “Hiiiiii Claire it’s SO nice to meet you!” I mean, come on really.

Look, I still think Lena is very nice, but this was a performance, a staged little play. Which may be fine, but it somewhat contradicts the free-spirited image she has created for herself. I spoke to Fiona Hering afterward, and she said, “I missed a lot of questions,” which sums up my feeling well. Because on the one hand, Lena is carried on hands, there is also criticism. She is sometimes called a “white little rich girl” because in her position (proper upbringing, wealthy parents, millions in the bank account) it is all very easy to talk. That is not necessarily bad; rich white women can certainly address these kinds of topics, but I was curious about her answers to such statements.

The last question from the interviewers is whether she has one last piece of advice for the audience, and the answer is, “sometimes you have to say no to life.” Everyone always says that you should say ‘yes’ to everything, but saying no can be very liberating. And she must have thought that the next morning when she sneaked out of her hotel (a colleague journalist told me) and took the first available flight back to New York. I am really looking forward to the third season of Girls, but if there ever comes a sequel to her book, I think I will let that one sit for a while.