Lena Dunham’s Website “Lenny Letter” Is Shutting Down For Good
As of tomorrow, the world will have one less platform on which to receive the blessed teachings of Lena Dunham. Digiday reports that Lena’s newsletter cum blogsite, Lenny Letter, will be going off into 404 Page Not Found heaven after today. But rest assured, those thirsting for more Lena than is reasonable, will always have Instagram.
Lenny Letters started as a newsletter back in 2015 by Lena and her producing partner Jenni Konner. Because Lena and Jenni have deep pockets and more connections than the Verizon guy, it was run in partnership with Hearst, and later, Condé Nast. Lenny wasn’t your cousin’s poorly photocopied zine (though I’m sure Lena and Co hoped to co-op that aesthetic). According to Didgiday:
Lenny was supposed to be a place where “an army of like-minded intellectually curious women and the people who love them” could write about everything from feminist issues to tube tops. It named Benjamin Cooley, an entertainment vet, as its CEO, and partnered with Hearst for ad sales.
It sounds like Lenny Letter really started feeling itself after it reached 500,000 subscribers, so they started flexing. First they made it an entire website instead of just a newsletter, then they added a podcast called “Women of the Hour” hosted by Lena, then they tried to #pivottovideo, but “the site never managed to build any momentum on new platforms”. On the site, Lena and Co. wrote the following:
While there’s no one reason for our closure, this change allows for growth and a shift in perspectives — ours and yours. But can we ask one favor? Please, continue to push forward the voices that need a platform, the untold stories that deserve to be heard, the diversity that the publishing industry claims to value but has never mastered.
However, one reason might be the taint from that ugly business of Lena’s unseemly defense of her friend and Girls writer Murray Miller against charges of rape. That episode caused Lenny Letter writer, Zinzi Clemmons, to quit a bitch in an open letter accusing Lena and her ilk (Lena’s wealthy, white, well connected college pals) of “hipster racism” (Miller’s alleged victim is black). And let’s not forget that Donald Glover implied the same.
My statement on why I will no longer write for @lennyletter, and the behavior I witnessed firsthand from @lenadunham's friends.
It is time for women of color–black women in particular–to divest from Lena Dunham. pic.twitter.com/dxOWCLhTpA
— zinziclemmons (@zinziclemmons) November 19, 2017
And so as Lenny Letter crosses the pixelated rainbow bridge, Lena’s health problems continue to plague her. She has been unable to do any planned promotion for her new HBO show Camping.
What? You didn’t think we’d get through an entire Lena Dunham post without getting a peek at her vagina, did you? Are you new here?
Pic: Wenn.com