ColumnLove or hate Lena Dunham, you’ve got to admit that the young woman has a lot of interesting ideas. One of her better ideas that was recently released into the cyber world is the Lenny Letter.

Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, Dunham’s recurrent creative partner in crime, created a newsletter called Lenny Letter. The newsletter is targeted to entertain 20-and-30-something women who are progressive, feminist, and diverse. In Letter No. 1, Dunham and Konner describe the letter as a place where “new voices” could feel comfortable speaking loudly about issues they care about. And, the duo hopes this medium can remain “a snark-free place for feminists to get information: on how to vote, eat, dress, fuck, and live better.” We hope so, too.

While Lenny only has one issue so far, it’s off to a solid start. The premiere issue is filled with great writing and diverse topics, but it’s the Lenny Letter interview with Hillary Clinton that really made this opening issue shine.

Hillary Clinton isn’t exactly known for giving kick-ass interviews. Clinton tends to come off as ridged and monotone whenever a reporter asks her about her impending presidential run. Honestly, though, who could blame her? All reporters ever ask Clinton about is her email scandal, her husband, and her likability — who wouldn’t respond to that line of questioning in an unenthusiastic manner?

Luckily, Lenny doesn’t have to follow the normal journalistic formula that other news outlets do because it is a niche publication. We’re wondering if it’s because of this newsletter’s relatively small reach that allowed Clinton to do what we consider to be one of the better interviews in her career.

Dunham had a great collection of questions she asked Clinton during the interview. She asked about police brutality, student loan debt, Clinton’s youth, and more. But it was Dunham’s question about feminism that got us most excited:

LD: I think the question on every Lenny reader’s lips is: Do you consider yourself a feminist?

HC: Yes. Absolutely. I’m always a little bit puzzled when any woman, of whatever age but particularly a young woman, says something like, ‘Well, I believe in equal rights, but I’m not a feminist.’ Well, a feminist is by definition someone who believes in equal rights! I’m hoping that people will not be afraid to say [it] — that doesn’t mean you hate men. It doesn’t mean that you want to separate out the world so that you’re not part of ordinary life. That’s not what it means at all! It just means that we believe women have the same rights as men, politically, culturally, socially, economically. That’s what it means. And if you don’t believe that about yourself as a woman, please, go ask yourself: Why? What is holding you back? And it’s not going to be good for you as a woman to be denying the fact that you are entitled to equal rights. And so, yes, I’m a feminist, and I say it whenever I’m asked.

LD: Hallelujah!

We’ve got to second Dunham’s “hallelujah” response, too. It’s incredibly refreshing to hear a smart and successful woman shout out loud that she is, indeed, a feminist. It also was nice to read Clinton’s thoughts on how she feels about women who don’t consider themselves feminists. Her response was kind and thoughtful — women who think that feminism isn’t needed should be asked (in a kind manner): why?

And while Clinton’s thoughts on feminism were great, it also was enjoyable to read her reflections on her youth. Clinton was an incredibly talented young woman herself, but she was still confused about what she wanted to do with her life. It was quite surprising to read that Clinton wasn’t sure she wanted to get married and was scared she’d lose her identity. All women have these feelings and thoughts, and it was great to read how Clinton worked through that period of time.

Now, we’re not saying that this interview has put all of us at EcoSalon in the “Clinton For President” camp, but we’ve got to admit that we do like her a heck of a lot more now.

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Image of Lenny Letter from the newsletter’s Facebook page

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Lenny, a feminist e-newsletter by none other than Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, is launching this fall.

Since the announcement, the Internet’s been all…

And for good reason. I mean yes, technically the last thing we need is another celebrity lifestyle newsletter that does nothing but point out things we can’t afford and ways our lives could be prettier—but that’s what will likely make Lenny stand out from the pack.

If there’s one thing we all love about Lena and Jenni, it’s that they’re accessible, hilarious and talk about things that really matter—to all of us. We can always count on them to say what needs to be said. The newsletter will be aimed at 19- to 34-year-olds and will cover “feminism, style, health, politics, friendship, and everything else,” according to the website. With their slogan being “There’s no such thing as too much information,” I have a feeling Lenny is going to be just as buzzworthy as their show.

Writers will be recruited from Dunham’s network of celeb friends (natch), with Jessica Grose acting as editor-in-chief (known for her work on Jezebel and Slate), as well as Laia Garcia (of Rookie fame) as associate editor.

Dunham told Buzzfeed:

[Lenny will be for] an army of like-minded intellectually curious women and the people who love them, who want to bring change but also want to know, like, where to buy the best tube top for summer that isn’t going to cost your entire paycheck.”

We won’t know until the fall whether Lenny will become the Goop-with-grit we’ve been waiting for—all we can do until then is daydream about what might eventually grace the newsletter… like what a Lenny issue might look like if written entirely by the characters of ‘Girls’:

How to Successfully Live in Brooklyn Without a Job
by Hannah Horvath

This Is How the Rest of Your Life Should Look
by Marnie Michaels

Daddy Issues: A Retrospect
by Jessa Johansson

QUIZ: Which Sex and the City Character Are You?
by Shoshanna Shapiro

Why You Need to Ditch His Sorry Ass Already
by Ray Ploshansky

His Weird Sex Fetishes—Explained
by Adam Sackler

Have you subscribed to Lenny yet?

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GIFs via Giphy.com

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