Lena Dunham may not be totally self-aware these days, but she is totally aware of her haters...and she gives them absolutely no room to affect her.
The 30-year-old actress covers the February issue of Nylon magazine and reveals how she learned to stop caring what everyone else thinks about her.
"I'm realizing more and more as I get older that I'm actually way less self-aware than I thought," she told the publication. She said she used to counter public critique with remarks like, "'Oh, I've been in therapy since I was 7. There's nothing you could say about me that other people wouldn't know.'"
However, now, she explains, "The older I get, the more I'm like, 'I don't f--king know what anybody is seeing when they look at me,' and the coolest thing is it's not my problem."
She continued, "That's an interesting thing. It kind of doesn't matter. I used to think the worst thing in the world could be for someone to have a thought about you that you didn't have yourself. Now I'm like, 'Have at it, guys!'"
And that's the mentality she learned to have working in Hollywood, too.
"Sometimes being a creator, and especially being a female creator, is an exercise in shutting people's voices out," she explained. "Because there are so many who think they understand better than you how to do your job."
In fact, she had to shut out critics who thought someone else could have done a better job with Girls. However, she's not too proud to admit she'd do things different a second time around.
"I wouldn't do another show that starred four white girls," she said. "That being said, when I wrote the pilot I was 23. Each character was an extension of me. I thought I was doing the right thing. I was not trying to write the experience of somebody I didn't know, and not trying to stick a black girl in without understanding the nuance of what her experience of hipster Brooklyn was."
Sticking to the topic of Girls, Dunham admits she's still struggling with accepting that their final season will air starting February.
"I'm probably going to have a nervous crying breakdown," she admitted.
While she's put some thought into how she'll spend her days after the show, she admits they're a bit outrageous.
"I had a psychotic moment where I was like, 'I'm going to become a wildlife rehabilitator and a crystal expert,'" she revealed. "My boyfriend [Jack Antonoff] was like, 'No, you're not.' I'm like, 'I'm going to rehabilitate squirrels and owls. And I'm going to educate myself so that I can do crystal healings.' He was like, 'Good luck with that.'"
Despite Dunham's fear of the end, Girls will be in her heart forever.
"I know I'm never going to have another work experience like this," she said. "Eight years of working on a project; it's this living, breathing organism, but it's also the luckiest thing."
Read her full Nylon interview online here.