The general public might have nothing but disdain for millennials — even millennials hate the word “millennials” — but Hillary Clinton is all about the generation that launched a thousand thinkpieces. Her latest effort at winning the hearts and minds of female twenty- and thirty-somethings the nation over: An interview with Lena Dunham for the Girls girl’s newsletter, Lenny.
According to Politico, the previously-taped segment “includes comedy sketches filmed at Clinton’s Brooklyn campaign headquarters.” Look out for a cameo by newly-minted Emmy winner Amy Schumer, who also made an appearance when Clinton had a guest spot on Ellen.
For Lena Dunham and the team at the newly-launched Lenny, Clinton is a big get, a sign to politically-savvy young people whose inboxes are already so stuffed that there’s barely time to skim the Skimm that Lenny is a worthy addition to their reading list. The team behind the newsletter announced its launch earlier this summer; though several pieces of content have been published, the site still promises the full version is coming in fall 2015.
There’s no concern about politicizing an “objective” outlet, either, because Lenny, branded as it is with Dunham’s name, has no aversion to engaging in political debate and taking sides. Dunham is an outspoken advocate for Planned Parenthood and women’s reproductive rights, and Lenny, as Dunham told Buzzfeed when she first announced the site, hopes to court as readers “people who want to talk about radical politics but also want to talk about fashion and also want to talk about Rihanna.”
For Clinton, Dunham is not just a connection to millennial women but a relatively nonthreatening, warm interviewer. The expectation, though it may not be explicit, is that Dunham will not be voting for any of the 163 presidential hopefuls the GOP is trying to turn into candidates. This isn’t an interview with reporting as its aim, one in which Dunham will push on the issues where Clinton might be uncomfortable or unpopular. Sure, Dunham could ask Clinton about Benghazi or the never-ending email scandal, but the teaser suggests softballs such as “Are you a feminist?” (spoiler alert: yes) will be the order of the day.
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The Lenny interview comes just weeks after Clinton gave a sit-down interview with Refinery29, a women’s lifestyle site. (Lenny’s mission statement does not distinguish it, really, from the whole phalanx of women’s blogs and magazines out there right now; Refinery29, too, caters to the politically-minded, the fashion-focused, and the Rihanna-obsessed.)
Refinery29’s video and accompanying Q&A;, “What Every Millennial Should Know About Hillary Clinton,” focused on sexual assault on college campuses, equal pay, confidence, and how women’s rights are as much about economics as they are about social progress. Expect a similar take on Lenny, as Politico reports that the full interview will cover Clinton’s college experience, student debt, women’s health, “and the ambivalence she felt in her early 20s about her own life and career path.”
Even millennial women, one of Clinton’s target demographics, aren’t sold on the former Secretary of State as a future Commander in Chief. As the Washington Post reported, Clinton is “suffering a rapid erosion of support among Democratic women — the voters long presumed to be the bedrock in her bid to become the nation’s first female president. The numbers in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll are an alarm siren: Where 71 percent of Democratic-leaning female voters said in July that they expected to vote for Clinton, only 42 percent do now, a drop of 29 percentage points in eight weeks.”