‘Girls’: Hannah and other struggling career girls in pop culture

HBO’s “Girls” stars Lena Dunham as Hannah, a young woman trying to find a career and personal satisfaction in Manhattan. She joins other struggling young career girls throughout film and TV, who have tried to keep up with make-it-or-break-it city living.

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Lena Dunham is writer, director and star of the new HBO series ”Girls.” Dunham’s show is based upon her own life and struggles trying to make it in New York as an underpaid Millennial who still relies upon her parents. The show begins with them cutting off her allowance. Writes tv critic Hank Stuever: “Like Mike Nichols’s ‘The Graduate,’ Woody Allen’s ’Annie Hall’ and Richard Linklater’s ‘Slacker,’ ‘Girls’ has potential to become a once-in-a-generation work that helps define a shared era.“

/ Reuters

Peggy Olson, played by Elisabeth Moss, represents a new graduate from another era. Fresh out of secretarial school, she takes a job at Sterling Cooper and is soon promoted to secretary. Nevertheless, personal problems cause her to move back in with her parents, even as she finds career success.

/ AMC

Anne Hathaway plays Andrea, an aspiring writer in “The Devil Wears Prada.” Fresh out of college, she takes a low-paying job as an assistant at a fashion magazine, despite her belief that fashion journalism is frivolous. She’s quickly whipped into shape by her demanding boss, Miranda Priestly.

Twentieth Century Fox

Melanie Griffith’s Tess McGill is another poorly paid recent graduate with big career dreams. She makes them come true in “Working Girl” through a little bit of deception — posing as her boss to push a merger through.

20th Century Fox

Alexis Bledel starred in the 2009 movie “Post Grad,” about another young woman set adrift by her diploma. Ryden Malby moves home with her family after she misses out on her dream job (which, like the protagonist of “Girls,” is in publishing). She must navigate career and family to leave the nest.

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Serena Van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) is also supported by her parents as she tries on different careers in Manhattan, but the difference between her and the girls of “Girls” is that her parents are multimillionaires. Now in the fifth season, Serena has tried jobs as a publicist, an assistant to a film producer and a gossip columnist.

The CW Network

In “That Girl,” Marlo Thomas played an up-and-coming actress who was forced to scrape by with various temp jobs, despite her big-screen aspirations.

Daisy Productions

A little older and more successful than the girls of “Girls,” the Mary Tyler Moore show was the first to present an unmarried, independent career girl as a character archetype.

/ AP

Annie, played by Scarlett Johansson, plays a recent grad in New York with no career prospects until she takes a gig as a nanny for a wealthy family in “The Nanny Diaries.” She’s ashamed of the job, so she lies and tells her family she works for a bank.

The Weinstein Co.

“Clockwatchers,” like “Girls,” features a group of four friends in a less-than-desirable career situation: They’re all temps.

Artistic License

Winona Ryder’s character in “Reality Bites” is a parallel to “Girls’” Hannah: She’s a super-smart aspiring filmmaker who wants to get her work on TV, but is hindered by her slacker friends and terrible romantic prospects.

Jersey Films

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WASHINGTON DC: MAY 22
Contestant Travis Rumans, 31 dances with his beloved glow sticks for talent at Penn Social in Washington, DC on May 22, 2013. The contestants help raise over $15,000 for the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
The Mr. DC pageant is a fundraising event to benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
The qualifications for the Mr. District of Columbia finalists is that they must live, work and attend school in the District of Columbia between the ages of 21-30 who are unmarried, intelligent, and dapper in a suit.
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Contestants in the Mr. D.C. Pageant, a fundraising event, helped raise more than $15,000 for the Children’s National Medical Center.

ANNAPOLIS, MD - MAY 20: The Herndon Monument Climb is the traditional culmination of plebe year at the United States Naval Academy. The plebes climb to the top of the lard-covered 21 foot high monument and remove the 'dixie cup' hat at the top replacing it with an upperclassman's hat. After completing this, the freshmen are called 'fourth class midshipmen.' This class completed the task in 1 hour 32 minutes and 43 seconds. The hat was placed by Patrick Lien from Orlando. (Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

The Herndon Climb

The Herndon Monument climb is the traditional culmination of plebe year at the U.S. Naval Academy.

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 21: Ken Marino, Erica Oyama, Ben Stiller, Chris Harrison, and Mike Rosenstein aceept the Webby Award for 'Burning Love' at the 17th Annual Webby Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on May 21, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for The Webby Awards)

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A Burrowing owl tries to perch on a protective rope in a public park in Cooper City, Fla. Monday, May 20, 2013 as rain falls. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

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