In magazines, "Girls" creator Lena Dunham is dressed up, photographed and airbrushed by professionals, and her words are carefully edited. But on social media, she's able to share her authentic self. The pose, the clothes, the message -- they all come straight from her.

Accompanying this Olympian fitness stance, Dunham says, "Promised myself I would not let exercise be the first thing to go by the wayside when I got busy with 'Girls' season 5, and here is why: It has helped with my anxiety in ways I never dreamed possible. To those struggling with anxiety, OCD, depression: I know it's mad annoying when people tell you to exercise, and it took me about 16 medicated years to listen. I'm glad I did. It ain't about the ass, it's about the brain."

Photograph courtesy of Lena Dunham

Model Cara Delevingne and actress Margot Robbie are paid to look sexy, and without selfies like this, we'd only ever see them through that lens. "Selfies open up deep issues about who controls the image of women," says Peggy Phelan, PhD, a faculty fellow in the Clayman Instutite for Gender Research at Stanford University. They give girls the chance to reveal a goofy, imperfect, human side of themselves that we might not otherwise see.

Photograph courtesy of Cara Delevingne

Selfies aren't just about putting your best duck face or contoured makeup on display. Here, actress Amandla Stenberg (of "Hunger Games" fame) shares a snapshot of her friends getting their study on. Her caption reads, "when u & the squad [are] reading surrealist feminist fiction." It's selfies like this that help girls build an identity and inspire others to share their own truth.

Photograph courtesy of Amandla Stenberg

We're taught that zits, freckles and cellulite are the devil, but with a single selfie, magazine editor Tavi Gevinson shows that all you need is a little humor to take the edge off. Flaunting her epicurean wit, while rejecting unreasonable beauty standards, she captions: "Highly recommend the new Yayoi Kusama they just installed on the Upper West Side of my face."

Photograph courtesy of Tavi Gevinson

"We spend so much time trying to hide our flaws because the culture has set it up that you have to be ashamed if you're not perfect," says filmmaker Cynthia Wade. "I think girls are tired of it."

Chrissy Teigen radiates body-positive vibes with this selfie, which confirms our hopes and suspicions that models have imperfections, too. "Bruises from bumping kitchen drawer handles for a week. Stretchies say hi!" Teigen says, giving her stretch marks a pet name that we're totally going to start using. Her selfie sends a message of self-love that only an image this intimate could.

Photograph courtesy of Chrissy Teigen