Lena Dunham has praised women's magazine Glamour after they featured an image of the Girls star on the front cover without airbrushing it.

Wearing pink shorts and with her cellulite "on full imperfect display", the 30-year-old poses for the February issue along with her HBO co-stars Allison Williams, Zosia Mamet and Jemima Kirke.

Dunham said she was proud to have her thigh photographed in all its natural glory and adorning the magazine, which is said to be 100% produced by women, and read by millions of women, BBC News reports.

"Thank you to @glamourmag for letting my cellulite do the damn thing on news stands everywhere today," she wrote in an Instagram post.

Dunham has previously complained about the use of heavily airbrushed images of celebrities and the pressures on young people to emulate the unnatural and unrealistic photos.

Not averse to baring her skin on television, the comedy actress once explained that she has frequently been subjected to disparaging remarks.

"When my career started, some people celebrated my look but always through the lens of "isn't she brave? Isn't it such a bold move to show THAT body on TV?"

She said that the scrutiny of her image had left her with a "long and complicated history with retouching".

Earlier this year she complained that a Spanish magazine had used "mad Photoshop" on a photo of her. It later emerged that the image which had been approved by her publicist had not been retouched.

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