Lena Dunham used her parents' money to make the film. She didn't have enough to pay anyone, so she ended up asking her friends and family to be part of it and it worked.
Lena Dunham and Nora Ephron were fans of each other's work, and Ephron's half-hour-long interview with Dunham is featured on the DVD version of this film. In it, Dunham explains how especially influenced she was by Ephron's own autobiographical movies, Heartburn (1986) and This Is My Life (1992).