2012's best pop culture moments

In January 2012, HBO started airing Lena Dunham's "Girls," a meditation on the awkwardness of being female and 20-ish in New York. By year's end, actress-director-writer Dunham, at 26, gathered so much buzz -- even appearing naked at the Primetime Emmy Awards -- that she was on her way to becoming what her character, Hannah Horvath, can only dream of being: "The voice of my generation. Or at least, A voice. Of A generation."

Credit: HBO