The Sex Lives of College Girls
セックスライフ・オブ・カレッジガール
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Four roommates at a New England college and the gap between the title and the hesitant reality.
Four eighteen-year-olds share a room at Essex College in Vermont. Kimberly, a scholarship student from a family without money, is earnest and anxious. Bela wants to write comedy, against her parents' wishes. Whitney, a senator's daughter, is a soccer star. Leighton, rich and cool, has a secret: she is a lesbian and not out.
In their first term Kimberly begins a secret affair with Leighton's brother, Nico, who has a girlfriend, falls behind, cheats on an exam and loses her scholarship. Bela gets onto the campus comedy magazine partly by trading sexual favours; when she reports another writer, Ryan, for sexually assaulting her and a colleague, he is thrown out, but she and two other women, fed up with the magazine's culture, quit and start their own. Whitney has an affair with a married assistant coach, Dalton; when it comes out she tells the truth, he loses his job, and she makes peace with her mother. Leighton's refusal to come out costs her a girlfriend, Alicia, before she tells Kimberly.
After Thanksgiving Kimberly sells her eggs to pay her fees. Leighton comes out to her friends, is publicly shamed by a hookup after a chlamydia diagnosis, comes out to her father, and goes back to Alicia. Bela falls for Eric, her rival at the old magazine, loses him, and is fired from her own magazine for putting herself first. At the end of the year Kimberly kisses Canaan, Whitney's ex-boyfriend, and Whitney sees it.
In their second year Whitney forgives Kimberly, and Leighton leaves Essex for a mathematics programme at MIT. The others gain a roommate, Kacey, who transferred to be near a boyfriend who promptly cheats on her, and Bela, now a residential adviser, takes on Taylor, a hostile freshman trying to stay sober. Kimberly dates Eli, then Brian, who gaslights her over an intimate photo until she and her friend Lila make him delete it. Whitney starts therapy and quits the soccer team when her coach refuses her a day off. In the finale her teammates speak up against the coach's abuse of power; Kimberly is arrested for helping to cut the livestream of a hateful campus speaker, and Eli bails her out; Taylor calls her estranged mother. Bela, who has realised she is bisexual, holds the hand of a woman, Haley, at Kacey's musical in front of her mother, who silently accepts it. HBO cancelled the series after that season.
Starring
Pauline Chalametas Kimberly Finkle
An earnest scholarship student from a family without money, who keeps making choices that put her place at Essex at risk.
Kimberly Finkle’s story
In her first days at Essex, Kimberly is dumped by her boyfriend. She starts a secret affair with Leighton's brother, Nico, who has a girlfriend, falls behind and cheats on an economics exam; caught, she escapes expulsion but loses her scholarship. Hiding it from her parents, she sells her eggs to pay her fees, and helps the campus food workers win a pay rise. At the end of the year she kisses Canaan, Whitney's ex, and Whitney sees it; the next autumn Whitney forgives her, and Kimberly and Canaan agree to stay friends. She dates Eli, then Brian, who gaslights her over an intimate photo until she and her friend Lila make him delete it. In the finale she helps cut the livestream of a hateful campus speaker, is arrested, and Eli bails her out.
Amrit Kauras Bela Malhotra
An aspiring comedy writer, sex-positive and hungry to be liked, who fights the campus magazine's sexism.
Bela Malhotra’s story
Bela wants to write comedy against her parents' wishes, and gets onto the campus comedy magazine partly by trading sexual favours. When another writer, Ryan, sexually assaults her and a colleague, she reports him; he is thrown out, and she and two other women quit to start their own magazine. She falls for her rival, Eric, then sleeps with a visiting comedian for an internship and loses Eric; she lets an article make the magazine all about her, and is fired from it. As a residential adviser she takes on Taylor, a hostile freshman trying to stay sober. She realises she is bisexual when she kisses Haley, loses her nerve on stage when her mother appears, then holds Haley's hand in front of her at Kacey's musical; her mother silently accepts it.
Reneé Rappas Leighton Murray
A wealthy, guarded New Yorker who hides that she is a lesbian and slowly lets her roommates in.
Leighton Murray’s story
Leighton walks out on a girl who asks about her sexuality, and a drunken night ends with community service at the women's centre. There she falls for Alicia, who leaves her because she will not come out. She tells Kimberly first, then Bela and Whitney. Later that year a chlamydia diagnosis leads a former hookup to expose her in public. She dates a new girlfriend and comes out to her father, who is proud of her; then she leaves the girlfriend and her sorority, goes back to Alicia and gives the women's centre $30,000 to save it. At the start of her second year, with Alicia moving to Boston and her maths class cancelled, she wins a place on a mathematics programme at MIT, thanks her friends for the courage to be herself, and leaves.
Alyah Chanelle Scottas Whitney Chase
A senator's daughter and soccer star who has an affair with a married coach and learns to put her own health first.
Whitney Chase’s story
Whitney starts sleeping with the assistant coach, Dalton, and only then learns that he is married. He ends it; when the head coach asks, she tells the truth, and both men lose their jobs. She tells her mother too, and they make peace. Later that year she dates Canaan and loses him by going through his phone, takes on biochemistry, and turns down an internship her mother found so as to earn one herself. Seeing Kimberly kiss Canaan, she moves out, but forgives her the next autumn. She dates a rich student and kisses Canaan again, and after a knee injury and a cortisone shot she starts therapy. When her coach refuses her a day off, she quits the team; in the finale her teammates speak up against the coach's abuse of power.
Why it matters
The Sex Lives of College Girls, created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, is a comedy about the distance between its title and its characters' lives: first sex, bad sex, no sex, and a good deal of worry. Beneath the jokes it keeps returning to how power works on young women at eighteen. At a comedy magazine, sexual favours open a door and Bela's report of assault is first met with scorn. A married coach sleeps with a student. A boyfriend refuses to delete an intimate photo and tells her she is overreacting. The series follows class too, through a scholarship student who cannot afford a single mistake, and treats coming out and bisexuality as ordinary parts of growing up rather than a special episode. Its warmth is in the friendship: four very different young women who keep choosing each other. HBO cancelled it in 2025 after three seasons.