Shonda Rhimes was honoredShonda Rhimes was honored as a Girl Hero award recipient by the organization Girl Up. Girl Up was founded by the United Nations Foundation in 2010 and hosts leadership programs that elevate female voices and promote both gender equality and social change. Rhimes joined via Zoom to talk about why she's passionate about the role of elevating voices in television and what that means for young Women of Colour.
Speaking To Girls Who Look Up To Her
"It's really about seeing yourself represented in a way," Rhimes expressed, "It was so important for me growing up to have, you know, there were so few representations of women who were like me on television. When I saw them it was magnetic, it was magical for me. It was Oprah and Debbie Allen and people like Phylicia Rashad."
The producer and screenwriter continued that women like those mentioned above influenced how she wanted to uplift girls like her, "Getting to see women like that, powerful, interesting, amazing women who were like the women I wanted to be was so important. I just feel like everybody should get to see themselves on television."
How Rhimes' Dreams Unfolded
"I don't know that I started out with an activist plan as much as I wanted the world to look like the world that I knew," Rhimes described as she gave Girl Up honoree Ina Bhoopalam a look into her writing inspiration, "The world I was writing should look like the world that I knew. So for me, making sure that that was true was important and still is important to me."
"I feel like I want young women to know going into this business that it's possible," she shared as she spoke to anyone listening who admires her for her career, "It's very important to understand that if you can tell a good story, that is a powerful thing."
The Shondaland creator ensured young viewers that there will be an audience for their unique perspective if they can and are willing to tell their story in a way that will captivate. She said that she worked for a long time to prove herself and once she did, people were hungry for her stories.