Caroline Liu

Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy, and How to Get Away with Murder are taking Thursday night television by storm, and the woman behind all of this beautiful madness is Shonda Rhimes.  One of TIME’s Most Influential People, Rhimes is more than an award-winning screenwriter, director, and producer - she’s the 'storyteller of our times.' 

It all started with an undergraduate degree in English Literature focusing on Creative Writing at Dartmouth College.  After graduation she found herself unemployed and directionless but determined to make a career in writing.  Writing of any kind was Rhimes's calling, even if it meant she had to fill the role of the Starving Artist archetype.  It wasn’t until she wrote her first script that she realized screenwriting was exactly right for her. 

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Rhimes is as much a strong, capable female protagonist in the real world as the characters she creates.

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Rhimes went on to deliver the Commencement Address to the Dartmouth graduating class of 2014 last spring, just 23 years after she crossed that stage herself and earned her Ivy League degree.  In her speech she details the tough and necessary lessons that come from becoming a full-time functioning adult in the real world.

'The thing I really felt like I knew was that the real world sucks,' Rhimes admits, recounting her attitude on her own graduation day.  'My point is that it can be scary to graduate… That every day you can feel like you might be failing at work or at your home life.  That the real world is hard...  And yet, you can still wake up one day and find yourself living a life you never even imagined dreaming of.'

Dreams are lovely.  But dreams do not come true just because you dream them.  It's hard work that makes things happen.  It's hard work that creates change. - Shonda Rhimes

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She spent the years immediately following graduation working as an intern - first working with advertising agency McCann Erickson in San Francisco.  Rhimes later relocated to Los Angeles to work at production companies like Denzel Washington’s Mundy Lane Entertainment and Spring Creek, where she received first-hand experience on script writing.  She simultaneously lived her intern years while attending the University of Southern California to study screenwriting. 

The next few years were characterized by various film projects, including the notable Blossoms and Veils, for which she was the writer, director, and producer.  Rhimes credits mentor Debra Chase Martin for her early success, as they worked together on films like The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

It wasn’t until Rhimes adopted her first child, Harper Lee, that she became drawn to television.  Being a first-time single mother meant spending a lot of time at home, and it was during this period that she discovered an obsession with engaging TV shows.  Felicity, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sex and the City, and The Sopranos all inspired Rhimes to create her own television series - one that was just as riveting to viewers as her favorites had been to her.

Grey’s Anatomy premiered in 2005 and the show is now on it’s 11th season.  Throughout the success of Grey’s, Rhimes also adopted three television shows and two children, including the sexy spin-off Private Practice.  

Between Private Practice in 2007 and Scandal in 2012, Rhimes pitched and piloted various shows from Inside the Box to Off the Map, showing her dedication to trial and error and courage in the face of risk of failure.  Through all of her projects, one goal remains consistent - create a show she herself would get hooked on.

Rhimes has been praised as a game-changer in terms of racial and cultural representation in her television projects, but she doesn’t necessarily take that as a compliment: 'part of a truly diverse world is not needing to make a statement about the fact that it’s a diverse world.  When we get to that point, we’ve gotten somewhere.'

And while her female-centric media projects have been not only well received but also celebrated, that theme doesn’t stop at her work.  Her Wikipedia page has no mention of a partner, and that’s a testament to her ability to stand alone in the eye of the public whether or not she is romantically involved. (Searching 'husband' and 'boyfriend,' both receive zero results, and the only time 'male' comes up is when it is attached to 'female.')  Rhimes is as much a strong, capable female protagonist in the real world as the characters she creates. Talk about #girlpower.

 

Caroline Liu is a freshman and Quest Scholar at Wesleyan University.  In addition to writing for bSmart Guide, she is a National Contributor for Spoon University and Director of Social Media for The Prospect.  Find her on Twitter @caroqliu.

 

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