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1-Page Summary of Year of Yes
Overview
Shonda Rhimes, an award-winning producer of TV shows like Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy, has helped push the envelope on what is possible in television. Her work has led to a greater presence of women and black Americans in leading roles. As a result, she is very respected in her industry.
Shonda Rhimes was a workaholic who isolated herself from the world and made her life miserable. She decided to change that by saying yes to life and doing things she would normally not do. In this article, you will learn how to become a FOD (friend of Shonda), why it’s important for you to play with your kids, and how Bill Clinton loves everything Shonda does.
Big Idea #1: The author is a feminist, sister, mother and lifelong storyteller.
Shonda Rhimes grew up in Chicago, Illinois. Her favorite pastime as a child was playing make-believe. She would hide away in her mother’s pantry and imagine the cans of food were alive and sentient beings with their own personalities and quirks. Today, she still talks about this fond memory from her childhood, which is a great example of how powerful our imaginations can be!
Shonda Rhimes is an introvert. She was shy and didn’t like to go out. However, she loved books and would sneak them outside when her mother told her to play with other kids. Her passion for storytelling has been present since childhood, as evidenced by the fact that she went to Dartmouth College and USC Film School before becoming the CEO of Shondaland Productions.
Rhimes has been a leader in the television industry, as her shows have featured black women in leading roles. She remarked that 50 years ago, a woman of color from a middle class background would not be running her own production company and writing popular TV shows.
Shonda Rhimes has a term for successful people who share certain characteristics: FODs, which stands for first, only and different. However, how did she become so successful? By seizing opportunities that came her way, keeping her options open to the point where she had many of them in front of her at once and learning continuously through each experience.
In college, Rhimes wanted to become the next Toni Morrison. She won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. However, she soon realized that she had to follow her own dreams and not those of others. It turned out that when she met Morrison later on, all the author wanted to talk about was Grey’s Anatomy!
Big Idea #2: Despite her spectacular success, Rhimes wasn’t always happy.
Despite her success, Shonda Rhimes felt insecure. She was stressed and lonely. She couldn’t show this at work for fear of not being taken seriously, so she turned to food as a coping mechanism. Her health suffered because of it, but when she realized that binge eating was causing more harm than good, she decided to turn things around and lose weight by exercising regularly and eating healthy foods.
