“And at the end of every day, as a reward, I poured myself a glass of red wine. Olivia Pope gets her red-wine-drinking habits from Rhimes.Įven when she was riding high with Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, she writes that she was “miserable.” “Truly, deeply unhappy.” As such, she had one thing she turned to at the end of the day. Welcome your new life coach, Shonda Rhimes. Quite simply, it’s a book about how she learned to take care of herself, and how you might be able to as well. Instead, there are small, charmingly odd, inspirational stories, like how she reacted to the Red Wedding scene in Game of Thrones to how writing Cristina Yang was writing the woman she hoped to become. There are no “What if?” casting scenarios. There are no VH1 behind-the-scenes moments explaining how Isaiah Washington was fired from Grey’s Anatomy or what went down with Columbus Short on Scandal. It is not a ribald tale spilling hot industry tea. In this way, Year of Yes is not a burn book. She spent more time with the people she loved, shed 127 pounds, and learned how to be a happier person.

She said yes to commencement speeches, yes to accepting more help, and - you guessed it - yes to herself. For one year, one of the most powerful showrunners on television said yes to everything. ( From the publisher.Shonda Rhimes’s Year of Yes, available today, is less a memoir than it is a self-help book. The book chronicles her life after her Year of Yes had begun-when Shonda forced herself out of the house and onto the stage when she learned to explore, empower, applaud, and love her truest self. This poignant, intimate, and hilarious memoir explores Shonda’s life before her Year of Yes-from her nerdy, book-loving childhood to her devotion to creating television characters who reflected the world she saw around her. Shonda knew she had to embrace the challenge: for one year, she would say YES to everything that scared her. And then, over Thanksgiving dinner, her sister muttered something that was both a wake up and a call to arms: You never say yes to anything. With three children at home and three hit television shows, it was easy for Shonda to say she was simply too busy. So who would suspect that Shonda Rhimes is an introvert? That she hired a publicist so she could avoid public appearances? That she suffered panic attacks before media interviews? Her iconic characters live boldly and speak their minds. She’s the creator and producer of some of the most groundbreaking and audacious shows on television today. The Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Personįrom the creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal and executive producer of How to Get Away With Murder shares how saying YES changed her life.

Shonda rhimes yes to everything