Title: Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person

Author: Shonda Rhimes

Published in: 2015

Read in: March 2016

I regret not keeping up with this plan of writing something about every book I read when I actually read it. We’re getting back into the books I read in March and now I have to dig into my brain a little deeper.

Let’s start with this … I took over the as editor of MSN TV in the fall of 2013. During that time a few things happened. I started watching more TV. I started reading a lot more about showrunners, producers and television actors. I got hooked on “Scandal.” And I noticed Shonda Rhimes was in the news a lot. Actually, no, I didn’t notice. She just was, and because I started focusing on TV in 2014, it didn’t occur to me that there was a time when she wasn’t in the news a lot.

Well, I stand corrected. I know now how much she had to overcome to begin showing up for interviews. Speaking at panels. Accepting invitations to things. Saying Yes.

3 other things I learned about Shonda:

• All of the words she couldn’t say herself because of these fears and insecurities, she gave to the character Cristina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy, which makes Sandra Oh leaving the series all that much more bittersweet.
• She acts like me at PTA meetings, if I went to PTA meetings, which I don’t. Who the heck has time to make brownies from scratch? Shonda doesn’t, and neither do I (unless I want to, which I do, for my family). That’s why I always volunteer to bring bottled water.
• She can write a commencement speech in like 15 minutes.
• Bonus, she does a Wonder Woman stance to make her feel more confident. I tried this. It kinda works.

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