Shonda Rhimes Doesn’t Care About Your Beauty Standards

In your fantasy dialog with Shonda Rhimes, she is aware of precisely what you could hear to repair your life. She provides recommendation with the knowledge of a Meredith Gray voiceover, the wit of a Woman Whistledown missive, the quickness of Olivia Pope. The 2 of you’re at afternoon tea, or possibly a luxe cocktail bar, and he or she is inclined to share her ideas for running an empire.

And that’s precisely what occurs. Effectively, it’s a Zoom name, however with the vibe of excessive tea. Because the world awaits the second season of Bridgerton and enjoys a resurgence of Gray’s Anatomy, Shondaland Audio has partnered with Dove’s Self-Esteem Project—a physique positivity initiative that gives vanity schooling to folks, academics, and youth leaders—to create a brand new podcast, Dominant Stories with Jess Weiner. The podcast will invite celebrities, artists, and thinkers to mirror on certainly one of their “dominant tales,” that’s, the unfavorable narratives now we have about ourselves. You already know those: “I’m simply not lovable,” or “I’ve by no means been somebody who’s good at taking dangers.” The way in which we deny ourselves the fullness of life within the identify of being practical.

“You already know what’s attention-grabbing is that I’ve realized to just accept the concept there are going to be days when I’ve these emotions about myself, however the older I get, the extra I understand that they’re simply days, they’re not information,” says Rhimes. “How you’re feeling doesn’t essentially mirror the reality of what’s occurring.”

Pretending very a lot that we have been outdated associates speaking over drinks, I requested Rhimes to share how she received to this promised land of perspective and self-awareness. “Actually, as you become older you begin to care much less about what different individuals suppose. And studying to not care about what different individuals suppose might be the important thing to treating your self with extra kindness,” she says. 

“Everyone’s opinions stem from no matter is occurring with them,” she provides. “It doesn’t actually need to do with the truth of what’s occurring. Everyone has their very own demons, their very own fears, issues about themselves that they don’t like so that they put these on the market into the world, they put them on you. However when you cease believing in what different individuals need to say about you and simply let your self be, you’re extra prone to be completely satisfied.”

Some individuals have the reward of merely saying, many times, that which is tattoo-able. For extra, we caught up with Rhimes for an additional spherical of Glamour’s Big Beauty Questions.

Glamour: In the event you may change one factor about magnificence perceptions, both on social media or in Hollywood, what would you need to change? 

Shonda Rhimes: I believe I’d change the notion that there is a typical. I believe we rejoice individuals’s our bodies far an excessive amount of. I imply, we’re actually celebrating one thing individuals don’t have any management over—or we’re not celebrating it, we’re shaming it. It’s fascinating that any individual loses weight and we’re both upset that they misplaced weight, like, “How dare you? You represented us!” Or we rejoice them for having misplaced weight, as if that makes them a greater particular person one way or the other. Or they’ve a ravishing face, so we rejoice the face that they have been born with, versus celebrating their accomplishments or kindness or actions. To me, the truth that there are magnificence requirements in any respect is a part of the issue.