In 2015, American Television producer, screenwriter and founder of “Shondaland Productions” Shonda Rhimes penned Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun, and Be Your Own Person. It was the bestselling memoir of the woman who created the strong, independent and unapologetic female leads of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Commit Murder, yet who struggled to explore her own personal and professional growth. She was an introverted adult who lived within the realm of her own imagination.
When the book was first released, readers expected the book to dish on their favorite television characters, but they discovered raw, honest and hilarious insights into the fears of an American icon.
Celebrating the book’s tenth anniversary, Rhimes has embarked on a limited promotional tour, discussing Year of Yes. She reflects on the motivations behind writing her tome and its lasting impact on her life.
Despite her fame and fortune, she described herself as being socially paralyzed. Rhimes felt like she was living in a vacuum, dividing her time between her kids and her demanding television schedule. When on Thanksgiving 2013, her older sister Delores commented about Rhimes’ long list of declined invitations, “You never say yes to anything,” those words really hit home.
After decades of declining social and speaking invitations, and awards, Rhimes decided for one year to say YES to experiences and opportunities that she had previously shunned. During that year, Shonda bravely put herself out there — giving a TED Talk, meeting new people, finding love, accepting honors, and sharing a box at the Kennedy Center Awards with the Obamas. Rhimes’s Year of Yes transformed her life.
The year 2025 brings an updated and expanded 10th anniversary edition of Year of Yes, with new inspirational stories and seven new chapters. And a great deal has changed since 2015 — she left ABC for Netflix, created Bridgerton and its spin-off Queen Charlotte, and wrote her first comedy series, The Residence.
During the past decade, Rhimes has also changed her lifestyle, focusing on her health journey and longevity for the sake of herself and her three daughters. As she recently told Robin Roberts at the 92NY: “I really thought like I might be dead in 10 years,” Rhimes said. “At a certain point I started to feel, like truly feel, terrible. Like, I have a hard time going up the stairs, getting breathless all the time.”
Rhimes, a Westport resident, recently appeared at the Westport Library’s Storyfest and was interviewed by Craig Melvin, the co-anchor of the Today Show. She mentioned she was a different person from the one who finished the first book in 2015.
Rhimes is more fearless, more comfortable and willing to take new risks. She has also learned when to say “No.” She shared that the new chapters discuss her new addiction to golf, her supportive parents and the legacy she desires to leave behind.
Rhimes also shared with the Westport crowd that she has faced and overcome failure and has employed it as a motivator for her later success. Her biggest failure, she noted, was as a young writer being fired by Oprah.
Oprah had hired her to write a movie-of-the-week about Oprah becoming a ballroom dancer, and Rhimes’ script was a disaster. Then, in 2017, a full-circle moment occurred when Oprah inducted Rhimes into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. That watershed moment made Rhimes realize she had finally achieved success.
Year of Yes isn’t your typical self-help book. As Rhimes has mentioned in another recent interview: “Saying ‘yes’ doesn’t stop. You don’t say ‘yes’ for a while, then stop and then your whole life is different and everything’s great. It’s really about a process of continuing to say ‘yes’ and figuring out what those yeses are.”
She hopes readers take away the idea that saying “Yes” doesn’t last for a year; the changes last a lifetime, and anyone can change their life.
Faced with a hectic schedule, Rhimes has no intention of slowing down. Her next goals include writing a Broadway play, writing a sci-fi show and spending a year attempting different things she has never tried under the tutelage of experts in their fields. And, of course, writing the 23rd season of Grey’s Anatomy and the fifth season of Bridgerton.