Shonda Rhimes, Women in Entertainment Breakfast

SHONDA RHIMES: I didn't realize when they asked me to guest edit the issue that I was the first person they've asked to guest edit. I thought it was a regular thing. I mean, Oprah had to have done it and Beyonce definitely and Meryl Streep obviously. But no just me, which sounds like an honor but really is just a new way to cause me to lose sleep at night, to suffer, to scratch myself in places that never needed scratching.

Not because this is Hollywood where everyone is watching everyone. No, I'm fine with that part of it. Watch me. Watch me work.

No, not because of where we are. I was flipping out because of when we are right now, this moment in time, this lightning fast, brightly lit, we handmaids are over these red hats, Westeros is ours. We are reclaiming our time. We're swinging our lemonade baseball bats. We are all wonder woman now, because guess what?

We are done with this molestery hot mess that makes men feel they can put their hands anywhere on us. So there's the door, because they got to go reckoning moment in time. So you can't phone that issue in. That issue has to be done all the way right. It has to be correct or else.

So I got all itchy and scratchy and sleepless and suffering, and I also got really annoying, because I am never more officious and annoying and experty than when I know only a little bit about something. And I know less about how to put out a weekly publication than anything else. But in the end, I did what I always do, what has made me successful, which is I just listened to the women around me.

My daughter told me to ask for a story on powerful women and their daughters. I heard horror stories at a baby shower, and that turned into an article on how working women are treated in this business when they are pregnant. I railed against what turned out to be a really great story about boots.

I did a big interview, and we talked about sexual harassment and abuse and what can be done. And I tried as hard as I could to stalk Jennifer Lawrence to find out how she does it. But THR, I've got a restraining order against me, so I couldn't.

And I loved every single minute of it. It was an honor, and it was a gift for me. And I learned so much about so many of you in this room. And I ended up with this very protective feeling about you my fellow women in entertainment, protective of how this issue would portray you. Because after all in this business, how we portray women tells the world who women are. And I just want the world to know how powerful and creative and badass and original you all are. Thank you.

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