Shonda Rhimes, the award-winning TV screenwriter, producer and writer, is a firm believer in never wearing stilettos, wearing comfortable clothes, getting eight hours of sleep an evening, and just being yourself.

She spoke Wednesday night with Aurora James, founding father of Brother Vellies and the 15 Percent Pledge, on stage at Shondaland’s Recent York offices. They were chatting with women from Gyrl Wonder, an expert pipeline initiative giving rise to young women of color between the ages of 17 and 22.

As reported, Rhimes appears in St. John’s #Own Your Power campaign, which launched this spring. St. John sponsored the event.

In discussing power and the way one gets it, Rhimes said that you could have to do not forget that you’re in a specific job since you’re purported to be there. “You belong in every room you’re in just because you’re in it. You made it in that room, you belong in that room,” said Rhimes, who has been the pinnacle author for such TV shows as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal,” and “Private Practice,” and is the girl behind hits including “Bridgerton,” “Find out how to Get Away with Murder,” and “Inventing Anna.”

Rhimes said it took some time for her to feel really comfortable, “but I still wasn’t feeling the best way you’re purported to feel. I still felt like a child who was given a crazy likelihood,” she said. She said there have been moments where everyone within the room was waiting for her to talk, or that if she said something, something happened faster. When she was on “Scandal,” she worked with an expert fixer. “She taught me a lot about being who you’re and that being enough,” said Rhimes.

Rhimes and James offered the ladies quite a lot of advice on find out how to start within the working world, and that you just’re not necessarily going to get your dream job at first.

Rhimes believes that each job is a step toward something, and also you don’t must be doing the best job on the earth at first. “You’ve gotten to do something and the stuff you learn from that may push you towards the following thing,” she said. She explained that a few of her early jobs were scooping ice cream in highschool and dealing at a retail store in a mall in college, “which I believed was pretty fun and spent all my money on clothes.”

When she went out to Los Angeles to try to make it, “it was really about getting any job I could.” She got a job working with mentally in poor health homeless individuals who were seeking to re-enter the workforce. “It was a extremely interesting place to work and had nothing to do with what I desired to do, but I actually tried hard to dig in. It’s that thing that in the event you’re going to get someone coffee, get them the perfect coffee they ever had,” said Rhimes.

In that role, she learned about connecting with individuals who didn’t need to connect along with her.

Rhimes said she spent 10 years working at various jobs, and got an agent. “I used to be going to place a script on the Spec market, and thought, it’s never going to work, after which I’m going to medical school,” said Rhimes. “However the script sold,” she said, and that kept her going for a lot of more years. “It really was an indication that I used to be purported to be where I used to be.”

Describing where her drive got here from, Rhimes explained that she had great parents who raised their children to at all times consider in themselves. “My mom was a stay-at-home mom with six kids after which she went to school while I used to be in highschool, after which she got her Ph.D. after I was in college and have become a professor of education. She was such a fantastic example for me,” said Rhimes.

When hiring, Rhimes said she at all times likes individuals who know who they’re and have a story. “For me, it’s at all times about on the lookout for any individual who has an identity, someone who knows who they’re, any individual who is available in with ideas. I at all times say I would like any individual who’s not afraid to argue, but I don’t need to hire any individual who desires to argue on a regular basis.”

Several years ago, her older sister told her she never said “yes” to anything, and at all times turned down invitations for public speaking engagements or events. She took the challenge to start out saying “yes,” and even wrote a Recent York Times bestseller about it, “12 months of Yes.”

“It was truly life-changing. I felt otherwise about myself. I discovered powers I didn’t know I had,” she said. “All the things about that made me realize that you just’re able to way greater than you think that you’re,” she said. For instance, she gave the commencement speech at her alma mater, Dartmouth College.

“Don’t worry about looking silly. I look silly on a regular basis. I’m not afraid to fail and I’m not afraid to try something simply because I’m afraid of what’s going to occur,” she said.

When asked what recent goals she still has for herself, Rhimes said, “I really need to write down a play. I’m scared to do it, and I’m going to do it anyway.”

Turning to the subject at hand — she was there for St. John in any case — she spoke about clothing.

“Wardrobe is armor,” said Rhimes. When she’s having a terrible day, if she’s dressed well, it helps her.

“You place it on and also you do stuff and it’s necessary. But more necessary, I at all times need to wear something that not only makes me look good, but makes me comfortable. I don’t wear uncomfortable clothing for any reason in any way for anybody ever. I don’t wear stiletto heels, it’s not me. I would like to wear something that makes me look good and feel good, but I don’t must give it some thought while I’m wearing it,” said Rhimes. “Not worrying about the way you look permits you to worry about what’s on the within loads more and get the work done.”

She feels that how you select to decorate tells the story of who you’re. “It ought to be something that signals who you’re to the world. Are you skilled? Are you creative?….It’s good to have clothes that tell the world your personality. A number of it’s finding clothes that make you are feeling powerful and make you come across as powerful,” she said.

She said in her 20s, she didn’t know find out how to dress, but by her 30s, she found a uniform, wearing quite a lot of jackets and T-shirts. “As time went on, I actually developed a uniform of garments that made me feel good.”

Her best advice: “Don’t let your feet hurt. In case your feet hurt, you may not think.”