Author Shonda Rhimes is best known for her work in television and other media. As the creative force behind wildly successful television shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, Rhimes built a public image of brilliance, productivity, and fearlessness. Yet, despite her outward success and cultural influence, Rhimes privately struggled with self-doubt, fear, and the pressure to live up to her own achievements—tensions she explores candidly in Year of Yes.

Born in 1970 to a large family, Rhimes grew up in a Chicago suburb and attended Dartmouth College, graduating in 1991. She went on to attend film school at the University of Southern California, which led to her early ventures in film writing: She wrote the made-for-HBO movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge in 1999, which starred Halle Berry. Rhimes then wrote screenplays for two successful feature films: Crossroads in 2002 and The Princess Diaries 2 in 2004 (“Shonda Rhimes Biography.” Britannica).

2005, however, brought Rhimes’s breakthrough with Grey’s Anatomy. The show takes its name from the well-known medical text of the same name and is a romantic drama centered on the life of Dr. Meredith Grey, a surgeon at fictitious Seattle Grace Hospital. Rhimes explained that she was always fascinated with surgery and nonfiction surgery shows featured on the Discovery Channel.