Imposter syndrome, me? A TV legend's refreshing take

Shonda Rhimes, the powerhouse behind Bridgerton’ and Grey’s Anatomy’ puts her success down to self-belief’. If only more of us could skip the doubt, perhaps we’d find women at the helm more often, writes Helen Coffey

- Helen Coffey

If there’s one woman I’d have bet cold, hard cash on not suffering from imposter syndrome, it’s Shonda Rhimes. (Well, her and Liz Truss – though the latter arguably really should have had it.) Everything I’ve ever heard and read about the creator of hit shows ranging from Grey’s Anatomy to Bridgerton suggests that here is not a person much prone to self-doubt.

This is a woman who has been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time on three occasions; a woman who, with a net worth in the region of $250m, is one of the wealthiest female entertainers in the US; a woman who became the first to create three television dramas – Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice and Scandal – that have achieved the milestone of 100 episodes. She’s so laughably bankable that Netflix famously signed her for a reported $150m in 2017 to “just make the shows you want to make”. She’s been described as the Oprah Winfrey of television.

Still, even with all that as the impressive backdrop, her words in a recent interview nearly broke my brain. “People often say they feel like they’re an imposter, and someone’s going to find them out,” she told The Times. “But it doesn’t make sense to me. I belong in every room I’m in. If I got in the room then I belong in that room. I am there, aren’t I?”

I belong in every room I’m in. Oh, the jealousy that coursed through my veins when I read those words!