“I’ve always been an introverted person,” Shonda Rhimes says, and she found the fame that came with her television successes to be “daunting.”
Dove teams up with Shonda Rhimes for first real beauty film
Dove’s Real Beauty campaign has partnered with TV writer Shonda Rhimes to release a film that sheds light on changing the narrative of how girls and women see their beauty through the media.
“Meet Cathleen” is the first film for Dove Real Beauty Productions. Acclaimed producer and screenwriter Rhimes of “Scandal” and “Grey’s Anatomy” fame was the Creative Director for the three-minute-long film.
“Meet Cathleen” follows Cathleen Meredith through a journey where she discovers her own beauty through her love of dance and defines beauty through self love. Meredith became famous with her body positive dance group that logged their weekly dance performances for a year.
Dove created the film with Rhimes in response to research that showed 69% of women do not identify with the beauty standards shown in mainstream media. Specific points women wished to see shown in more mainstream media included age, race, size and shape diversity.
Rhimes was a perfect choice for helping tell the real beauty story because her characters often depart from traditional Hollywood archetypes.
Rhimes said of the collaboration, “Dove and I have a shared passion in emphasizing what’s real. The characters that I write about come from the fact that I wanted to see real women on TV – the real and messy stuff that makes us human.”
Meredith ends the video, which can be seen in its full length below, saying that she “thinks the whole idea of what beauty is needs to be thrown out and we need to start defining what beauty is, and the definition of beauty is you.”
“Meet Cathleen” is now streaming on YouTube as well as on Dove’s site. It has already received over 2 million views.