Shonda Rhimes' First #RealBeauty Video With Dove Shows What It's Like To Fall In Love With Your Body

If you've ever watched any decent TV show, there's a very high chance that you've seen some of the magic that Shonda Rhimes is responsible for. Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, How To Get Away With Murder, the list goes on. Her most recent work to date differs somewhat slightly, having teamed up with Dove to create short films to help show women that they're beautiful the way they are. Move over Olivia Pope, Real Beauty Productions are showcasing some pretty incredible new characters.

The first of the series focuses on Cathleen Meredith, founder of Fat Girls Dance, and how the viral YouTube channel has helped women to love their bodies. Talking about her journey to loving her body and embracing her real beauty, she said: “When you're dancing on a video, when you see it, you're like, oh my God, I'm fat, but it's very strange because you knew you were fat, but you didn't see it the way you see it on camera.”

By seeing her body in a way that she wasn't used to, she found it eventually became a liberation. “So looking at myself over and over again was kind of a graduation from oh my God, I'm fat, to oh my God, I'm awesome. I didn't know that I needed to connect to my body. I didn't know that it was a relationship that was missing...I didn't know that it was a love affair I'd been missing my entire life.”

She goes on to say that if she could give this level of self-love and body appreciation to all fat women across the globe, she would. There's no doubt that Cathleen is an inspiration to so many, especially those who are apprehensive to move their bodies out of fear. Her story makes a wonderful start to the series, and we look forward to hearing more stories of women embracing their bodies and inspiring others.

See when Cathleen met Shonda Rhimes here: