Saturday night at the Human Rights Campaign’s Los Angeles Gala, Shonda Rhimes gave a thoughtful speech about writing, Shondaland, and the importance of creating diverse representations. She said that her writing basically boils down to one thing: loneliness. "I don’t know if anyone has noticed but I only ever write about one thing: being alone," Rhimes said while accepting the organization’s Ally for Equality Award. "The fear of being alone, the desire to not be alone, the attempts we make to find our person, to keep our person, to convince our person to not leave us alone, the joy of being with our person and thus no longer alone, the devastation of being left alone. The need to hear the words: You are not alone.”

Rhimes also talked about why she finds the term “diversity” limiting and prefers the word “normalizing.” “I’m normalizing TV. I am making TV look like the world looks,” she said. "Women, people of color, LGBTQ people equal way more than 50 percent of the population. Which means it ain’t out of the ordinary."