Shonda Rhimes has a new passion project, and it has nothing to do with a TV pitch or a Netflix deal. The celebrated showrunner has thrown herself headfirst into the world of dorm organization, and she is not looking back.
The Grey’s Anatomy creator, 56, made an appearance at the 2026 Webby Awards in New York City on May 11, where she spoke exclusively with PEOPLE about what has been keeping her busy lately. With one of her daughters on the verge of heading to college, Rhimes has found herself swept up in a corner of the internet she never knew existed dorm décor and organization.
She told PEOPLE she had gone deep into that rabbit hole and discovered some truly impressive products along the way, adding that she had no idea how much existed in that space until now. It is the kind of enthusiastic, detail oriented energy fans of her work will recognize immediately.
A family built with love across three chapters
Rhimes is a proud mother of three daughters. Her eldest, Harper, 23, was welcomed through adoption in 2002. Her middle daughter, Emerson, 12, also joined the family through adoption, ten years after Harper. Her youngest, Beckett, 11, came via surrogacy in 2013.
The decision to become a mother was one Rhimes made in the aftermath of one of the most devastating moments in modern American history. She had rented a farmhouse in Vermont to reflect on her life’s direction when the September 11 attacks happened the very next day. Watching the tragedy unfold on television, she found herself thinking about everything she truly wanted. She returned home and immediately contacted an adoption attorney. Nine months and two days after the attacks, Harper was born, named after the legendary author Harper Lee.
Rhimes has spoken candidly about the fact that the path she chose to build her family through adoption and surrogacy prompted plenty of questions from those around her, including her own relatives. She has shared that her parents had a lot to process with adoption and even more so with surrogacy, acknowledging that some of those conversations remain unfinished to this day. But she has also made clear that regardless of how any child came into the family, they were immediately and fully embraced. The love, she said, was never in question.
She also reflected on feeling pressure over the years to explain or defend the way she became a mother, eventually concluding that no one owes anyone that explanation. Just as people do not describe a child by how they were delivered at birth, she does not believe the method by which her children joined her family should define them or her.
Three generations around the Mother’s Day table
Beyond the dorm prep excitement, Rhimes had a full and meaningful Mother’s Day this year. She gathered with her three daughters, her sister, her sister’s children and her own parents for a multi generational celebration that she described as a wonderful time.
It was a portrait of exactly the kind of loud, loving, all in family she has described before one where everyone belongs completely and without condition. Rhimes has spoken warmly about her family being the boisterous, all embracing kind, and this Mother’s Day gathering seemed to be a perfect example of that.
Now, with Harper having grown into a 23 year old and one of her younger daughters getting ready to leave the nest for the first time, Rhimes is channeling that same energy into the next chapter. Whether she is greenlit a series or sourcing the perfect dorm storage solution, she approaches it all with the same level of commitment. And apparently, the dorm organization world is richer and more expansive than most parents realize until, like Rhimes, they finally go looking.
EXCLUSIVE : PEOPLE
