From ‘Scandal’ to solidarity: Bellamy Young on women’s leadership

Sitting in a quiet conference room in a sunlit Austin hotel, Bellamy Young radiates warmth and enthusiasm. It’s International Women’s Day, and just hours before she takes the stage at Female Quotient’s event at SXSW, she’s here to talk about her latest project: “She Leads With Care,” a new podcast amplifying the voices of women worldwide. Best known for her role as Melody “Mellie” Grant, the fictional first lady-turned-president on ABC’s “Scandal,” Young is no stranger to narratives about women in leadership. But this time, she’s not playing a role — she’s telling real stories, elevating the lived experiences of women tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges. From fictional president to real-world advocate While Young may not hold the Oval Office in real life, her work as a CARE ambassador has placed her in rooms where real change happens. “It couldn’t be a more important time for us all to remember what it means to care about each other,” she says. The idea for the podcast was born out of the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Young found herself craving stories of resilience and connection. “I was feeling very alone and sad and disempowered, and I kept trying to find stories that would give me a little bit of hope,” she recalls. “I bet other people need this right now too.” Young and her team chose a podcast format for its accessibility and intimacy, allowing audiences to engage with real, unfiltered conversations in a way that feels deeply personal. “Nowadays, we consume information … often passively,” Young explains. “Podcasts seem to strike the right chord — whether you’re picking up your kids, cleaning the house, or running on the treadmill, you can travel the world with us for 30 minutes and meet an amazing human.” However, the audio-first approach came with challenges, especially when working across languages and cultures. “We wanted to be really scrupulous about budgeting, and most of us were novices in this arena,” she says, noting the complexities of capturing and translating global voices. While the podcast remains the core platform, video elements are also being incorporated to enhance the storytelling. “We had cameras in each field office because we wanted each woman to feel seen as well as heard,” she says. “Ethical storytelling comes from lived experience. … No one can tell someone else’s story the way they tell it. You must let people speak for themselves.” --— Bellamy Young, actor “We as humans, we learn a lot by getting to see someone, read their microexpressions, see how they present themselves,” she explains, likening it to acting. “As an actor, you’re either an inside-out actor or an outside-in actor. You can get a lot from just the physicality. For me, playing Mellie [on “Scandal”], just the discomfort of wearing hose and that wig kept her in a bad mood.” Ethical storytelling In a world where narratives about global development often come from outside perspectives, Young is adamant about putting women at the center of their own stories. “Ethical storytelling comes from lived experience,” she says. “No one can tell someone else’s story the way they tell it. You must let people speak for themselves, and if you're able to lift them up or pass them the mic, that’s your honor and your joy.” The podcast is part of a broader movement toward community-led development, Young says. She shares an example from Tanzania, where a women-led village savings and loans group started by creating a day care center to ease the burden on working mothers. “They started with 21 kids and a teacher, just enough for the kids to have lunch. Now, they’re about to build a school with 94 children enrolled,” she says. “All because someone asked, ‘What do you need?’ and then trusted the community to lead the solution.” Why women’s leadership matters more than ever Young is keenly aware of the growing skepticism around foreign aid and global development. With funding cuts to USAID and other government programs, she knows many Americans question why resources should go abroad rather than stay local. “I would invite us all to not come from a mindset that is binary, that nothing takes away from anything else,” she says. “This is all about remembering that we are connected. Maybe we can help create a childcare facility in Tanzania. Maybe we can make sure the girls in our lives have financial literacy. Maybe we can just say ‘thank you’ and mean it when we check out at the grocery line.” For Young, the lesson is simple: care is universal, and leadership comes in many forms. Whether in Hollywood, humanitarian work, or politics, women are reshaping power and influence, often in ways that aren’t always visible. As she gets ready to leave for her panel discussion, Young reflects on what keeps her going. “These conversations give me hope,” she says. “I just have to believe that if we keep showing up, if we open our hearts, the love will still flow and the progress will still be made.”