Meredith Grey of Grey’s Anatomy is most famous for that “pick me, choose me, love me” speech to her lover Derek Shepherd, but she is not actually a pick me girl.
Grey’s Anatomy premiered in 2005, and 19 seasons later, it is still going strong. Who doesn’t love a good ol’ medical drama? The series has made Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey, and Sandra Oh world-famous and launched the careers of dozens of other actors.
In season 2, Meredith and Derek’s feelings for each other quickly catch up with them – despite the fact that Derek is still married. In episode 5, Meredith goes in for a bold move and gives Derek the “pick me, choose me, love me” speech to convince him to get a divorce and be with her. It is both beautiful and pathetic, depending on how you look at it.
The scene has since become a fan favorite and spread beyond the show, even launching the “pick me girl” trend on TikTok a decade later after the episode aired. Ellen Pompeo, who plays Meredith Grey, has even acknowledged her involvement in coining the term in Variety’s Actors on Actors.
In the same interview, she also recalled how much she hated filming the scene altogether, saying that she was in tears not because Meredith was supposed to be emotional, but because she had to “beg for a man” on camera. Rough, isn’t it?
While Pompeo is entitled to her own take on the character, the hardcore fans of Grey’s Anatomy disagree with her and others on the Internet who call Meredith the ultimate pick me girl. And they are right to do so!
These days, a pick me girl is a woman who seeks male validation by diminishing other women and insinuating that she is “not like the other girls.” Meredith can’t compare – she just wants the man she loves to be with her. She doesn’t put down Addison, Derek’s wife, and she doesn’t try to make herself out to be “different” from her or “better” than her.
That scene may not have been Meredith’s finest hour, but she is by no means a pick me girl. It’s just your classic example of language evolving (or in this case, devolving).