Ellen Pompeo is determined to use her “platform” to inspire other people.

The 51-year-old actress – who is best known for playing Meredith Grey in the long-running medical drama ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ – has her own podcast series called ‘Tell Me With Ellen Pompeo’ and she’s eager to make the most of her opportunity to inspire young women.

She explained: “I realize how powerful my voice has the potential to be for young women, specifically, and I feel pretty grateful that I’ve had such a loyal following for 18 seasons on a show, and at this point in my life I really feel like, ‘How do I want to use this platform? What can I do with it? How do I want to use it?'”

Ellen has interviewed a host of big-name guests for the show, including her former co-star Patrick Dempsey.

And the actress is keen to explore the motivations and inspirations of other well-known stars.

She told ‘Entertainment Tonight’: “There’s just so much craziness in the world, so much negativity and I have this amazing seat I’m sitting in of privilege and power and I do feel a responsibility to give back in some way. Give back in a few different ways.

“But I’ve chosen this as one of them to put some positive conversations out there and ideas to young women. I didn’t really have a whole lot of mentors in my life coming up, especially in show business or just life in general.

“Navigating adult life I had to learn a lot of really hard lessons the really hard way and I still learn lessons the hard way, but I thought if young women look up to me so much and follow me – and social media’s not the place to be able to have conversations – I thought, ‘What if I can have conversations that empower women, that help women, that help people in general?'”