So I got this letter from a couple of viewers.
And I'd like to read it for you.
It says, "Dear Ellen, we are twin African-American sisters
who have achieved our impossible dream of becoming doctors.
Our dream was driven by our mission
to serve medically underserved communities
and inspire the next generation of doctors, particularly
minorities, women, and LGBTQ.
Ellen, we would like to thank you for the work
that you do each day.
You've told the truth of who you are, and when it wasn't easy.
And in doing so, you gave people like us
the courage to be our authentic selves, too.
We really hope to get to meet you in person one day.
But if our paths don't cross, please
know that we are deeply thankful for the sacrifices you make
and keep the world smiling.
Warmly, Dr. Brittani and Dr. Brandi."
And they are here.
They're backstage right now with Jeannie.
They think they're here to be a part of our digital show.
And we want to surprise them right now.
Hey, guys?
Hey, excuse me.
Hi.
Hi?
How are you doing?
Is this real?
That's Ellen!
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
No!
Shut up!
No, this is not real.
Is this real?
Yeah, I just read your letter.
And--
Stop it!
So I just wanted to meet you.
So Jeannie, will you bring them out here?
Yes!
Oh, my god!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
Are you kidding me?
Are you kidding me right now?
Oh, my god!
[SCREAMING]
Oh, my god!
Are you kidding me?
Hi!
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Are you serious?
Oh, my god!
[CHEERING]
Oh, my god!
Are you serious?
Oh, here you go.
Sorry to surprise you like that.
[INAUDIBLE]
Have some water.
Are you OK?
Oh, my god.
At least we're doctors.
I know.
I'm going to have a heart attack.
Oh, my god.
All right, well, if you're doctors,
you can help yourself if you do.
Oh, this is insane!
OK.
Who's who?
I don't even know anymore.
Are you Brittani or Brandi?
I'm Brittani.
This is Brandi.
I'm Brandi.
We, honestly, both responded to both.
You can just call us whatever you want.
All right.
Call us anything.
All right, well, I should call you your name.
OK.
So you're doctors.
And your letter was really cool.
I just read your letter to everybody.
Oh, my god.
And so when did you know you wanted to be doctors?
And both at the same time?
Or one of you first?
Well--
Please go first.
Well, just growing up, we didn't see any doctors
that looked like us.
And it's really hard to become something that you don't see.
But we did really well at school.
And we just thought, well, the point
of being smart and going to all these high-falutin schools
if you don't go out there and help people?
So that's what we wanted to do.
Wow.
And so--
[APPLAUSE]
Oh, my god, there are pictures.
Oh, my god.
What is happening?
All right.
So you decide to be--
so I know that your parents could barely afford
college, much less med school.
So you both went to-- it's not just one of you
goes to med school, both of you do.
And what does it mean to your parents
that you both became doctors?
They must be so proud of you.
Oh, my gosh.
They're beside themselves every day.
And they just really, even more than finances,
they always filled us with such love.
And I think we tried to repay that
by giving love to our patients.
And that, for them, they always tell us,
is their highest reward.
And that's what makes them so happy and proud of us.
And are you just general practitioners?
Or what kind of doctors are you?
Brittani's a family medicine doctor.
So she does everything from deliver babies to you name it,
old, young, everybody!
And I'm a psychiatrist.
So I'm there for all those other life problems that you
might want to talk about.
Yeah, well, you're very needed today.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Right.
Clearly, to that one person who just said, "woo!"
[LAUGHTER]
I'll set you up with that person, later.
So I know that you both turned down high-paying jobs.
Doctors do make a lot of money.
But you turned that down to work in a certain hospital
because you care about the underserved, right?
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, we both went to residency
at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which serves
some of the most underserved--
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
Wonderful.
Because we wanted to learn how to really take
good care of patients who don't have resources.
And then we're both committed to working with patients
of all walks of life.
But to us, it feels like just treating family.
We all have our ups and downs.
And we feel like, when you're doing
what you're passionate about, the money,
it will figure itself out.
And we don't look.
Just don't think about it!
That is the truth.
And I think everybody is sitting here, going,
I want a doctor like this.
Oh.
We need doctors that are like this.
We're going to take a break.
And of course, we have a gift for you.
We didn't just bring you here to talk to you.
So we'll be right back.
You're working to help the Chicago community.
But you also started a website that I want
you to tell everybody about.
Yeah, well we started Med Like Me
as really a place for people to find community,
more than anything else, people who are similar,
who are going through the struggle.
It's really, you ask questions.
Right now, we're answering a lot of them.
And we just want to help people, make
it a little bit easier for people coming after us,
especially if you're a minority, black, Latino, LGBT community.
We need to increase the representation.
And we want to be able to help do that.
Yes.
Good for you.
Wow.
All right, Med Like Me.
All right, and then, what is the ultimate goal?
We want to see more black doctors, more Latino doctors,
more out and proud doctors.
[APPLAUSE]
Besides that, we also want to see
the soul come back to medicine.
We want to see doctors approach the work
with their whole heart, just like you
do every day, Ellen, approaching the work
with their whole heart.
And we really want to bring the care back to medicine.
That's fantastic.
And I agree with you.
I think that, too often, we feel like doctors
are rushing in and rushing out.
And we don't really have their attention,
and also the compassion that we need,
instead of just being treated like something to work on.
We're human beings.
All right, well, I called my friends at Shutterfly.
I know that you borrowed money.
And you have some debt.
So my friends at Shutterfly love what you're doing.
And they want to give each of you $25,000 to help with your--
[SOB]
[APPLAUSE]
Oh, my god!
We'll be back.
Hi, I'm Andy.
Ellen asked me to remind you to subscribe to her channel,
so you can see more awesome videos, like videos
of me getting scared, or saying embarrassing things,
like ball peen hammer, and also some videos of Ellen
and other celebrities, if you're into that sort of thing.
Ah!
Oh, [BLEEP].
God [BLEEP].