Oprah Winfrey: how she Overcame Struggles Throughout her Life

It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you - always (Oprah Quotes). Oprah Winfrey is one of the most successful women in America. She has overcome many things in her life somethings include poverty, becoming pregnant at a young age, sexism and racism. These struggle begin when she was a child and battled through all her life. Winfrey is a woman who has inspired many and shown people you can overcome any challenge you face.

On January twenty-ninth nineteen fifty-four Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, a small farming community (Oprah Winfrey Biography). Her living conditions as a small child were very poor and she lived in poverty most of her life. Winfrey lived through a childhood of abuse and was beaten regularly. She beat me so badly that I had welts on my back and the welts would bleed she told David Letterman during a lecture series at Ball State University. The cuts would continually break open and she sometimes got blood on her good Sunday dress, So then I got another whipping for getting blood on the dress. she said to Letterman (Street).

However, her grandmother taught her to read and write before the age of three. She would often get praised for being able to read the bible verses at her grandmother's church. At the age of six she went to live with her mother in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her mother worked long hours and she was often left in the care of family members. Winfrey recalled a time she was left with her nineteen year-old cousin who raped her (Street). She continued to suffer sexual abuse from many family members, including her mothers boyfriend.

When she was thirteen she ran away from home and when she was fourteen she got pregnant, but the baby died shortly after birth (Street). Soon after that she moved in with her father, who made education a priority, in Tennessee. When she was seventeen competed in the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant (Oprah Winfrey). Through the pageant Winfrey won a scholarship to Tennessee State University where she started college in 1971 (Oprah Winfrey Biography). Winfrey majored in speech communications and performing arts.

When she won the beauty pageant she was offered a job at WVOL, a radio station serving the African American community in Tennessee. She started college and began working for the radio station. She was offered a job in Baltimore, Maryland, but she wasn't finished with school. She had to choose if she wanted to finish the last few months of school and find a different job after she was done or leave school and start the job. She began working as a co-host on the show People Are Talking. She spent seven years on the talk show and decided it was time for something new. In January of 1948 she moved to Chicago to work. Oprah started working on a half an hour morning program (Oprah Winfrey). Within a year she turned AM Chicago into the hottest morning show in town.

Winfrey had become so successful AM Chicago was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1985 (Oprah Winfrey). She was also in the film, The Color Purple, and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Oprah became the youngest person to receive the Broadcaster of the Year Award. In 1986 Winfrey created her own production company, Harpo Production Inc (Oprah Winfrey). The company was in film and television production and magazine publishing, and she launched the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). In 1988 Harpo got ownership of The Oprah Winfrey Show (Oprah Winfrey). Along with the show, she started releasing a monthly magazine called O: The Oprah Magazine. She has produced and appeared in the movies There Are No Children Here (1993) and Before Women Had Wings (1997.) Oprah produced a successful broadway musical version of The Color Purple. She has also had roles in animated films such as Charlotte's Web, Bree Movie, and Princess and the Frog.

Winfrey has received numerous awards. She received an achievement award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1998 (Sean). She received the Jean Hersholt Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in 2011 (Sean). She also has achieved multiply things. She was the first African American to host a television show. She is the highest paid performer on television and the richest self made woman in America. Along with the richest african american in the twentieth century. She was the first African american woman to become a billionaire. She became partners in Oxygen Media Inc, which is a cable channel. Winfrey established the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

Oprah Winfrey has faced many challenges throughout her life and has shown people that they can achieve great things no matter their situation. She lived in poverty during her childhood and still has managed to be extremely successful. She was left in the care of people who sexual abused and beat her. Winfrey has inspired millions across the world, by discussing significant issues such as equal rights towards genders, racism, poverty, and others. She is seen as a icon, someone who has paved the way for others to become successful in the future.

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