Oprah Gail Winfrey an American television host, actress, producer, humanitarian and entrepreneur. Oprah was born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi (Networks, 2014). She had a troubled adolescence in a small farming town, where male relative and some friends of her mother, Vernita, continually sexually abused her. She moved to Nashville with her father, Vernon, a businessman. She enrolled in the Tennessee State University in 1972 and began working in radio and television (Networks, 2014). She was the very first African-American billionaire in U.S. history who rose from poverty in country Mississippi to “become host of her own talk show, the head of a huge media company, and the most powerful woman in entertainment” (Drexler, 2007).
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She started off working for a radio station when she went to Tennessee State University (TSU). While she attended TSU she began acting in university plays and distinguished herself with dramatic readings (Drexler, 2007). Oprah won several beauty contests in her time, which boosted her self-confidence. She went on to win Miss Black Tennessee, and her win resulted in her being asked to be an on-air reporter at WTVF-TV, a local CBS associate. She was only 19 years old and was officially the youngest and the first African-American woman anchor the station had hired. In her senior year, 1976, Oprah was offered a job in Baltimore as a co-anchor on the 6pm news on QJZ-TV. Her father didn’t want her to take her job and to focus more on her education but Oprah insisted and took it anyway (Drexler, 2007). Winfrey’s job as co-anchor didn’t go so well. She did not have the independence expected of news journalists and found she feeling sorry for the people’s stories in which she covered. She was explicitly criticised from straying from the script and was almost forced to change her appearance (Stadtmiller, 2012). The station ordered a makeover, including new clothes and a perm that made her hair fall out (Drexler, 2007). Her bosses insisted she get plastic surgery to move her eyes closer together and make her nose narrower, but Oprah refused (Drexler, 2007). She was removed from her position nine months
She started off working for a radio station when she went to Tennessee State University (TSU). While she attended TSU she began acting in university plays and distinguished herself with dramatic readings (Drexler, 2007). Oprah won several beauty contests in her time, which boosted her self-confidence. She went on to win Miss Black Tennessee, and her win resulted in her being asked to be an on-air reporter at WTVF-TV, a local CBS associate. She was only 19 years old and was officially the youngest and the first African-American woman anchor the station had hired. In her senior year, 1976, Oprah was offered a job in Baltimore as a co-anchor on the 6pm news on QJZ-TV. Her father didn’t want her to take her job and to focus more on her education but Oprah insisted and took it anyway (Drexler, 2007). Winfrey’s job as co-anchor didn’t go so well. She did not have the independence expected of news journalists and found she feeling sorry for the people’s stories in which she covered. She was explicitly criticised from straying from the script and was almost forced to change her appearance (Stadtmiller, 2012). The station ordered a makeover, including new clothes and a perm that made her hair fall out (Drexler, 2007). Her bosses insisted she get plastic surgery to move her eyes closer together and make her nose narrower, but Oprah refused (Drexler, 2007). She was removed from her position nine months