Oprah Winfrey Biography

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Oh! Oprah! Oprah Winfrey has dominated her industry and transcended into a household name through her self-titled television show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, owning her own television network, Harpo Productions Inc., and print publications, O, The Oprah Magazine and O at Home. Born into poverty and despair, she has overcome many obstacles from sexual abuse to racial profiling in order to defy the odds. She is the only African American on the Forbes 400 with a notable net worth of $3.2 billion. Oprah has enriched the lives of thousands though literacy programs, spiritual enlightenment, and feminine empowerment. Her life proves that with hard work and determination anyone can succeed if you dare to believe. A baby boomer, Oprah Winfrey was …show more content…
Sparking the attention of a local black radio station, WVOL, and still in high school Oprah began working part-time by broadcasting the news. Graduating high school with honors, Oprah received a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, majoring in Speech Communication and Performing Arts. After two years of college she dropped out to pursue her television career as a news co-anchor at the local Nashville station, WLAC-TV. Between the ten years of 1976 and 1986, Oprah climbed the television network ladder from news co-anchor at the local Nashville station, to morning talk show host of AM Chicago, into what would be renamed, The Oprah Winfrey Show.
“Winfrey’s celebrity was her product; the media was simply the packaging. Winfrey was hardly the first person to become rich for being famous; her contribution to modern capitalism lay in neither her fame nor her wealth but in the entrepreneurial instincts she brought to the conversion of the former into the latter. She was a star; she became an industry” (Brands 292). Through the twenty-four seasons of The Oprah Winfrey Show, she reached 44 million viewers a week. Oprah redefined publishing companies marketing strategies through the Oprah’s Book Club which contributed to the sale of over 50 million
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On Day 4 of the Oprah & Deepak 21-Day Mediation Experience – Become What You Believe, Oprah states, “I just never doubted my belief… and because I believed I was a child of God, I did believe anything was possible. Those beliefs shaped my reality. I didn’t know what that reality would lead to, but I knew who I was before I even could articulate it. And that has led me to the life I live today”. Together with Eckhart Tolle, author of A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life 's Purpose, Oprah created a spiritual movement through a ten-week television series that reviewed the book and creating provoking discussions. As a spiritual teacher, Oprah has encouraged thousands, including myself, to dare to dream big. Oprah philanthropy contributions are attributes she has become well known for. In Johannesburg, South Africa she established the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls that educates over 450 pupils in a state-of-the-art facility. Through the Oprah Angel Network, the “Use Your Life Award” of $100,000 is presented to people who are improving the lives of others. Another contribution that no one can forget is the celebration episode for the 20th season of The Oprah Winfrey Show, when she gave away a brand new car to every person in the studio audience, all whom were

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