She was born to a teenage mother in Koscuisko, Mississippi.
She wore dresses made of potato sacks.
Her half-sister died of cocaine addiction.
Her other half-sister was given away for adoption due to financial constraints.
Her half brother died of AIDs.
She was molested by her cousin, uncle and family friend, starting at age 9.
She gave birth at age 14 (the baby shortly died).
Sounds like the start to a depressing Lifetime movie.
Things changed for her. After moving in with her father in East Nashville, she became an honors student, was voted most popular girl, joined the speech team and won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant. At age 19, she became a news anchor, and we all know what happened from there.
25 seasons of the Oprah Winfrey show (one of the longest running TV talks shows).
47 Daytime Emmy Awards.
$3B in net income.
5 books.
2 movies (The Color Purple & Beloved).
2 magazines (O & O at Home).
1 production company (Harpo Productions).
1M votes for Barak Obama (see here).
8x winner of Time Magazine "Most Influential People of the Year"
A household name.
Here's her 2013 commencement speech at Harvard.
"The single most important lesson I learned in twenty-five years talking every single day to people was that there's a common denominator in our human experience... we want to be validated, we want to be understood."
"It doesn't matter how far you might rise -- at some point, you are bound to stumble. Because if you're constantly doing what we do -- raising the bar -- if you're constantly pushing yourself higher, higher, the law of averages predicts that you will, at some point, fall. And when you do, I want you to know this, remember this: There is no such things as failure -- failure is just life trying to move us in another direction."
For more on Oprah, check out Brain Pickings
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