English project

Layla Alzuhair
Rags-to-riches story of Oprah
Winfrey
 The rise of Oprah Winfrey
As a child, Oprah Winfrey wore potato sacks because clothing did not always fit into the
budget of her poverty-stricken family. Today she is the only black woman on the Forbes list of
the 400 richest people in America. Forbes estimates her net worth to be around 3 billion dollars.

Before she became a world-wide known media mogul, she suffered from a traumatic
childhood. She went back and forth between family members, spending early years on her
grandma’s farm in Mississippi while her unmarried teenage mother searched for a job. When
her grandmother became ill,6-year-old Oprah went to take residence with her mother in a
Milwaukee boarding house, where she endured extreme poverty and physical abuse.

At the age of 14, Oprah escaped and went to live her father in Tennessee where she started to
flourish. The stable environment she found there granted her the chance to thrive and shine,
she then became an honor roll student and was voted “most popular girl” in class. She would
soon discover her passion for media at East Nashville High.

By her senior year, acquired a full scholarship to a State University, however, she dropped out
to pursue a career in media. She then later became the very first black female news anchor
before reaching the age of 20. Afterwards, she landed a co-anchor position in Baltimore where
she was constantly harassed and humiliated, she was fired after 7 months of joining.

She still kept fighting until she landed a gig to host the morning talk show, “AM Chicago”. In
the span of only a few months, Oprah turned the show from an unpretentious talk show to one
of the most popular ones. 3 years later the show was renamed “The Oprah Winfrey Show”. That
year, Oprah made her critically acclaimed film debut in Steven Spielberg's “The Color Purple” as
Sofia, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

In 1986, she set up her own production company, making her the very first black woman to
own a US studio, she named the firm “Harpo”, which is spelt Oprah spelt backwards. In 2000 she
launched her very own magazine, known as the very successful “O, The Oprah Magazine”.

With her popularity at an all-time high in the 2000s, Winfrey’s wealth amazingly increased in
2004, she was listed as the world’s only black billionaire and the first black woman billionaire in
all of history by Forbes.

She never forgot to give back, as a major philanthropist, she has donated millions to charities
over the years and founded three major foundations that support a wide variety of good causes.

Winfrey broke many stereotypes and achieved what was thought to be impossible. Today,
Oprah Winfrey has an estimate net worth of $3 billion and she shows absolutely no sign of
slowing down!