Who is Oprah Winfrey?

I don’t think that she’s a bad person no matter how other people see her; I think that she has a good heart and that she is a caring person who honestly cares about very poor people and kids with no possibilities

Oprah Winfrey or ‘’America’s beloved best friend` was born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi and she was raised by her grandmother on a farm where she `began her broadcasting career` by learning to read aloud and perform recitations at the age of three. Also at three years old, she was speaking in church, and by her teens she was touring the churches of Nashville, reciting the sermons of James Weldon Johnson. Other children sang while Oprah talked. And she’s still talking but to much larger audiences. The path that led from her grandmother’s farm in Kosciusko to becoming the first African-American woman billionaire is a story of unwavering focus and unrelenting determination.

From age six to 13, she lived in Milwaukee with her mother. After suffering abuse and molestation, she ran away and was sent to a juvenile detention home at age of 13, only to be denied admission because all the beds were filled. As a last resort, she was sent to Nashville to live under her father’s strict discipline. Vernon Winfrey saw to it that his daughter met a midnight curfew, and he required her to read a book and write a book report each week. “As strict as he was “says Oprah, “he had some concerns about me making the best of my life, and would not accept anything less than what he thought was my best“. I personally don’t think that somebody is perfect in this world but Oprah in my eyes is very special and even though she had a very tough childhood after all those years she did something for this country and for her people. She has a lot of qualities but I am going to talk about a few of them.

In 1984, Oprah moved to Chicago to host WLS-TV’s morning talk show, AM Chicago, which became the number one local talk show, just one month after she began. In less than a year, the show expanded to one hour and was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show. It entered national syndication in 1986, becoming the highest-rated talk show in television history. In 1988, she established Harpo Studios, a production facility in Chicago, making her the third woman in the American entertainment industry to own her own studio. Another great thing that she accomplish is being the magazine founder and editorial director of the `O, The Oprah Magazine `, a monthly magazine that has become one of today’s leading women’s lifestyle publications. In April 2002, Oprah launched the first international edition of O, The Oprah Magazine in South Africa, extending her live your best life message to another broad audience. She is also a producer/actress through her company’s film division, Harpo Films and we may include here the award-winning `Tuesday with Morrie `,`David and Lisa`, an updated version of a 1962 film, and `Their Eyes Were Watching God`. In 1998 Harpo Films produced the critically acclaimed `Beloved`, a Touchstone Pictures feature film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Toni Morrison, which co-starred Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. Oprah made her acting debut in 1985 as Sofia in Steven Spielberg’s `The Color Purple`, for witch she received both Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.

Her webpage Oprah.com is a premiere women’s lifestyle website, offering advice on everything from the mind, body and spirit to food, home and relationships. We can say about her that she is an online leader as well. Oprah has long believed that education is the door to freedom, offering a chance at a brighter future. Through her private charity, The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, she was awarded hundreds of grants to organizations that support the education and empowerment of women, children and families in the United States and around the world. Amongst her various philanthropic contributions, she has donated millions of dollars toward providing a better education for students who have merit but no means. She also has developed schools to educate thousands of underserved children internationally and created `The Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program`, which gives scholarships to students determined to use their education to give back to their communities in the United States and abroad

In an 1997 episode of `The Oprah Winfrey Show`, Oprah encouraged viewers to use their lives to make a difference in the lives of others, which led to the creation of the public charity Oprah`s Angel Network in 1998, and this organization has helped establish scholarships and schools, support women’s shelters and built youth centers and homes-changing the future for the people all over the world. Oprah`s commitment to children also led her to initiate the National Child Protection Act in 1991, when she testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to establish a national database of convicted child abusers. On December 20, 1993, President Clinton signed the national `Oprah Bill` into law. In September 2002, Harpo Productions, Inc. created `Dr. Phil`, a syndicated daytime talk show produced by Paramount Domestic Television, so we can say she is a television programming creator. And finally she is a cable network co-founder of Oxygen Media, which operates a 24-hour cable television network for women and a satellite radio programmer ,because she announced recently the launch of `Oprah & Friends`, a new channel on XM Satellite Radio, coming up in September 2006. Twenty years after she made her movie debut as `Sofia` in `The Color Purple`, Oprah made her Broadway debut as a producer for the musical The Color Purple ,which opened on December 1, 2005, at the Broadway Theatre in New York City.

Like I said before nobody is perfect and even though she has many qualities there are some small things in her life that I don’t really agree with like the fact that she is not married yet but she has a long term boyfriend and she doesn’t have any children. Of course this is her choice and it’s not my life but still…what good is all the money in the world if you don’t have a kid of your own? Maybe there are medical reasons that she keeps secret, but if everything is fine with her I really don’t understand why somebody who has done and given so much for the good of other people won’t have a real family oh its own. Even so, I still believe that for many people she remains a hero. Her deeds and intentions are unquestionable, and so is her good heart.