" Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe."

-Oprah Winfrey

Oprah was born on January 29, 1954 to unwed parents, Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey. During her childhood she grew up with her Grandmother on a farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi. As a preteen she moved to live with her Mother in Milwaukee. It was there that she was sexually abused repeatedly by male relatives. As a young teen was always getting in and out of trouble, after some difficult teen years her Mother sent Oprah to live with her Dad in Nashville Tennessee. Her Dad was a barber/businessman and gave her the discipline that she needed. He instilled a strict curfew and kept a close eye on his daughter. Vernon Winfrey also stressed the importance of a good education. It was under his care that Oprah truly started to straighten out her life.

At age 19, Oprah landed her first broadcasting job as a reporter at WVOL station in Nashville. At the same time she enrolled as a freshman at Tennessee State University. During college, Oprah studied speech and performing arts. Oprah became the first black TV anchor at Nashville's WTVF- TV station her sophomore year. Then in 1976, Oprah moved to Baltimore and was offered a job at WJZ-TV . After working there for two years she was hired to be the host of People Are Talking. This was a great accomplishment; she was breaking through the barriers. Oprah was an overweight, black woman making it in a white mans world, and succeeding greatly.

In 1984 Oprah accepted the job as a host of AM Chicago; this truly was an amazing accomplishment, AM Chicago was opposite Phil Donahue's show, which at the time was one of the top rated shows in the nation. The competition was on. Within a few months, Oprah had 100,000 more viewers than her competitor. Oprah, in 1985, decided to try her acting skills and acted in Steven Spielburg's movie The Color Purple a Alice Walker book. Oprah, as a result of this movie, was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress. Then in 1986 The Oprah Show was born. Later Oprah established Harpo productions and eventually bought The Oprah Show from Capitol Cities/ABC. In 1994 Oprah started to question the idea of retiring, and devoting her time to acting instead. During the early 90's, talk shows were getting more trashy; however, Oprah decided to stick with her show and promised to keep it clean, unlike many of her competitors. Oprah focused more on uplifting topics, topics that helped people. In 2000 Winfrey renewed her contract to keep The Oprah Show running till the season of 2003/2004. Oprah's latest project is her O magazine which was started in the spring of 2000.