Oprah Winfrey: The Most Influential Woman In The World

One of the Most Influential Woman in the World

One major way someone can sometimes help people dealing with terrible life experiences is to share their own similar bad experiences to relate to the suffering person that they are not alone. Oprah Winfrey is a great example of the above. She is a great example because by sharing her unpleasant life story to not only a person that was dealing with similar problems, Oprah shared a very personal part of her life during a live interview session reaching hundreds of people. Her story got around her followers and turned Oprah into the woman she is today and helped her become even more famous. She helps people heal by understanding them. She gets people to share their stories about their rough childhood and helps them to cope by speaking from her own experiences. Oprah Winfrey over the years helped many people and changed lives by sharing her story with the world about her difficult childhood which turned her into the person she is today.

Winfrey had a rough childhood while growing up.

At the age of nine, her nineteen-year-old cousin sexually abused her. Adding to the sexual abuse, her uncle molested her at the age of fourteen-years-old (Adler 13). In a book about her life, she exclaims “I know what it is like to lie in bed and know that the other person is there, and you are pretending you are asleep, hoping he won’t touch you” (Adler 15). While growing up, she moved around a lot and as a young child, she would receive harsh chastisement and whippings as punishment for wrongdoing (“Oprah Winfrey”). Although she had a rough childhood, she did not let that stop her from growing into a strong

woman.
Winfrey started to become famous after she had revealed her past to the world. It all happened when she was interviewing a victim of sexual abuse, and then she spoke up and explained to the victim that she went through the same thing (Adler 17). She spoke up to tell her in a way that she understands what she went through. After her abuse, she did not let it affect her and the way she overcame it was by finally opening up to someone to help her realize that she was not the only one who was a victim of sexual abuse. As Oprah explains, “We were doing a show on the subject, and it was something--the phones lit up with calls from women all over the country saying the same thing had happened to them as girls” (Adler 17). That moment in time, her fame began to expand by creating her own talk show.
From that one time in Winfrey’s life that she decided to share her story, her fame expanded because more people started to watch her show and give it great ratings. While talking about expanding, on October 2, 1995, America Online launched Winfrey’s site, Oprah.com (“Oprah Winfrey”). She also created a monthly book club to encourage her viewers to read more because she inspired so many people, so she helped inspire and motivate them. Over time, her company, Harpo Productions Inc., has grown to include divisions for production, film, radio, print, online, and philanthropy (“Oprah Winfrey”). She received many awards with her success from expanding her company.
Oprah Winfrey grew up to be a strong woman and helped change people’s lives by revealing a scary part of her to the world. Winfrey had a rough childhood, one that a child should not have, but she did, and it never brought her down which made her who she is today. She also inspired many people by just simply sharing her story in her own way to show people that she understands what they went through. Over the years, she created her company and received many awards. Oprah left a great impact on the world and it all goes back to the day that she spoke out about the sexual abuse she received which caused many people to listen to her because they had someone who understood.

Works Cited
Adler, Bill, editor. The Uncommon Wisdom of Oprah Winfrey: A Portrait in Her Own Words. Carol Publishing Group, 1997.
“Oprah Winfrey.” Contemporary Black Biography, vol. 61, 2007. Gale Biography in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1606003719/GPS?u=lap36smd&sid=GPS&xid=75061c98.