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Oprah Winfrey: The Most Influential People In The World

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Oprah Winfrey: One of the Most Influential People in the World Imagine being the first ever African American billionaire! But, did you know that she was abused when she was young by her family? Or, did you know that she hosted an international book club? This essay will highlight all of these topics, and will present information on the life and achievements of Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah Winfrey has lived a very successful life altogether, but it wasn’t always smooth sailing for her. When she was four years old, she was living on a farm, poor, washing her clothes in a boiling pot of water (Krohn). When Oprah was born, her mother’s sister decided to name her after “Orpah”, a character in the bible, but it was misspelled on her birth certificate as …show more content…

The Oprah Winfrey Show was aired on over 100 channels across the country (Oprah). Her production company, HARPO (Oprah spelled backwards), was bringing in over $125 million a year (Oprah). Oprah ran a public book club called, Oprah’s Book Club. Whenever Oprah chose a book, that book skyrocketed to the top of the book charts (Mulkerrins). Oprah struggled with her weight and then, “...lost an estimated 90 pounds and competed in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. in 1995,” (Biography). “She appeared in TIME Magazine’s Most Influential People list every year from 2004-2007,” (Oprah). In 2011, she ended her program with ABC when her contract ended (Biography). She then moved to her own network, The Oprah Winfrey Network (Biography). Oprah invited Lance Armstrong to do an interview on her show, and Lance admitted that he cheated in the Tour de France (Biography). This eventually turned into something called, “Oprahfication”, which was a new form of therapy that helped many people (Mulkerrins). In March 2015, Oprah announced that Harpo Studios would close at the end of the year (Biography). Currently, Oprah is starring in TV shows and movies, and participating in charities. She has a home in Montecito, California, worth an estimated $88 million, a mountain cabin in Colorado, a house in Hawaii, a farm in Indiana, and a penthouse in Chicago

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