Oprah Winfrey has had a very hard life-style and has been through a lot of things, but then she pulled herself together and really got back on track. The question I’m trying to ask here is if Oprah is a good role model. On January 29, 1954 Oprah Gail Winfrey was born to unwed teenage parents in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Oprah had a very hard life time, she was black and very poor. Oprah’s mother was an eighteen-year-old housemaid named Vernita Lee. Her father on the other hand was a twenty-year-old; doing duty in the armed forces, his name was Vernon Winfrey. Since her parents were always on the go, the first 6 years of her life was spent on a Mississippi Farm, raised by her grandmother. Living with her grandmother probably saved her life because she was taught to read at a very early age, by her grandmother, she has a love for reading still in her today.
She began her public speaking career at the age of 3, when she began reading aloud and reciting sermons to the congregation of her church. At the age of six her mother Vernita Lee decided she could take care of her young daughter and Oprah was sent to live with her mother in Milwaukee. From ages six to thirteen, Oprah stayed with her mother. Oprah had a lot of dangerous things happen to her; she was raped by a cousin and then molested by a male friend. Oprah kept these struggles a secret and let out her anger by getting into a lot of trouble. Oprah’s mother was so over whelmed, so she decided to send Oprah to detention home, but the admission was denied because there were no more openings. So now she was sent again to live with her Father in Nashville. Before she had ended her wild behavior she found out she was pregnant and gave birth to a stillborn baby boy when she was fourteen! The death of her baby devastated her, and that very moment she vowed to turn her life around. Her father helped her do this by making strict rules and gave Oprah a curfew to earn high grades in school and encouraged her to do her very best. This did help Oprah turn her life around. Oprah said she would read a book each week and complete a book report on the book, so she could get smarter and smarter. At the age of nineteen, Oprah got her first job as a reporter for a radio station in Nashville, shortly after she entered Tennessee State University to keep going with her career of radio and television broadcasting. In 1976, Oprah Winfrey moved to Baltimore, where she hosted a T.V show called People are Talking. The show was a hit and Oprah stayed with the network for eight years. In 1986, Oprah started the Oprah Winfrey show, which still is on today! The rest is as you say history. Oprah came from being a poor black troubled women, to a successful billionaire, celebrity. Oprah seems to be a careful helpful woman and no one can stop her with what she does best, being a talk show host. Now you know a lot more about Oprah’s life, but there’s still one more thing. Was she a good role model? Oprah was a good role model this is because she has gone through so many things, so she can help other people with the same problems that she has gotten over.