By Anna Ainsworth
Oprah Winfrey is a name that everyone recognizes but they may not all know her tough story that has led her to where she is now. Oprah Winfrey was born in a poor area in Mississippi to a single mother and then was later raised in Milwaukee. She talked about being molested from a young age to her early teenage years and became pregnant at 14 years old but sadly, her baby was born prematurely and died in infancy. When she was 19 she was living with her father in Nashville, Tennessee where she was a co-anchor for the local evening news there, she moved on to a daytime talk show arena and after boosting that talk show to first place, she launched her own production company. Her show centered around literature, self-improvement, mindfulness and spirituality, she often got criticized for how open the confessions were and the controversial self-help ideas on her show. In 2013 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama and has won many other awards since then. Oprah Winfrey has created an intimate, confessional form of media communication encouraging people to be able to open up more for advice whether it's professional help or to their friends and Family.
Whitney Wolfe Herd has powered through the male-dominated field of tech,co-founding Tinder and creating Bumble. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and attended a catholic high school when she was in sixth grade and then went on to pursue a degree in International studies at Southern Methodist University. During her time in University she started a business selling bamboo tote bags to help areas affected by the BP oil spill and partnered with Patrick Aufdenkamp to start a non-profit organization called “Help Us Project”. She also started another business with the same partner, selling their own clothing line with the purpose to raise awareness around human trafficking and fair trade. After she graduated she traveled to Southeast Asia and worked with orphanages there. When Whitney started Bumble she wanted to create a platform that empowers women by giving them sovereignty over the initiation of conversations with heterosexual matches in the app. Not only is Whitney’s kind heart an inspiration to us all but as well as to all women who want to work in the technology field that through hard work and innovation they can also build a name for themselves.
Sara Blakely is the founder and CEO of Spanx, a clothing company that specializes in Shapewear and leggings. Having faced rejection and early failures she was able to overcome those setbacks and create a global brand that has sold over 500 million products and the company valued at $1.2 billion. Blakely had dreams to become an attorney but after failing her Law School Admission test twice she had to reconsider her future plans. After graduating from Florida State university with a bachelor’s degree in communications she worked shortly at Walt Disney World before becoming a sales person then a national sales trainer at a supply company. Her idea for spanx started when she cut the feet off a pair of pantyhose and realized that she had created a garment that other women would want, she used her $5,000 in savings to market her creation and worked hard researching fabric types, patents and trademark designs. Blakely struggled to get her products into stores but persevered and didn’t give up and when she got a deal with Neiman Marcus, things started to turn around for her. In 2000 Oprah Winfrey featured Spanx on her talk show which led to sales skyrocketing for her and in 202, she became the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire.
Commentaires