“You are not your circumstances. You are your possibilities. If you know that, you can do anything.”

Talk show host and media executive, Oprah Winfrey grew up in poverty with an unmarried teenage mother in Missis-sippi and went on to build one of the largest entertainment empires in the world.

An inductee to the National Women’s Hall of Fame, Oprah was North America’s first Black multi-billionaire, having one of the highest-rated television programs for well over a decade. She is considered one of the most influential women on the planet and is given this first spot in my book.