Oprah Winfrey may not be on TV every day anymore, but her influence is still vast. Her OWN Network has increased viewership with popular reality TV shows like Welcome to Sweetie Pies and scripted shows like Tyler Perry’s The Haves and the Have Nots. Oprah’s Next Chapter, her weekly interview show, has attracted guests from Beyonce to John Legend and O Magazine is still one of the nation’s top publications, with a circulation of over 2 million.
Her school, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, a boarding school in South Africa, has now been open for over 7 years, sending many of its graduates to schools in the U.S. Winfrey just returned from a visit to the school, one of three she makes each year.
“I go over once a year. Actually, I end up going over three times a year at the school and once a year I go over to teach what I call Life 101, y’all, which is all the things I wish someone had taught me before I graduated either high school or college, “she told the Tom Joyner Morning Show. “I try to cram that all into one week.”
One of the most powerful lessons Winfrey teaches the girls is to take charge of their own lives.
“You’re responsible for your life. Don’t go around blaming other people for things that happened to you. The same thing that Glinda told Dorothy when she went up and down that yellow brick road. You have the power and you don’t have any power in anybody else’s territory, so just manage your own.”
Winfrey hopes to encourage the same during her ‘Life You Want’ weekends, which take place in selected locations around the country from September 5 to November 15th. She’ll be joined by many familiar faces including Iyanla Vanzant and Deepak Chopra.
