NAME: Oprah Winfrey

AGE: 50

NATIONALITY: American

CLAIM TO FAME: One of the world’s most influential women today

DESPITE having many titles to her credit — talk show host, actress, magazine editor, educator, philanthropist and cultural icon — to be considered one of the world’s Best-Dressed Woman is certainly an achievement for a woman who became almost as well-known for her weight loss efforts and bad hairstyles as much as for her talk show.

Oprah Winfrey appears for the first time on Vanity Fair’s 2004 International Best-Dressed List, released Wednesday last. According to the magazine: “Oprah Winfrey arguably has more influence on the culture than any university president, politician, or religious leader, except perhaps the Pope.”

Oprah appears on the list along with nine other women such as actress Cate Blanchett, writer-director Sofia Coppola and model Kate Moss. In the list, Oprah is certainly the most influential of the lot. When Winfrey talks, her viewers — an estimated 14 million daily in the US and millions more in 132 other countries — listen. She didn’t create the talk-show format, but the compassion and intimacy she put into it have created a new way for people to talk to one another. In an age when talk shows are becoming increasingly trashy and exploitive, Oprah has earned respect from her viewers by refusing to include tabloid topics on her show.

Winfrey’s approach appears to be simple — she is on a quest for self-improvement, self-empowerment and spiritualism. She has dedicated her talk show, magazine and her life to help better people’s lives by teaching them how to better their mind and spirit. She also dedicates her time to recognizing special people that have contributed to helping other people in need.

Black, born out of wedlock and into poverty, Oprah has faced many kinds of adversity. Nevertheless, at a very early age she decided to take charge of her destiny and become a woman of influence. At 19, Oprah became the youngest person — and the first African-American woman — to anchor news at a television channel. Thereon, she went to co-hosting a talk show, People Are Talking. The show became a hit and after eight years with it, she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show, A.M. Chicago. Within several months, Winfrey’s open, warm-hearted personal style had taken her show from last place to first in the ratings. Her success led to nation-wide fame and a role in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film, The Colour Purple, for which she won a Best Supporting Actress, Oscar nomination. Winfrey launched the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986 as a nationally syndicated programme which a year later she bought for $125 million. Winfrey’s empire also includes cable television and a magazine, all of which was recognized by Time, when it named her one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th Century.