Oprah Winfrey's advice to young girls: 'Highest honor on Earth' is 'being yourself'
Winfrey is starring in the female-driven "A Wrinkle in Time."
Oprah Winfrey described being true to yourself as the “highest honor on Earth” when asked her advice to young girls.
“The highest honor on Earth that you will ever have is the honor of being yourself,” Winfrey said on “Good Morning America.” “Your only job in the world, people think your job is to get up and go and raise money and take care of your families and stuff, that’s an obligation that you have but your only true job as a human being is to discover why you came, why you are here.”
Winfrey, 64, spoke about finding one’s inner compass in response to a question from a 14-year-old girl who asked her advice for young girls who want to make a difference in the world.
The girl, Taylor Richardson, has raised $50,000 to send other girls to see Winfrey’s new film, "A Wrinkle in Time," in movie theaters.
Winfrey, who pledged to match the $50,000 Richardson has raised, said her advice to young girls rings true no matter their race or background.
“Every one of us has an internal guidance, a GPS, an intuition, a heart print, a heart song that peaks to us,” she said. “Your only job is to be able to listen and discern when it’s speaking versus your head and your personality speaking, and if you follow that you will be led to the highest good for you, always.”
Winfrey added, “That’s why all the voices of the world mean nothing if your voice is in alignment with all the voices of the world. That’s true. No matter what you look like.”
'One of the most fun times I’ve ever had'
Winfrey reflected on the fact that she used to turn ears of corn into dolls as a young girl in Mississippi and now has her own doll from her “A Wrinkle in Time" character.
She called filming the movie alongside director Ava DuVernay and co-stars Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling in New Zealand “one of the most fun times I’ve ever had.”
“I think you can feel the love on the screen,” she said. “I think you can see it because we all had such a great time doing it.”
“A Wrinkle in Time" is based on a 1962 science fantasy novel written by Madeleine L'Engle about a young girl in search of her scientist father.
Winfrey said the film will resonate with people who “want to understand that light can overcome the darkness.”
“What I know for sure is you’re never going to run out of darkness because that’s what the planet is made of,” she said. “It’s light and darkness. I think whenever there are challenging times, or there are times that even in your own personal life, it’s calling for the light inside you to rise.”
Winfrey described the movie as a “wonderful film” for young girls.
Motivation behind Golden Globes speech
It was also young girls Winfrey said she had in mind in January when she delivered a powerful speech about women’s empowerment and the #MeToo movement at the Golden Globes.
Winfrey said she realized the impact her speech could have on young girls after a former producer asked her if she should let her daughters stay up for Winfrey's speech accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award.
"I was thinking about those little girls in front of the TV watching. I was thinking about myself being a young girl the first time I saw Sidney Poitier," Winfrey said. "I was honestly just trying to do a speech that would land in the room, that would resonate because I hadn’t said anything about the #MeToo movement."
"I don’t think [social media] is the place really to try to air opinions that you want to establish in the world," Winfrey said of why she waited for the Golden Globes to speak out. "I think you should speak when you know you can be heard. I felt like that was a place where I could be heard and I wanted to say something that connected gender and race and class."
To all the girls watching now, Winfrey said in the speech, "a new day is on the horizon."
She went on, "When that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say 'Me Too' again."
"A Wrinkle in Time" opens March 9 from Disney, the parent company of ABC News.