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  • I was a single mother, jobless, diagnosed with depression,

  • barely able to keep the lights on, or feed my daughter.

  • I am now one of the most successful and wealthy women in the world

  • whose billionaire status was stripped after donating too much to charity.

  • I've been named most influential woman in Britain and once upon a time

  • conceived a story now worth twenty-five billion dollars.

  • I was born on July the 31st 1965 in Yate Gloucestershire, England

  • My father was an aircraft engineer and my mother is science technician.

  • I always surrounded myself with stories and lived in books being your average bookworm

  • To this day my favorite book remains Jessica Mitford's autobiography

  • While other kids played sports went shopping or saw movies

  • I was at home quietly reading everything Mitford had to offer.

  • She became my heroine. One who followed her heart to the very end.

  • One of my earliest memories was my love for writing.

  • I wrote my first book titled "Rabbits" when I was six years old.

  • My favorite were fantasy stories for my sister where we were both

  • particularly interested in the fantastical.

  • Where words were in the extraordinary hid among the ordinary.

  • Primary school was unexciting to me and was especially strict.

  • As a way to escape, writing became my distraction but as much as I tried to escape,

  • tragedy struck when my mother was cursed with an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis.

  • An unforgiving neurological disease that impairs motor control and cognition.

  • There was, and still is, no cure.

  • I felt helpless.

  • But, I believed if I could achieve my dream as a writer, so too would my other dreams come true.

  • To see mom healthy and happy.

  • And so, I wrote believing, hoping it would eventually fight off her disease.

  • My dream school was Oxford University.

  • But when I was rejected, I enrolled at the University of Exeter.

  • I eventually graduated and continued to write stories

  • while working at a number jobs I thought would be only temporary as I pursued a career as an author.

  • Although I wanted to be a writer, I felt like a drifter.

  • At this point all I had were two adult novels, which never saw the light of day.

  • Family and friends began to worry about my career

  • trying to convince me that I should "let go" of writing

  • and focus on getting a "real job" because there was no money in writing

  • I was torn.

  • But suddenly like a bolt of lightning

  • in 1990, on an excruciatingly train ride from Manchester to London,

  • a curious story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry came fully formed

  • But, before I could complete the books fourth chapter

  • my mother's final chapter had sadly concluded

  • She had passed away.

  • My single greatest regret was that I never told her of my work as I was ashamed of what she might have thought

  • Her death devastated me and I quickly left the country trying to run away from all my devastation.

  • I moved to Portugal where I taught English and for a time I figured this was what life had in store for me.

  • I was content and things began to pick up.

  • I found love! Within three years, I got married!

  • Not long after, I gave birth to my daughter Jessica.

  • After Jessica Mitford my favorite author.

  • Sadly, just four months after her birth,

  • Jessica's father and I separated

  • I didn't know where or what to do. I was lost.

  • And decided to return to Edinburgh.

  • My marriage was dissolved, I was a single mother, and now I was homeless with little to no money.

  • In the eyes of many and myself, I was a failure.

  • I was the person others would point to and say,

  • "Work hard or you'll end up like her"

  • It didn't take long until I retreated into a certain numb cold and unhappy state.

  • I fell into a depression.

  • Looking at my daughter I felt fear. Fear that she would die because I was a failure.

  • Increasingly I became exhausted of all hope and peace

  • Consumed by fear and the judgement of others.

  • I felt as if a dark figure was slowly sucking the life out of me.

  • Soon, I felt like there was no reason for me to live anymore.

  • I became afraid of living and contemplated suicide.

  • I could not care less about myself.

  • But fortunately for me, I still had Jessica.

  • And staring into my daughter's eyes I knew I could not leave her an orphan.

  • Clinically diagnosed with depression

  • I walked into the small clinic tears falling with the pen

  • as I signed my name and began to heal.

  • I attended sessions regularly and only after a period of counselling

  • I realized, that not only did I have a daughter to feed,

  • But now, a book to write.

  • Still homeless,

  • I began writing on an old typewriter and managed to finish a manuscript of an entire story.

  • I submitted the book to 12 publishing houses and was rejected by every single one

  • Feeling like a failure once more, I figured my career as a writer was beyond possibility.

  • And so, I reluctantly accepted a teaching post barely able to feed Jessica and myself.

  • My head was barely above water.

  • Suddenly, as if by magic, a publishing house, Bloomsbury, contacted me about the book I'd

  • submitted a year earlier.

  • I was ecstatic!

  • My imagination ran wild as I would as I would finally become an author.

  • The editors encouraged me to me to maintain a day job as there was apparently little money

  • in writing children's books.

  • But that didn't matter to me

  • because for the first time since childhood, I felt like I was entering a new world.

  • Shortly after, I was granted 8,000 Pounds by the Scottish Arts Council

  • who became one of the first in my life to earnestly encourage me to continue writing.

  • For once, everything fell into place.

  • In June 1997, the book I had worked on for seven years was published with an initial 1,000 copies.

  • Most would be in children's libraries but I couldn't be happier.

  • To my surprise, the book about a boy wizard, my book won an award.

  • The Nestle Smarties Book Prize and within three months it won the British Book award

  • for children's book of the year.

  • The novel's rights were soon claimed by Scholastic Inc, the world's largest publishing house.

  • I nearly fainted when I heard the news.

  • And I only wished mom had been here to hear it with me.

  • I took this as a sign and began writing full-time eager to finish my book series.

  • Well received and quickly building a fan base within three years, I released another three novels

  • continuing the story of The Boy Who Lived,

  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

  • Three more books, a number of awards and records broken, the seventh and final book

  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released

  • on July the 21st 2007

  • Although the story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry had come to its conclusion

  • it gained a global following being translated into 65 languages with an estimated worth of 15 billion dollars.

  • Eight films based on the core Harry Potter series have since been released pushing me to become

  • the world's first billionaire author.

  • But I haven't forgotten the tough journey that led me here.

  • Since then I have donated to the creation of a new center for regenerative medicine

  • of Edinburgh University in honor of my mother.

  • And much of my fortune to providing welfare giving back to those who need help like I once did.

  • I no longer have to worry if I have enough money to pay the bills nor do I have the anxieties of telling strangers

  • that I followed my childhood passion and became an author.

  • I am still one of the top earning authors in the world.

  • But like Harry Potter, living a happy, healthy life amongst friends and family is all the wealth anyone really needs.

  • Sometimes things just never go the way they should.

  • Sometimes we find ourselves in the most difficult situations

  • Lost and Confuse in a dark place.

  • And sometimes, you question whether things will ever get better.

  • But as we all board a train, unsure of where you are headed

  • you just have to trust in yourselves

  • that by the end of your journey you would have made it to your destination.

  • I never got to tell my mom that I was an author and I never got to share my stories with her.

  • But I like to believe that she's my greatest fan.

  • My name is Joanne Rowling. You know me as J.K. Rowling

  • And I am the author of the Harry Potter book series.

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I was a single mother, jobless, diagnosed with depression,

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