“I wanted to help girls who were like me,” Oprah Winfrey says in the trailer for the doc “O Girls.”
Five girls from Oprah Winfrey’s Johannesburg, South Africa school, The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (OWLAG), will be featured in the documentary special soon airing on Fusion.
As Variety reports, “Each of the stories showcased in ‘O Girls’ aims to show how education can empower young women and girls all over the world to do incredible things. But though attending the Academy opened doors they may not otherwise have been able to walk through, the documentary also delves into the challenges that come along with such a life-altering opportunity.”
“O Girls” is hosted by Fusion correspondent and former Harpo staff member Kimberly Brooks, who speaks with Academy graduates Bongeka, Thando, Charmain, Debra, and Mpumi about dealing with trauma at a young age, pressure to succeed after attending the Academy, and the challenge of balancing their lives in the U.S. with their South African roots.
“My work with these girls feels as natural to me as if they were my own children. For me, this is what mothering was meant to be,” Winfrey tells Brooks. “I wanted to help girls who really wanted it. They could see the possibility for themselves, if only they had the means to do it.”
The doc special will air on Fusion on January 15, 2017.
