By 
More than a few times in my life, God dreamed a bigger dream for me than I could ever have dreamed for myself. This magazine has been one of them. It was more than 20 years ago when two of the highest-ranking women at Hearst Publications, Cathie Black and Ellen Levine, came to visit me in Chicago and convinced me that a magazine was the written word—of values, ideas, information—shared multiple times over.
As a teenager I craved a subscription to Seventeen but never had enough money to get one. Somehow, though, I always managed to have 50 cents the day the new issue arrived at the corner store, and I always knew which day that was. I would devour every article and every picture before adding it to the stack under my bed. Reading those pages, I dreamed of my future. It was my teenage manual for living.
And so, with an opportunity from Hearst I’d never even imagined, I set out to build a magazine. I had no knowledge of how to do that—just the cherished memories of what Seventeen had once meant to me.
With O, I wanted to create a manual for living life to the fullest: stories, photographs, reflections, poems, quotes, essays, and interviews that would bring meaning, comfort, and joy to our readers.
And if I do say so myself, we’ve fulfilled that intention through 245 issues.
When we started in 2000, no one was talking about mindfulness or wellness or spiritual well-being. Twenty years later, everyone is living their best life. Today the whole media world is scrambling to be inclusive, but O has always been, featuring Black and brown voices and faces, members of the LGBTQ community, bodies of all shapes and sizes, people of all ages. We’ve looked inward and also outward, doing deep-dive stories on everything from mental health to menopause, gun violence to #MeToo, not to mention racial disparities in medicine and generational wealth, and caring for aging parents.
We’ve grown together, you and I, and I am the better for it, having been coached by Martha Beck, Adam Glassman, a host of other regular contributors, and every author and expert who graced our pages. I certainly never planned to be on every cover, but trying to find a different celebrity each month was not a game any of us was up for.
Speaking of those covers: We intended for them to look glamorous or adventurous or just plain fun, but my oh my did it take a lot of effort and energy to shoot them. Covers are shipped three months ahead, so we were always jumping the gun on a season that hadn’t even started.
I remember flying to Jackson Hole to build a snowman and throw snowballs—only to have people ask later if the setting was fake. And flying to Santa Barbara because we needed a summer shot in a convertible. (Turns out I owe my home to that first trip; all the beautiful trees I saw are the reason I came back later to house hunt.)
What I know for sure is that the chance to be in your ear and be held in your hands—to offer you stories we thought would mean something to you—has meant everything to me. It’s given my life a depth of purpose and joy to know that our words were well received. That in the most subtle and sometimes sublime ways, what we offered helped you to fulfill your best life. To dream bigger. Dare greater. See things differently. Love yourself more.
As I look forward beyond this final monthly print edition, my intention is to continue serving up what you most need now to better your health, relationships, work life, and home life, and to reach for the dreams you still dream. Nothing stays the same—that I also know for sure. And 20 years in this format I consider a solid run, well done.
Thank you, dear readers, for making it so. Onward to the next chapter! And you can stay tuned to OprahMag.com for everything you need to know next.
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