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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