J.K. ROWLING

"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."

---

Joanne Rowling came from a poor family, who hoped she would pursue a solid career in law of economics. However, upon being rejected from college at aged 17, their expectations from her were not fulfilled. She then decided to study literature.

8 years later, her mother passed away from disease, and only a year later she suffered a miscarriage. She soon got married, but her fate punished her once again with an abusive husband, whom she divorced. She delivered a baby girl, but was also diagnosed with severe depression. At age 29, as a single mother, with no job and no money, she had to live on social welfare. Joanne experienced the pain of failure that her parents had always warned her about. She also had suicidal thoughts, but she decided to transform that passion into doing what she did better than anyone else- writing. Everything she owned was in a suitcase, including the first three chapters of a story about a boy with magic powers- Harry Potter. Her manuscript was rejected multiple times, until one publisher finally took it on. However, they only printed 1,000 copies and asked Joanne to change her name to J.K., as they feared young boys would not want to read a book written by a woman.

Her agent told her that she shouldn’t expect to make money out of her writing, but thankfully Joanne decided to keep going. The Harry Potter series went on to become one of the most incredible phenomenon in the history of publishing. The 7 books have captured the imagination of hundreds of millions of children and adults all over the world, and they have redefined the meaning of children’s literature.

Joanne always admitted that failure was crucial to her success: “Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might have never found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.”

Today, J. K. Rowling is the ninth-best-selling fiction author of all time (estimated 500 million copies sold). The perseverance of J.K. Rowling throughout the obstacles life threw at her is what makes her the successful woman she is today. A very happy birthday to a legendary writer and her miraculous character, The Boy Who Lived... to change many lives!