In defence of Oprah: She's taught us so much.

Hey, haters- Back off Oprah.

In case you missed it Oprah Winfrey is in the country for her Evening With Oprah Tour.

Oprah’s previous visit to Australia in 2010 was filled with more fan-fare, national treasures, native animals and give-aways than you could possibly imagine. But this time around, even before opening night, the undisputed Queen of Talk-Shows was heavily criticised. The most scathing criticisms were aimed at the sky-high price of her tickets.

An Evening with Oprah:

After opening night, it was open season.

The reviews from her Melbourne shows were scathing. They claimed walk-outs and snoozing were in abundance and for those outside the ‘cult’, the “stripped-back guru-style Oprah is mostly a chore”. A review from the Sydney Morning Herald went as far as to say it was nothing more than a “120-minute monologue.”

Well, you know what? Here at Mamamia we can think of a whole host of things that are worse than spending two hours absorbing advice from one of the most successful, hard working and philanthropic women in the world.

In her 30-odd years in the business, Oprah has taught us to be strong and to never fear our own intelligence. She’s inspired us to be ambitious, hard-working and honest. As can be seen in the touching story she told about losing her son, and her decision to give him a name, she inspires conversation, catharsis and community.

When asked to respond to the negative comments she had received Oprah told The Herald Sun, she hasn’t even seen them yet.

“Maybe I’ll get my assistant to give me them to read but do you know what, maybe I won’t,” she said. “I might just read them on the way home on the plane — they won’t change anything I do on the tour, not a thing.”

In short. We think Oprah is pretty wonderful.

So we’ve put together a list of the most important lessons we have learned from Oprah Winfrey.

Some of them are profound:

“That it’s never too late to change your entire life and do what you always wanted to do.”

Watch Oprah discuss one of her life’s most significant turning points:

“Truly successful leaders show themselves. Oprah showed herself for 30 years. She over shared and then tried a more private line, she was fat and thin, she kept reinventing herself. We went with her because we saw her.”

“If someone shows you who they are, you should believe them.”

“Being a generous person will not only make other people feel good, but you’ll feel pretty damn joyous as a result.”

“That happy, successful women have their best girlfriends in their lives.”

“That most people just want to feel acknowledged, to feel like they’ve been heard.”

Some of them are silly:

“If you repeat words and phrases a few times it makes you sound REALLY important.”

“Intonation is everything.”

“Fake eyelashes go a long way.”

Some of them make you want to stand up and clap a la Meryl Streep.

“If he can cheat with you, he can cheat on you.”

“The other day I saw my ex-boyfriend and it was the worst and he is the worst and I was crying in the street and he just got in his stupid Volvo and drove away and I was feeling sorry for myself and like a big pathetic mess and then I remembered a story Oprah told about breaking up with someone in her 20s. She had been dating a big, unappreciative jerk who kept telling her she thought she was special and she wasn’t. When they ended things, she chased his car down the street yelling “I’m not special, I don’t think I am special!” And then she realised later on that she is f*cking Oprah and then I realised that we are all Oprah and we are all special and boys are just idiots. #IAMOPRAH”

“That the best indicator of future behaviour is past behaviour.”

“That a wedding and a marriage are two very different things.”

“That mothers need to put themselves first and fill up their own tanks so they are ABLE to keep on being and giving and doing for their children.”

Some of them are practical:

“Never get taken to the second location.” When talking about abductions and attacks: Always scream and make a fuss as much as possible before a predator gets you in their car, etc. That has always stayed with me.”

“The importance of early exercise for starting ones metabolism.”

“Tell your children when they are lost to find a mum not a policemen because children think all sorts of people are policemen. Security guards, cab drivers, men in blue shirts. And how often is there a policeman wandering around? But there is almost always a mum and chances are she is going to do the right thing by your child.”

And all of them are why we want to thank her.