In 1997, Harry Potter entered the world as “The Boy Who Lived” and captivated the world. Within a decade, seven books were published, movies were produced, and theme parks were built bringing the Harry Potter world to life. But behind all of these things is J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter. Rowling grew up in England where the books take place. She had the idea of Harry Potter while on a train at Kings Cross Station and five years later, with a few setbacks, she began writing the first book after planning out of all the storylines and the characters. J.K. Rowling became the first female author to become a billionaire and has made $400 million off of the Harry Potter series. This did not happen easily though, but rather very hard for Rowling dealing with depression, divorce and being a single mother with no money. However, she was still able to overcome these trials and become something she always wanted to be: a successful writer.

After graduating from Exeter University she moved to Portugal to teach English. There, she met and married Jorge Arantes, with the marriage later ending in divorce. After moving from Portugal back to England with her baby daughter, Jessica, with no money and depression by her side, she began to write the very first book of the Harry Potter series in cafes while her daughter would sleep. Rowling began to write as a last hope to gain money so she could drop welfare and be able to feed her daughter. Rowling based her writings on a “vision” she had years before while on a delayed train at Kings Cross Station; she imagined a boy with black shaggy hair with a lightening scar, circle glasses and green eyes. From that point on, she planned out the seven books by writing story excerpts on napkins, notepads anything she could write on when she had an idea. Rowling would not officially start writing first book until 1995, five years after the “vision”.

Rowling wrote the first three chapters of the book and sent it as a manuscript to twelve publishing houses who all denied the piece. By this point, it seemed like Rowling should have given up, but she sent more copies of her book until Bloomsbury, a new publishing company, accepted it in 1996. The editor, Barry Cunningham’s daughter loved the first chapter and wanted to read more, Cunningham knew then the book would definitely sell. Relief and excitement filled Rowling. It was from that point on that Harry Potter began to grow, from being published in June 1997, to the final book being published in July of 2007. Eight movies were produced including a new spinoff series being released “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” coming out this November. Now Rowling continues to expand the series by writing spin off books and having amusement parks being created based on the books, making Rowling the first successful female author.

Harry Potter expanded Rowling’s mind more than she would have ever thought, creating major worldwide success all because she did not give up. “I was the biggest failure I knew.” Rowling said in an interview. She continued on saying she could have not written the books and faced her reality, but instead she picked up a pen and wrote an impactful story about a wizard.