SHE DOESN'T TALK DOWN TO KIDS

Oprah Winfrey has words of wisdom for both teens and adults.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH This profile is a Children's Express effort to place a positive focus on prominent blacks who are helping to make the "dream" come true.

Oprah Winfrey takes kids seriously.

The TV talk show host told Children's Express she thinks:

Fifteen-year-olds should be allowed to vote. "If you could vote at the age of 16 or 15, when you had a problem, people would listen. And I think that's one of the problems _ people too often view their children as property and not as people."

Teen-agers "need to be viewed as people first. Because to me, being an adult only means that you have more life experience. It doesn't mean that you have any kind of advantage on intelligence."

It's important for kids to work hard to make a difference in their lives. "If I could teach one thing in the world, it would be to teach people that they are responsible for their own lives. . . "

She told Children's Express this by telephone from her office in Chicago, where she had just taped The Oprah Winfrey Show, which is seen in Indianapolis at 4 p.m. on weekdays on WRTV (Channel 6).

It's a show a lot of teen-agers watch after school.

Winfrey became nationally known five years ago when her show was syndicated throughout the country.

But she says her success began in third grade, "when I was the first one to turn in my book report."

"It started when I was the one who was the first person to raise my hand. It started when I had so many eraser marks on my paper. I decided it really looks bad, I'm going to start all over and do the whole thing over instead of turning in the paper."

"So success started with me at an early age, deciding, `OK, this is what I've got to do. I'm going to do the best I can at it.' "

She added: "Be yourself, but be your best self."

Her first break came in 1971 when she was invited to a White House conference on youth. A radio station from Nashville, Tenn., interviewed her while she was there.

A year later, she entered and won that station's Miss Fire Prevention contest.

When she went to pick up her prizes _ a watch and a digital clock radio _ she also toured the station. As part of the tour, visitors were given news copy to read. Their voices were recorded and played back.

Her reading impressed the station, which offered her a job. She gave up her 50-cents-an-hour baby-sitting job and went to work in radio.

"Then somebody heard me on the radio and then I started in TV," she says. "That's how it happened."

Since that time _ when "preparation met opportunity" _ she has become a major celebrity.

Winfrey doesn't see herself as a star, though.

"I think that I am no different than the people in the audience who want to know the answer to questions," she says. "The only difference between them and me is that I have the microphone. . . . I consider myself just another viewer. A surrogate viewer, actually."

While Winfrey may have many ideas on kids, many kids view her as a role model. She gave a word of warning about that. "I think that all people are the same. So if you idolize somebody that means that you think that person is in some way better than you are. . . . I think it's really unhealthy."