Martha Helen Stewart was born on 3rd August in 1941 in Jersey City in New Jersey and became a millionaire by founding Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia which is a media and merchandising company. She has been successful in various different business areas such as her talk show Martha, her numerous bestselling books, and her magazine Martha Stewart Living. In 2001 she was named the third most powerful women in the United States by Ladies Home Journal.
Martha was raised in Nutley in New Jersey and graduated from Nutley High School. Her mother taught her how to cook and sew; her father taught her how to garden and her grandparents taught her the processes of canning and preserving which she later published books about. She took many extracurricular activities such as Art Club and she wrote for the school newspaper. She did some modelling and appeared in the television commercial “Rather fight than switch” cigarette adverts. She got straight As and was awarded a partial scholarship to Banard College in New York City. She majored in architectural history and met her future husband her Andrew Stewart who she married on 1st July 1961 and then later divorced in 1989. She left Barnard and continued modelling, returning a year later to graduate with a double major in History and Architectural History.
In 1967 she became a stockbroker and was very successful. She left the business in 1973 and in 1976 started a catering business which was very successful. She catered for a book release party where she met Alan Mirken who later helped her to develop the cookbook “Entertaining” which was a New York Times Best Seller. She then released many other cookbooks such as Martha Stewart’s Quick Cook (1983) and Martha Stewart’s Christmas (1989). She also wrote newspaper and magazine articles about homemaking.
In 1990 she signed with Time Publishing Ventures to develop her magazine Martha Stewart Living for which she worked as editor in chief. In 1993 she started doing a television programme based around her magazine and she became a frequent contributor to CBS’s The Early Show.
In September 1997 with her business partner Sharon Patrick she secured funding so that she could buy all of the television, print and merchandising ventures related to her name brand. She then consolidated this into the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia company. She is the chairwoman, president and the CEO of this company.
The same year she also launched her website, catalogue business and floral business. She is the majority shareholder of her company with 96% control of voting power.