The only distro I recommend to beginners and will always recommend to beginners is Linux Mint, for a few reasons:
1. It's similar enough to Windows, at least the Cinnamon edition (XFCE edition I would say is closer to XP)
2. It's based on Ubuntu, which is by far the most famous distro out there. Ubuntu itself is also based on Debian, which is another very ubiquitous distro. That means that it will be very easy to find solutions for any kind of problem you might have, even if they aren't provided with Mint in mind. That's the beauty of Linux.
3. It comes with most things you will ever need out of the box, and getting new programs installed isn't difficult, because again, it's based on Ubuntu and Debian.
The other thing I want every Linux beginner to understand is that Linux is not Windows, and trying to use Linux as if it were Windows is a losing bet. Linux will never be Windows. What it can be is approachable to beginners (Linux Mint fits that criteria). Just to give an example of what I mean, you will eventually have to learn how to use the terminal, which is actually a first-class citizen here, unlike on Windows. Learning how to use the Linux terminal is probably the single best thing you will ever learn when using this system, because it can be used anywhere, anytime, for any purpose.
The terminal looks intimidating, but you can go through it step by step, learning a little bit each day when you can. Linux also rewards people who know the ins and outs of their system well, and learning the terminal is part of that. It's not something that is common on Windows, at least to my knowledge, but it is here. Of course you can try and use Linux without ever touching the terminal, and that might work just fine for you. But I still think it's important to learn, if you can set aside some time to look into it. A lot of times the easiest way, sometimes even the only way to fix a problem or get something done is through the terminal.