why michelle obama inspires me essay

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Why is Michelle Obama Influential

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Published: Mar 19, 2024

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I. introduction, thesis statement: michelle obama is influential for various reasons, including her advocacy for education, health, and women's rights., ii. michelle obama's advocacy for education, iii. michelle obama's advocacy for health, iv. michelle obama's advocacy for women's rights, v. michelle obama's influence on popular culture, vi. conclusion.

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Essay Service Examples Politics Barack Obama

Why Michelle Obama Inspires Me Essay

Table of contents

Defining leadership through michelle obama, advocacy and initiatives: a first lady’s impact, authentic leadership: a genuine approach, personal reflections: transformational leadership in practice, comparative analysis: authentic and transformational leadership, conclusion: emulating authentic leadership in professional practice.

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• Bishop, W.H. (2013). Defining the authenticity in authentic leaders. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 6(1), 1-7.
• Black, R. (2010). Michelle Obama is under fire for mentioning their daughter Malia’s weight during obesity remarks. Retrieved from https://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/michelle-obama-fire-mentioning-daughter-malia-weight-obesity-remarks-article-1.194037
• Brar, F. (2019). Michelle Obama shared a glimpse of her #SelfCareSunday at the gym. Retrieved from https://www.shape.com/celebrities/celebrity-workouts/michelle-obama-fitness-self-care
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• Covelli., B & Mason, I. (2017). Linking theory to practice: Authentic leadership. Academic of Strategic Management Journal, 16(3), 1458-1544.
• First Lady making strides one year into ‘Let’s Move’. (2011, February). Retrieved from https://www.kunc.org/post/first-lady-making-strides-one-year-lets-move#stream/0
• First Lady Michelle Obama. (2015, July). Retrieved from https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/first-lady-michelle-obama
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• George, B. (2004). Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering secrets to creating lasting value. CMA Management, 77(8), 6.
• Goffee, R., & Jones, G. (2005). Managing Authenticity. Harvard Business Review, 83(12), 86-94.
• Klenke, K. (2007). Authentic leadership: A self, leader, and spiritual identity perspective. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 3(1), pp. 68–97.
• Lee, B.Y. (2017). 10 ways Michelle Obama promoted physical and mental health as First Lady. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2017/01/15/michelle-obamas-top-10- accomplishments-as-first-lady/#64e42ff01889
• Leroy, H., Palanski, M. and Simons, T. (2012). Authentic leadership and behavioral integrity as drivers of follower commitment and performance. Journal of Business Ethics, 107(3), pp. 255–264.
• Liu, H., & Li, G. (2018). Linking Transformational Leadership and Knowledge Sharing: The Mediating Roles of Perceived Team Goal Commitment and Perceived Team Identification. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1331.
• Lynch, M. (2016). 7 education initiatives led by Michelle Obama. Retrieved from https://www.theedadvocate.org/7-education-initiatives-led-by-michelle-obama/
• Quinn, R., Spreitzer, G.M., & Brown, M.V. (2000). Changing others through changing ourselves: The transformation of human systems. Journal of Management Enquiry, 9(2), 147-164.
• Shamir, B., & Eilam, G. (2005). 'What’s your story?' A life-stories approach to authentic leadership development. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 395-417.
• https://www.kunc.org/post/first-lady-making-strides-one-year-lets-move#stream/0
• https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/first-lady-michelle-obama
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2017/01/15/michelle-obamas-top-10-accomplishments-as-first-lady/#64e42ff01889
• https://www.theedadvocate.org/7-education-initiatives-led-by-michelle-obama/

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15 Ways Michelle Obama Has Inspired Us

Michelle Obama has encouraged us to use our voices to effect change, give back, and follow our passions.

In honor of her new book , “The Light We Carry”– a follow-up to her best-selling memoir, “ Becoming ”– we reflect on some of our forever First Lady’s most inspiring quotes and moments.

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Inspiring others to success: Michelle Obama

Michelle obama is best known as the former us first lady, but long before becoming the wife of america’s first african american president, this strong and inspirational woman was changing the world..

With her history of taking practical steps to make social changes, and in particular her goal of empowering women, she has become a role model to many people.

Family support Before meeting Barack Obama, Michelle was growing up on the south side of Chicago, where she was born in 1964. Her family emphasised the importance of education and Michelle excelled at school, going on to attend Princeton University.

She continued her education at Harvard Law School, where she took part in demonstrations calling for more minority students and professors. While working for Chicago’s Sidley Austin law firm in 1989, she met her future husband. Before they married in 1992, Michelle moved on to public service.

Starting out as the assistant commissioner of planning and development at City Hall in Chicago, eventually she became vice-president of community and external affairs at the Medical Centre in the University of Chicago.

She has spent her whole career engaging young people, while improving the community where she grew up.

Revolutionary woman As a truly modern-day, revolutionary woman, who has championed a multitude of important causes throughout her life, she has encouraged better education for girls, equal rights, healthy living and more help for families living in poverty.

Her own CV is pretty impressive: First Lady, lawyer, bestselling author of her memoirs (called “Becoming”), style icon and mother. When Barack Obama was elected President of the United States in 2008, Michelle’s activism had an international platform.

In 2010, as First Lady, Michelle launched her Let’s Move initiative, aimed at addressing the childhood obesity problem gripping the United States. She urged kids to make healthy choices and campaigned for companies and schools to offer healthier eating options.

Inspiring success Michelle and Second Lady Jill Biden launched another initiative, Joining Forces, in 2011. It supported members of the armed forces, veterans and their families. It provided education, wellness and employment opportunities to help them succeed in life.

Michelle focused on education in 2014, inspiring children to succeed academically. She used her own upbringing to show what this could achieve, telling supporters of her Reach Higher initiative, “I am an example of what is possible when girls, from the very beginning of their lives, are loved and nurtured by people around them.”

She urged young people to continue their education beyond high school, giving themselves the tools to decide how to pursue their chosen path to the best of their abilities.

Girls’ education In 2015, she and Barack launched Let Girls Learn, encouraging girls to stay in school and asking the government to make a greater investment in their education. “No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half its citizens,” she said.

Appealing directly to girls and young women, Michelle told them, “You don’t want to be with a boy who is too stupid to appreciate a smart young lady. There is no boy who is cute enough, or interesting enough, to stop you from getting your education.”

In his presidential farewell address, her husband publicly described Michelle as having done everything with “grace, grit, style and good humour.” Everything she does is done with passion, from breaking down stereotypes to removing the barriers for girls’ education.

She even made a guest appearance at the Grammy Awards, while her book made it to the top of the New York Times bestsellers’ list. There’s nothing that she can’t do and she continues to inspire people with her positive attitude.

If you feel inspired to achieve more in life, working well with colleagues is the key to career success. Choose the collaborative, coworking environments offered by Headspace Group, and you’ll be on the right path!

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A look inside the first pages of Becoming by Michelle Obama

‘There’s a lot I still don’t know about America, about life, about what the future might bring. But I do know myself.’ Read on for the begining of Michelle Obama’s intimate and powerful memoir, Becoming .

When I was a kid, my aspirations were simple.  I wanted a dog. I wanted a house that had stairs in it— two floors for one family. I wanted, for some reason, a four-door station wagon instead of the two-door Buick that was my father’s pride and joy. I used to tell people that when I grew up, I was going to be a pediatrician. Why? Because I loved being around little kids and I quickly learned that it was a pleasing answer for adults to hear. Oh, a doctor! What a good choice! In those days, I wore pigtails and bossed my older brother around and managed, always and no matter what, to get As at school. I was ambitious, though I didn’t know exactly what I was shooting for. Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child— What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end.

So far in my life, I’ve been a lawyer. I’ve been a vice president at a hospital and the director of a nonprofit that helps young people build meaningful careers. I’ve been a working-class black student at a fancy mostly white college. I’ve been the only woman, the only African American, in all sorts of rooms. I’ve been a bride, a stressed-out new mother, a daughter torn up by grief. And until recently, I was the First Lady of the United States of America— a job that’s not officially a job, but that nonetheless has given me a platform like nothing I could have imagined. It challenged me and humbled me, lifted me up and shrank me down, sometimes all at once. I’m just beginning to process what took place over these last years— from the moment in 2006 when my husband first started talking about running for president to the cold morning this winter when I climbed into a limo with Melania Trump, accompanying her to her husband’s inauguration. It’s been quite a ride.

When you’re First Lady, America shows itself to you in its extremes. I’ve been to fund-raisers in private homes that look more like art museums, houses where people own bathtubs made from gemstones. I’ve visited families who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina and were tearful and grateful just to have a working refrigerator and stove. I’ve encountered people I find to be shallow and hypocritical and others— teachers and military spouses and so many more— whose spirits are so deep and strong it’s astonishing. And I’ve met kids— lots of them, all over the world— who crack me up and fill me with hope and who blessedly manage to forget about my title once we start rooting around in the dirt of a garden.

Since stepping reluctantly into public life, I’ve been held up as the most powerful woman in the world and taken down as an “angry black woman.” I’ve wanted to ask my detractors which part of that phrase matters to them the most— is it “angry” or “black” or “woman”? I’ve smiled for photos with people who call my husband horrible names on national television, but still want a framed keepsake for their mantel. I’ve heard about the swampy parts of the internet that question everything about me, right down to whether I’m a woman or a man. A sitting U.S. congressman has made fun of my butt. I’ve been hurt. I’ve been furious. But mostly, I’ve tried to laugh this stuff off.

Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.

There’s a lot I still don’t know about America, about life, about what the future might bring. But I do know myself. My father, Fraser, taught me to work hard, laugh often, and keep my word. My mother, Marian, showed me how to think for myself and to use my voice. Together, in our cramped apartment on the South Side of Chicago, they helped me see the value in our story, in my story, in the larger story of our country. Even when it’s not pretty or perfect. Even when it’s more real than you want it to be. Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.

For eight years, I lived in the White House, a place with more stairs than I can count— plus elevators, a bowling alley, and an in-house florist. I slept in a bed that was made up with Italian linens. Our meals were cooked by a team of world- class chefs and delivered by professionals more highly trained than those at any five-star restaurant or hotel. Secret Service agents, with their earpieces and guns and deliberately flat expressions, stood outside our doors, doing their best to stay out of our family’s private life. We got used to it, eventually, sort of— the strange grandeur of our new home and also the constant, quiet presence of others.

The White House is where our two girls played ball in the hallways and climbed trees on the South Lawn. It’s where Barack sat up late at night, poring over briefings and drafts of speeches in the Treaty Room, and where Sunny, one of our dogs, sometimes pooped on the rug. I could stand on the Truman Balcony and watch the tourists posing with their selfie sticks and peering through the iron fence, trying to guess at what went on inside. There were days when I felt suffocated by the fact that our windows had to be kept shut for security, that I couldn’t get some fresh air without causing a fuss. There were other times when I’d be awestruck by the white magnolias blooming outside, the everyday bustle of government business, the majesty of a military welcome. There were days, weeks, and months when I hated politics. And there were moments when the beauty of this country and its people so overwhelmed me that I couldn’t speak.

Then it was over. Even if you see it coming, even as your final weeks are filled with emotional good-byes, the day itself is still a blur. A hand goes on a Bible; an oath gets repeated. One president’s furniture gets carried out while another’s comes in. Closets are emptied and refilled in the span of a few hours. Just like that, there are new heads on new pillows— new temperaments, new dreams. And when it ends, when you walk out the door that last time from the world’s most famous address, you’re left in many ways to find yourself again.

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Why Michelle Obama Is ‘Everything’

She’s adored in part because she’s always been transparent about her life’s tensions. Her memoir is just the latest example.

By Stacia Brown

Ms. Brown is a writer and podcast host.

A few days before the release of Michelle Obama’s memoir, “Becoming ,” I went to look at her portrait at the National Portrait Gallery to reflect on her evolving role in public life, and to talk to other women who were doing the same.

The book, published on Tuesday, has been described as offering a more personal invitation into her life than any she’s previously extended. Early reviews praise her discussion of her miscarriage and of her use of in vitro fertilization for its potential to fight stigma about reproductive problems that go under-discussed especially among black women.

As I approached the image of Mrs. Obama as Amy Sherald has rendered her, she stared right back at me, her hand propped under her chin, wry but not quite inviting. In a stark contrast to the memoir, this is not an image of the former first lady at her most accessible.

But that’s no bar to the strong connection that the women I met gathering around her portrait feel. Here, with her hanging just over their shoulder, they echo one another’s unreserved awe, calling Mrs. Obama “beautiful,” “inspiring,” and “so important.” I hear similar refrains again and again: “I love her,” “She’s stunning,” or “We miss her.”

The brand of transparency offered in the book — the kind Mrs. Obama often had to temper during her time as first lady — is a reminder of what made women like us feel so deeply endeared to her in the first place.

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Leadership Lessons From Michelle Obama’s Best-Selling Memoir

For at least an hour before Michelle Obama graced the stage at Barclays Center in Brooklyn in December 2018, just one stop on her tour to promote her book, “Becoming,” videos featuring her best moments played on the big screen.  

A soulful playlist curated by Questlove blasted. The show was sold out. The 19,000-seat stadium had the energy of a rock concert. The message: Michelle Obama’s a larger-than-life woman with a life story and message to match. In swag shops outside the arena, her quote “When they go low, we go high” was emblazoned on shirts and hats and mugs.  

The former first lady understands she has a unique and powerful platform. So, while her jab at President Trump and her vivid re-telling of her romantic courtship with President Obama have gotten the most attention, a careful read reveals that “Becoming” is a call to action.   

Drawing on inspiration from her ordinary beginnings, Obama uses her story to inspire others to lead. Her book offers a blueprint for those who aspire to rise out of places that lack privilege and guidance.  

Here are some of the leadership lessons from her new book that can help you navigate your career, relationships and life in general.

Lesson No. 1: Leadership Begins at Home

Michelle Obama was raised on Chicago’s South Side with modest means. Her father, Fraser, was a blue-collar worker, her mother, Marian, a stay-at-home mom. She gives full credit to her loving parents and the stable home they provided as the foundations of the lessons that emboldened her.

On stage, Obama spoke about her father’s deep commitment to her and her brother, Craig. She called on the fathers in the audience to be mindful of how they treat their daughters, never as possessions or delicate beings that need protection but as equal and capable members of the family.  

She recalled that her father always taught her the same skills that he would teach her older brother. When he learned to catch baseballs, so did she. She also writes with pride and love about her father’s twenty-year tenure tending boilers for the city of Chicago.  

“Even as his multiple sclerosis made it increasingly difficult for him to walk, he never missed a day of work,” she writes.

From her mother, it seems, Obama learned a deep understanding of personal responsibility. She and her brother were raised to become adults, not babies, according to Obama. All the important lessons of leadership — tenacity, dignity, resilience, commitment and worth ethic — Obama learned at home.

Lesson No. 2: The Greatest Lessons Are in Our Differences

Whenever Obama is asked about the polarization and deep division in the United States, she insists she has experienced a completely different America. “It’s much harder to hate up-close,” she has said in many interviews . She believes there’s strength in differences and that we are more alike than we think.  

“The problem is we don’t know each other, we don’t let each other in,” she writes in her book. In “Becoming,” she tells the story of her college friend, Suzanne, who was “Ernie to her Bert, Laverne to her Shirley.”  

From Suzanne, she says she learned about joy and wild abandon. But also that there was more than one way to live a life. She spent no energy trying to change her friend’s more chaotic ways. Instead, she learned from her and, as a result, became a more well-rounded person.     

Unifying any group of people is one of the biggest and most challenging tasks of a leader. Effective leadership, gleaned from Obama’s stories, means taking our differences and using them to make us stronger.  

Lesson No. 3: Don’t Be Afraid to Swerve

Leaders in our technological and constantly changing age must learn how to adapt and evolve. Before she met her husband, the future president, Obama confessed to being a box-checker. She didn’t reflect so much on what she wanted to be as much as she just wanted to get things done.

While this commitment can lead to some success, when innovation and creative problem solving are needed instead, swerving becomes a necessary and important skill.  

Obama credits her husband for teaching her how to swerve, to go off the beaten path in order to find your destiny. In swerving, she discovered another path that she could not have planned or envisioned.  

Leadership is as much about accomplishments as it is about inspiration and imagination. If you’re hoping to get your team to tackle a big idea that requires unconventional methods, take a cue from the former first lady and get ready to swerve when circumstances call for it.  

Lesson No. 4: Find Your Community

Obama learned early that you can’t do anything alone. She speaks fondly of mentors who helped her navigate the many bumps in her journey. In her book, she tells the story of a woman at Princeton who took Obama under her wing when Obama was a student there, giving her the space to find her footing in an environment that was foreign to her upbringing.  

When deciding to switch careers mid-life she looked to mentors for guidance. She had a network of them that she had built throughout her working life. The mentors were sounding boards and sources wisdom when she faced big decisions.    

While at the White House, Obama recalls pulling together retreats and boot camps for her girlfriends so she could let off steam in a safe and supportive environment. Without a community, a leader is unlikely to sustain the energy required to see any endeavor through its ups and downs.  

It’s also unlikely that a leader can remain in power without the support of a community.  Obama’s lesson is clear — gathering like-minded people who are invested in your success is crucial to a leader’s performance.

Lesson No. 5: Serve Your Community

It says a lot about Obama’s popularity that she can fill thousands of seats in a stadium, at a ranging from $150 to $1300. But, to serve her community, she gives away 10 percent of the seats, often to young people making a difference in their community.  

It’s just one of the many ways Obama tries to walk her talk. Since the early days of their relationship, when former President Obama was still a community organizer, serving the community has been at the center of their partnership.  

Post-presidency, the couple started the Obama Foundation with a mission to spread civic engagement around the world. In her book, Obama writes about why she chose to open the White House to as many ordinary citizens as possible, even hosting kids from all walks of life for campouts and sleepovers. She wanted to make the White House the people’s house.  

Obama echoes the wisdom of many great leaders, that your work can only become meaningful if it helps others. And only through meaning, can work rise above the mundane to become a calling. Having purpose can differentiate a weak leader from a strong one.

Lesson No. 6: Never Lose Your Integrity

To be a leader is to experience risk, reward and criticism in their most extreme forms. The former first lady’s tenure at the White House was no different.  

Her patriotism has been called into question. She’s been called names. Rumors swirled around her family, from the mundane to the extremely troubling. In her book, Obama writes about a lesson her mother taught her early in life that didn’t resonate until she was in her early forties, campaigning for her husband. A little boy punched her in the face when she was in first grade. When her mother met the boy, she told her daughter, “That boy was just scared and angry about things that had nothing to do with you.” It was a lesson in standing up for yourself when necessary, but mostly never letting another person’s action change or influence you.  

All leaders face challenges and harsh critics, but the great ones never waver from their mission.  In one of President Obama’s farewell speeches, he referred to his wife as the girl from the South Side, implying that their incredible journey has not changed who she is and what she believes in.  

Leaders may gain popularity in many different ways, but often they earn respect through integrity.

Lesson No. 7: Lead by Example

On the night of the 2016 election, Obama went to bed before the official results came in. By the time she woke up, Donald Trump had been elected president. Many on Obama’s staff, a diverse group of people that generally feared a Trump presidency, wept for the future.

“We had to be the moral compass for our staff first and foremost,” Obama said in an interview with Stephen Colbert , part a round of interviews she gave promoting her new book. Always for the Obamas it was about leading by example.

In her book, she talks about the high bar set for the first African American family in the White House. Rather than shirk from the expectations, they chose to meet them. Obama writes about how thoughtful and intentional they had to be with every decision and every action. They felt there was no room for mistakes.  

Obama explains in her book that she and her husband embraced this responsibility in order to make sure they could keep the door they walked through open for generations to come.

Heavy-handed leadership has been an example of power throughout history, but the kind of power that seems the most sustainable is the one prescribed by Obama — lead by example.

Lesson No. 8: Eat Well and Exercise Regularly

If there’s an image of Michelle Obama that could stand as the symbol of who she was in the White House, it would be one where she’s doing push-ups. In “Becoming,” she recalls zeroing in on a mission to advocate for healthy lifestyles when she sat down in her kitchen with a chef she hired to cook for her family, Sam Kass.  

Kass was young, eager and full of ideas. Reluctant at first, she hired Kass in order to roll back the unhealthy habits that her family was falling into, as a result of an extremely busy lifestyle. While we may get on with our daily lives, completing tasks and showing up for work, according to Obama’s message, we can’t reach our potential without taking care of our health.  

Her eight years in the White House were a testament to the importance of a healthy lifestyle for any leader. Despite her grueling schedule, the first lady didn’t seem to lose energy.

Boundless energy and a zest for a life that can come from a healthy lifestyle are obvious superpowers for leaders.  

Lesson No. 9: Feed Your Potential

In Michelle Obama’s South Side home, there was plenty of love and stability and food in the fridge. But, outside of those provisions, Obama knew she had to work hard for everything else, including her Ivy League education.  

She didn’t limit her dreaming based on the limitations of her circumstances. Neither did her family. Obama writes about an instance when she didn’t tell her parents about a school trip to Paris, coming to the conclusion that it would be too much money. When they found out, they sat her down and told her that this was not something she needed to decide for herself. Even on meager salaries, her parents found a way to pay for the trip.   

The lesson is clear: Invest in your own potential.

Lesson No. 10: Expect Excellence

Obama may not have grown up in a fancy neighborhood, but it was clear, she writes in “Becoming,” that excellence was expected of her and her brother. Few things can be more detrimental to a team than low standards from a leader.  

Obama’s upbringing, as detailed in her book, sets a great example of how to support excellence. She writes about gaining confidence to go to Princeton after seeing her brother succeed in the endeavor.

Her parents also taught their two children about having high standards and seeking it out in both people and life choices.  

While Obama confesses in her book to wondering, “Am I good enough?” when she was young, it does seem that at every major milestone in her narrative she was able to answer that question with a resounding yes.  

Leadership is often about self-mastery. In the pages of “Becoming,” Obama’s stories inspire people to strengthen their inner convictions, raise their standards and to work daily to meet them.

Lesson No. 11: Celebrate Small Victories

To celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage, Obama snuck out of the White House with one of her daughters. She writes about having a tunnel vision plan to escape her Secret Service detail and celebrate with the people that had gathered in the streets.  

It’s a fun story — she’s been getting a lot of mileage out of it on the talk-show circuit — but in it is a deeper lesson for anyone leading a team through stormy days or uphill battles. You must celebrate victories, big or small.  

Obama says her small act of defiance was a response to a funeral they attended on the same day, where nine African Americans were murdered by a white supremacist who opened fire in their church. She writes about her feeling of desperation to join the celebration about same-sex marriage, if only to provide a brief reprieve from the heartbreaking tragedy that constantly touched their lives.   

It’s a poignant lesson in leadership: Celebrating small victories can help fuel the hard battles ahead.

Lesson No. 12: Never Underestimate the Power of Warmth

Leaders can get lost in the importance of their daily tasks. But for Obama, taking care of the big stuff meant also giving space for the warmth of the ordinary.  

She describes in the book her family’s near daily routine of having dinner together, a time for easy banter and no policy talk. While the White House seemed intimidating at first, full of formality and opulence, Obama said she grew to appreciate the people who made the place run. Butlers and aides at the White House have been taking care of first families for decades.  

“Life was better, always, when we could measure the warmth,” she writes. This could be translated as soft skills, intangible values that can add a lot depth to a leader or a team.   

For Obama, keeping both feet on the ground meant daily interactions with the people around her. “These interactions were quick but in some small way they made life feel a little more normal,” she writes. For leaders who are facing complicated problems, a path to a solution might only come if they’re grounded in a welcoming environment, full of familiarity and warmth. That certainly seems to be the case for the former first lady.

Lesson No. 13: Own Your Story

A powerful narrative can be the difference between a forgettable leader and one with lasting impact. President Barack Obama was a master storyteller, taking his personal story and turning it into an inspiring symbol for unity and progress.

His wife took notes.   

“Becoming” barely hit the shelves and before earning honors as the best-selling book of 2018. Leaders can take note that a well-told story is one of the most powerful ways to connect to your audience, whether that’s your team or your customers.  

Obama says she learned quickly that if she didn’t own her story, someone else would tell it for her. Sure enough, she describes in her book the multiple narratives in the media that didn’t accurately portray who she knew she was. The same thing can happen to leaders who are too busy to check in on what’s being said about them.  

Owning your story means safeguarding your leadership from becoming misunderstood or misrepresented.

Lesson No. 14: Become

No one likes a stale or stagnant leader. How to counter this might just be the best lesson in Obama’s memoir.  

Obama says she chose” Becoming” as the title of her book because she hated the idea that journeys are finite. She hated the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” To Obama, growing up isn’t an end destination.  

Leaders can take a lot of insight and wisdom from this. In the information age, we no longer trust that there are guardians of knowledge, power and expertise. We are all just learning as we go along. Leaders who don’t accept this or try to hide from it might seem out of touch, feigning authority and appearing inauthentic.   

At Barclays Center, Obama had a stadium full of people hanging on her every word. The stage was sparse, just Obama and long-time friend and poet Elizabeth Alexander talking about life. But it was a masterclass in leadership: Share your journey of becoming and others will want to follow. Or even better, walk alongside you.

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Michelle Obama on success, the power of education, and clinching your dreams

Wednesday January 17, 2018 , 7 min Read

When Nina Simone hollered “ To Be Young, Gifted and Black ” at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, she was rallying the cry for black pride and Civil Rights during a very turbulent period in American history. Little would have Simone realised that about a thousand miles away in Chicago, Illinois, a six-year-old Michelle Obama was living her early life, unaware that she would someday be the first African-American First Lady of the USA. A role model and inspiration to millions of girls around the world, Michelle too had to jostle with discrimination – both racial and gender – while making her way up the world.

Hailing from a black migrant family on the south side of Chicago , Michelle grew up in a period of history which was still coping to accept the Civil Rights movement and gender equality. So as a black woman, in spite of her talent, hard work, and ambition, Michelle had to battle immense odds to carry forward. But she never gave up on her dreams ! She never allowed the ebbs and flows of politics, racial segregation, and lack of opportunities come in the way of her merit. Right from an early age, she knew she wasn’t entitled or privileged, and hence, she had to really fight to earn her name.

Unfazed by the hurdles life threw at her, this South Chicago girl persevered and steadily rose from her career in law to work as a city administrator and later community-outreach worker. Today, her life is a saga of struggle, fortitude, and excellence and a shining example for African-American women.

So, on Michelle’s 54th birthday, we take a look at her life right from her childhood, and the lessons we can learn from her faith in humanity.

Image: Shutterstock

There is no shortcut to success

This old adage may seem like a cliché, but it is far from it. If it was easy to become successful, the world wouldn’t be raving about it. To reach the top of the mountain you have to brave the climb and overcome challenges on the way. From a traditional middle-class upbringing, Michelle Obama had a tough childhood, given her father’s battle with multiple sclerosis. Her father always insisted upon the importance of hard work, and his fight against the degenerative disease was an early example of perseverance and grit for Michelle.

She learned early on that she had an immense precipice to conquer. But she always believed she had the wherewithal to push herself through the tough times. She believes , “There is no magic to achievement. It’s really about hard work, choices, and persistence.”

Talking about the spirit of never giving up, she states confidently, “You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once, but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have, because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.”

Channel your efforts to uplift the marginalised

Very often, we are ridiculed on the basis of how we look, how we speak, and how we connect with others. Instead of feeling small about oneself and feeling disappointed in front of the challenges of life, one should always have self-belief. It’s all about our outlook, our perspective on life that builds our foundation during the tough times. For example, Michelle is a cum laude from Princeton and received her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, both prestigious Ivy League Colleges where she worked tirelessly to prove her own worth. But even when she started her legal career, she faced daily reminders of subtle racism .

Even during her time in these colleges, she often felt more of a visitor than a student, as she was hardly able to connect with others. This played a pivotal role in Michelle working in public service and assisting the Mayor Of Chicago in 1991.

Having been constantly bogged down by these issues, she knew she had the potential to limit the sufferings of others from her community, who perhaps weren’t as privileged as her. She grabbed on to that opportunity and worked towards moulding and uplifting society, and became a thought leader . Of course, such perseverance is not an easy task, and it needs an enormous amount of grit and determination. But Michelle teaches us how to overlook these little nuances of struggle and come out stronger than ever before. After all, if she can do it, all of us have the ability to do it too, in our own little ways!

Believe in your dream

America is definitely a land of multiple realities. Everyone creates their own reality, depending on which strata of society they hail from. That being said, the ill-treatment met by women is pretty much prevalent in every society, every country. Women have always have had a tough time competing with men, be it in terms of identity, job, wages, or gender equality. But what differentiates us is our own way of rising above this and believing in our dream, stronger in the face of dejection. What matters perhaps, in the end, is also the hope that we give to others.

Dealing with this issue, Michelle clearly states , “The difference between us and them, between you and success, is not that you never fail, but it’s how you recover from those failures – is that you keep getting up time and time again. You figure out what you did wrong, and then you make it right. I say that to my kids every day.”

Give back to your society

It doesn’t matter who you are – each of us has the power to make a difference, to give something back to our society, to make a change. Michelle always did that, in whatever role she was capable of. She strongly believes that “In my own life, in my own small way, I’ve tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That’s why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us – no matter what our age or background or walk of life – each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.”

Unfortunately, quite often, many dismiss the power of a single voice. Michelle debates this logic with the belief that, “You don’t have to be somebody different to be important. You’re important in your own right.”

Education is the key to the future

As Michelle herself has struggled a great deal to be educated and faced a lot of competition, she knows the value of education. It was the reason why in 2015, she launched the ‘Let Girls Learn’ Initiative, through which she encouraged Americans to pursue higher education after high school and earn their identity and confidence through higher education. In 2017, in her quest to provide education to American teenagers, Michelle chose  16-year-old Indian-American Swetha Prabakaran to serve on the inaugural Student Advisory Board of her education campaign called ‘Better Make Room’.

Apart from these little lessons that Michelle endows, she has also been quite vocal about causes ranging from migrants and women abduction to domestic violence and racial abuse. Her support has helped shape a valid and relevant discourse on these concerns. She never allowed the past traditional trajectory of previous First Ladies in the White House to make her a conformist. Even today, when Barack Obama looks back at his tenure, he publicly praises the pivotal role that Michelle played in making him the man that he is today. For sure, this former First Lady will continue to inspire us in the coming years in her own ways!

• United States
• Barack Obama
• Michelle Obama
• First Lady of the USA

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5 inspiring lessons taught by michelle obama.

Many First Ladies have stood out and made their marks, apart from being charming hostesses. Pat Nixon was the first to open up the Executive Mansion and gardens to the public. Nancy Reagan actively supported the Just Say No to drugs campaign to raise awareness about substance abuse. And how about Michelle Obama, the first African-American First Lady? She is stylish, intelligent, and passionate about her beliefs and values which are at the heart of some really inspiring lessons for us all.

“Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values, like you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond, that you do what you say you’re going to do. That you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them and even if you don’t agree with them.”– Michelle Obama

Here are 5 inspiring lessons we can learn from this First Lady.

1. She is teaching us about healthy eating.

The First Lady wanted to improve the family’s diet and that meant healthier food. What better way than to use the White House Kitchen garden as a place to grow vegetables and fresh produce for both the first family’s meals and White House events? It would be an inspiration for other families to do the same. Watch the video where Michelle and the White House chef explain their views on healthy eating.

“And let’s be clear: It’s not enough just to limit ads for foods that aren’t healthy. It’s also going to be critical to increase marketing for foods that are healthy.” –Michelle Obama

2. She is encouraging kids to get more exercise.

As you can see from the Let’s Move site, Mrs. Obama advocates a healthy lifestyle in which physical exercise is a key component. With child obesity increasing at alarming rates, this is an inspiring example for us to follow. Just think that the average child and teen is spending up to seven hours a day checking out social media, video games and their cell phones. Even if children spent just one hour a day doing physical exercise, they would grow up healthier and more active. Michelle Obama is no stranger to getting up very early to look after herself.

“Exercise is really important to me. So if I’m ever feeling tense or stressed or like I’m about to have a meltdown, I’ll put on my iPod and head to the gym or out on a bike ride along Lake Michigan with the girls.” –Michelle Obama

3. She is helping war veterans and their families to find employment.

Mrs. Obama and the Vice President Joe Biden are leading a campaign to encourage companies and businesses to employ war veterans who have specialized skills sets which will be an asset for any enterprise or business. This campaign is called Joining Forces and it ensures that service members and their families are supported all their lives and not just when serving. This has inspired people not to forget about these veterans and to help them in a practical way.

4. She is inspiring people to give back to the nation.

The First Lady has inspired people with her speeches since she always emphasizes the idea of giving back to the nation ( any nation) and at the same time creating a better, more equal and just society. Her key message is to give back so that others, less fortunate than ourselves, can succeed.

“And in my own life, in my own small way, I’ve tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That’s why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us — no matter what our age or background or walk of life — each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.” –Michelle Obama

5. She inspires parents through her great example.

Mrs. Obama feels that parenting is her first and most important task. She and her husband are very much hands-on parents. As a ver old-school type of parent, she likes to lay down rules and stick to them. She does not worry too much about disappointing her daughters and has a very dim view of Facebook:

“I still am not a big believer in Facebook for young people… particularly for them, because they are in the public eye.” –Michelle Obama

Dinner is always at 6.30.p.m and the President is expected to attend no matter how busy he is! They allow their eldest daughter to have sleep-overs and they make sure the girls tidy their rooms and are not spoiled by White House staff who might be tempted to wait on them hand and foot. Michelle inspires parents because she is determined that her daughters will grow up to be well functioning adults in spite of the limelight.

“My first job in all honesty is going to continue to be mom-in-chief. Making sure that in this transition, which will be even more of a transition for the girls… that they are settled and that they know they will continue to be the center of our universe.” –Michelle Obama

Featured photo credit: First Lady Michelle Obama speaks to Cleveland Elementary School students/ US Dept of Agriculture. via flickr.com

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‘Becoming,’ by Michelle Obama: A pioneering and important work by Allyson Hobbs

Reading Michelle Obama’s memoir, “Becoming,” feels like catching up with an old friend over a lazy afternoon. Parts of her story are familiar, but still, you lean in, eager to hear them again. Other parts are new and come as a surprise. Sometimes her story makes you laugh out loud and shake your head with a gentle knowingness. Some parts are painful to hear. You wince and wish that you could have protected her from an unkind world.

Obama has sworn to tell her readers everything, and she delivers on that promise. From the silly to the surreal, from the momentous to the mundane, from the tragic to the transformative, she tells it all. As she shares her story, you are struck that every word is honest, brave and real.

“Becoming” explains how Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, “girl of the South Side,” came to be. It is a story that is as much about becoming as it is about belonging.

Obama invites us into the upstairs apartment of the red brick bungalow to experience the camaraderie and closeness that she shared with her parents, Marian and Fraser, and her older brother, Craig. She details her drive, her pursuit of achievement, her desire to check the right boxes and to prove that she was, in fact, “Princeton material,” despite the wrongheaded assessment of her high school college counselor. She would wrestle with the stubborn question — Am I good enough? — that lodged itself in her mind for years to come.

As first lady, Obama shattered the mold. Americans had never seen a life like Obama’s. She did not fit the dominant cultural frame that has been mounted around African American women.

“Becoming” shatters the mold, too. Not only because Obama writes in her signature tell-it-like-it-is style, but because she steeps her story in the richness and complexity of African American history that seldom reaches national audiences.

She is the descendant of enslaved people, a grandchild of the Great Migration, and the product of the storied black community on Chicago’s South Side. She is an observer of segregated housing, restrictive covenants and the exodus of white families to Chicago’s northern and western suburbs. She bears witness to the dashed dreams of her great uncle and grandfather who wished for greater educational and employment opportunities at a time when few if any existed for black men.

Through humor and poignant storytelling, Obama captures the joys of growing up in the neighborhood that writers have called “the capital of black America”: the sound of jazz blasting from her grandfather’s house around the corner, the barbecues where countless cousins gathered, and the feeling that, as Obama writes, “everyone was kin.”

There is a universality in the themes that “Becoming” addresses that many readers will recognize and appreciate, but at its heart, this is a story about the complexity of black women’s lives told firsthand by a black woman. This is a pioneering and important work that helps fill a gap in the literature on African American women’s lives.

“Becoming,” by Michelle Obama.

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The 5 biggest takeaways from Michelle Obama’s revealing new memoir

Becoming mostly plays it safe, but the nuances make it a fascinating read.

by Stavros Agorakis

Michelle Obama joined the ranks of former first ladies turned authors on Tuesday with the launch of her new memoir, Becoming .

During her husband’s presidency, Michelle Obama was nearly always more popular than he was. She was a master at walking what Vox’s Constance Grady calls the “First Lady Tightrope” — being effective without being threatening; supporting her husband while keeping up a separate identity — and that balancing act carries over to her memoir.

Becoming is a book that takes few risks, as Grady writes: “It is for the most part a safe and anodyne political memoir that does not aspire to any more ambitious territory. But it is enormously effective at distilling Obama’s poise, intelligence, and warmth into a single 421-page package.”

It also lets readers in on a few things — including Obama’s thoughts on President Donald Trump, her use of assisted reproductive technology, her experience with code-switching, and more.

Here are five takeaways from the book.

Obama was ambivalent about her husband running for president and didn’t think he’d win

Before Barack Obama became president of the United States a decade ago, he had an important task to complete: getting his wife’s approval to run for the White House.

Michelle Obama writes in the memoir that she never expected America to elect a black man for president. Though she loved her husband and “had faith in what he could do,” she writes that part of why she let him run is because she believed he wouldn’t make it too far in the race.

“I said yes, though I was at the same time harboring a painful thought, one I wasn’t ready to share: I supported him in campaigning, but I also felt certain he wouldn’t make it all the way,” she writes. “He spoke so often and so passionately of healing our country’s divisions, appealing to a set of higher ideals he believed were innate in most people. But I’d seen enough of the divisions to temper my own hopes.

“Barack was a black man in America, after all. I didn’t really think he could win.”

Eventually, though, other factors also contributed to Michelle agreeing to Barack’s presidential run: She knew her husband was surrounded by a team of “good, smart people.” And she believed he would be a kind president who would better the lives of millions of people — and that it was worth putting her own needs, and the needs of their daughters, aside in service of that vision.

Obama reveals she had a miscarriage and had her daughters using assisted reproductive technology

In Becoming , Michelle Obama let readers in on one of the couple’s most intimate stories to date: They had a miscarriage and went on to use in vitro fertilization, or IVF, to conceive their two daughters 20 years ago.

The former first lady opened up about a miscarriage that left her “physically uncomfortable and cratered any optimism we felt.” The event, she wrote, left them feeling alone, “broken” and “failed,” but they decided to turn to IVF and have Malia, now 20, and later Sasha, 17.

As Vox’s Julia Belluz notes , about 2 percent of all US births involve some kind of assisted reproductive technology, while miscarriages are the most common complication in pregnancy:

People often don’t talk about these experiences, both because they can be physically and emotionally painful and because of the stigma and lack of awareness about how common they are. But Michelle Obama’s revelation may be particularly influential: With her book tour launching next week, she’s poised to help normalize miscarriage and become a powerful voice in a new generation of parents who are opening up about their struggles with infertility.

Trump is not a major focus of the memoir, but Obama makes every word on him count

Obama writes that she’ll “ never forgive ” Trump for putting her family at risk. And she doesn’t mince words when talking about the current president:

And to be clear, we were now up against a bully, a man who among other things demeaned minorities and expressed contempt for prisoners of war, challenging the dignity of our country with practically his every utterance.

Obama on Trump’s efforts trying to doubt the president is a US citizen:

The whole thing was crazy and mean-spirited, of course, its underlying bigotry and xenophobia hardly concealed. But it was also dangerous, deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks. ... Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this, I’d never forgive him.

Finally, on the Trump administration’s impact:

It’s been hard to watch as carefully built, compassionate policies have been rolled back, as we’ve alienated some of our closest allies and left vulnerable members of our society exposed and dehumanized. I sometimes wonder where the bottom might be.

Obama was accused of “talking white” when she was younger, and that prepared her for the challenges that came with Barack’s presidential run

Early in the book, Michelle Obama is not afraid to highlight how she was questioned about her identity as a child, navigating multilayered expectations about gender and race.

One moment came during her childhood in Chicago, when she was sitting with other young girls. “At one point one of the girls, a second, third, or fourth cousin of mine, gave me a sideways look and said, just a touch hotly, ‘How come you talk like a white girl?’

“The question was pointed, meant as an insult or challenge, but it also came from an earnest place. It held a kernel that was confusing for both of us. We seemed to be related but of two different worlds.”

Though Obama never explicitly mentions this in the memoir, she discusses the complexities of code-switching : a term used to describe the ways people of color and those from other marginalized groups often adjust their language, behavior, and even appearance to navigate certain social situations or audiences, as Vox’s P.R. Lockhart writes .

Although President Obama tried to quiet narratives about code-switching, Michelle writes, “America would bring to Barack Obama the same questions my cousin was unconsciously putting to me that day on the stoop: Are you what you appear to be? Do I trust you or not?”

Michelle Obama left her job so her husband could be president. Will Barack now take a step back to let her shine?

Barack and Michelle Obama are a high-profile version of what journalist Hanna Rosin has termed the “seesaw marriage,” in which partners take turns stepping back from their careers to let the other shoot for the stars and have a shot at self-actualization.

Though Michelle Obama stepped away from her career when her husband took office in 2009, Barack Obama made personal sacrifices for the family a lot earlier. When she had doubts about leaving a career in corporate law to pursue an opportunity as assistant to the mayor of Chicago, she says in the memoir that Barack “was the lone voice telling me to just go for it, to erase the worries and go toward whatever I thought would make me happy.”

During his political campaigns, though, the seesaw of their marriage tipped toward him; Obama writes that “it was almost as if every day he were forced to cast another vote, between family and politics, politics and family.”

As Vox’s Anna North writes , seesaw marriages are becoming increasingly more common, and they’re just the model the couple might use to witness Michelle Obama’s breakthrough career comeback:

According to Becoming , both the Obamas have been “in progress” throughout their marriage. They have supported each other’s goals through risks and difficult times, in the interests of living by President Obama’s maxim: “You can do this.” When Barack Obama became president, Michelle’s progress took a turn that she didn’t see coming when she met him at their law firm many years ago. Now it may be his role to support her through turns he can’t anticipate. If he does, the Obamas will continue to do what they’ve long been doing — modeling a marriage that, while not always perfect, allows each partner the freedom to grow and change while remaining committed to the family. “What did Barack and I want?” Obama writes of the time before their marriage. “We wanted a modern partnership that suited us both.”

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Michelle Obama: Even More Inspiring Than We Realised...

To celebrate her 51st birthday, we're reliving her most inspirational quotes to date. What an incredible First Lady and generally fabulous human being...

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1. 'You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world's problems at once but don't ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.'

2. 'One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don't invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.'

3. 'I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. I was surrounded by extraordinary women in my life who taught me about quiet strength and dignity.'

4. 'Women in particular need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health , because if we're scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don't have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own "to do" list.'

5. 'Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values, like you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond, that you do what you say you're going to do. That you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them and even if you don't agree with them.'

6. 'I never cut class. I loved getting As, I liked being smart. I liked being on time. I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world.'

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7. 'Whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude.'

8. 'And in my own life, in my own small way, I've tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That's why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us - no matter what our age or background or walk of life - each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.'

9. 'Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.'

10. 'There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made.'

11. 'I am so tired of fear. And I don't want my girls to live in a country, in a world, based on fear.'

12. 'When I get up and work out, I'm working out just as much for my girls as I am for me, because I want them to see a mother who loves them dearly, who invests in them, but who also invests in herself. It's just as much about letting them know as young women that it is okay to put yourself a little higher on your priority list.'

13. 'We should always have three friends in our lives: one who walks ahead, who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we've cleared the way.'

14. 'Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down. And trust your instincts... Good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don't hurt. They're not painful. That's not just with somebody you want to marry, but it's with the friends that you choose. It's with the people you surround yourselves with.'

15. 'Just do what works for you, because there will always be someone who thinks differently.'

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by Michelle Obama

Becoming Analysis

• M ichelle Obama’s bestselling memoir Becoming offers unique insight into American life and politics and the presidency from the perspective of the United States’s first African American First Lady.
• Michelle allows her readers to connect to her on a personal level: she lived in the White House, but she also faced setbacks in her marriage and attempted to keep her daughters’ lives normal. 
• Narrating the challenges she has navigated, such as her struggle to lower her daughter’s body mass index, Michelle reveals the inspiration behind many of her actions and efforts as First Lady.

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Becoming is Michelle Obama’s critically-acclaimed and best-selling memoir, in which she narrates her “becoming”—her journey from dedicated elementary school student to First Lady of the United States and beyond. As the United States’ first African American First Lady, she offers a unique perspective on the challenges of the American dream and the criticism that comes with the limelight of the White House. 

Despite her guidance counselor’s warnings that she wouldn’t be accepted to Princeton University, Michelle Obama attended Princeton and Harvard Law School. She accepted a high-paying position as a lawyer at Sidley & Austin (where she mentored her future husband, Barack Obama) but left when she found the role unfulfilling. She instead embarked on a journey through many different positions that involved helping her community and culminated in her activist role as First Lady. 

When Barack became president, the Obamas’ lives changed drastically. They lived in the most famous house in the country under heavy security and public scrutiny, but Michelle’s depictions of the presidential campaign and their life afterwards proves them to be unexpectedly human. Barack and Michelle’s relationship is relatable to many: they struggled throughout their marriage with their conflicting personalities, perspectives, schedules, and infertility. At one point, they attended couples therapy; Michelle explained that, like the “Harvard-trained lawyer” that she is, she was constantly gathering “evidence” against Barack—which in turn contributed to her bitterness, especially in the midst of his intense campaign schedules. Barack worked on communication in their marriage, and Michelle realized that she could take charge of her own happiness by establishing a schedule for herself and her daughters that didn’t waver with every change in Barack’s. While living in the White House, they watched college basketball with the butlers, attended their daughters’ school events (though accompanied by a secret service detail), and struggled to potty-train their dog Sunny. In all of this, readers are given an inside glimpse at the lives and personalities of the Obamas and are introduced on a more intimate level to figures they likely know only through the media. 

In addition to this snapshot of life in the White House, Michelle narrates her process of becoming First Lady. The title “First Lady of the United States” comes without a job description: though women in the role today typically choose a cause to promote during their time in office, this expectation was formed by tradition and the examples of First Ladies who came before. Michelle’s selection of childhood nutrition as her focus was inspired by a very personal experience—her struggle to lower her daughter Malia’s body mass index as a child. 

Through her Let’s Move! initiative and various White House programs and events, Michelle strove to open her home to children. She dug into the dirt with them in the White House garden, teaching them about the importance of healthy eating; formed a mentorship program for high school girls on topics such as finance, careers, and self-image; and hoped to make the White House feel like home for them, believing that if they felt comfortable there, they’d feel “confident in any room, sitting at any table, raising their voices inside any group.” Remembering the impact of her parents and other mentors in her own “becoming,” Michelle sought to prepare children for successful and fulfilling lives like her own.

The success of Becoming speaks for itself: it became the bestselling book of 2018, despite its publication in November of that year, and is quickly becoming the best-selling memoir of all time. The memoir will undoubtedly be considered an important historical work for decades to come—not only for its intimate perspectives from the United States’ first African American First Lady but also because it inspires readers to challenge ideas, use their voices, and help their country become the best version of itself.

Cite this page as follows:

Miraflores, Ron Michael. "Becoming - Analysis." eNotes Publishing, edited by eNotes Editorial, eNotes.com, Inc., 11 Sep. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/becoming/analysis#analysis-analysis-838733>

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10 Life Lessons to Learn from Michelle Obama's Memoir 'Becoming'

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Michelle Obama's Emotional Farewell: 'The Power Of Hope' Has 'Allowed Us To Rise'

Scott Horsley

Michelle Obama delivers her final remarks as first lady during a Jan. 6 ceremony at the White House honoring the 2017 School Counselor of the Year. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

Michelle Obama delivers her final remarks as first lady during a Jan. 6 ceremony at the White House honoring the 2017 School Counselor of the Year.

Michelle Obama used her last official White House speech to deliver a passionate pep talk to the nation's young people, especially immigrants, Muslims and others who might feel slighted by the incoming Trump administration.

"Do not ever let anyone make you feel like you don't matter," the first lady said, "or like you don't have a place in our American story, because you do."

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Obama to the american people: 'our best days are still ahead'.

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Obama spoke at a celebration of school counselors from around the country. The annual event is one of a number of steps along with "college signing day" that Obama and her husband have taken to encourage students to pursue higher education.

"Because let's be honest," the first lady said. "If we're always shining the spotlight on professional athletes or recording artists or Hollywood celebrities, if those are the only achievements we celebrate, then why would we ever think kids would see college as a priority?"

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A graduate of Harvard Law School like her husband, Michelle Obama stressed that to preserve and protect their freedoms, young people should get a good education, so they can be active and productive citizens. She added young people should not lose hope, even when they encounter the inevitable obstacles.

"It is our fundamental belief in the power of hope that has allowed us to rise above the voices of doubt and division, of anger and fear that we have faced in our own lives and the life of this country," Obama said. "Our hope that if we work hard enough and believe in ourselves, we can be whatever we dream, regardless of the limitations that others may place on us."

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At times, others have tried to place limits on Michelle Obama herself. In a TV interview with Oprah Winfrey last month, Obama described her surprise at being tagged during her husband's first White House campaign as an "angry black woman."

"Wow, where did that come from?" Obama told Winfrey. "I thought, 'Let me live my life out loud so that people can then see and then judge for themselves.' "

After eight years in the White House, the first lady has won a favorable judgment from most Americans. She enjoys higher favorability ratings than her husband does.

On Friday, she encouraged young people to be focused and determined, not afraid.

"When people see us for who we truly are, maybe, just maybe they, too, will be inspired to rise to their best possible selves," Obama said.

With her voice breaking, Obama recalled how her own father worked hard at a city water plant, hoping that one day his children would go to college and have opportunities he never dreamed of.

"That's the kind of hope that every single one of us — politicians, parents, preachers, all of us — need to be providing for our young people," Obama said. "Because that is what moves this country forward every single day. Our hope for the future and the hard work that hope inspires."

"That's my final message to young people as first lady," she said as the audience in the White House East Room stood and applauded. "Lead by example with hope, never fear. And know that I will be with you, rooting for you and working to support you for the rest of my life."

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Editor's note: How would you rate President Obama's first 100 days? You'll get a chance to make your opinion known at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday on the CNN National Report Card.

The Obamas enjoy their new family dog, Bo, at the White House.

(CNN) -- Heather Ferreira works in the slums of Mumbai, India, where she has watched thousands of women live under a "curse."

The women she meets in the squalid streets where "Slumdog Millionaire" was filmed are often treated with contempt, she says. They're considered ugly if their skin and hair are too dark. They are deemed "cursed" if they only have daughters. Many would-be mothers even abort their children if they learn they're female.

Yet lately she says Indian women are getting another message from the emergence of another woman thousands of miles away. This woman has dark skin and hair. She walks next to her husband in public, not behind. And she has two daughters. But no one calls her cursed. They call her Michelle Obama, the first lady.

"She could be a new face for India," says Ferreira, program officer for an HIV-prevention program run by World Vision, an international humanitarian group. "She shows women that it's OK to have dark skin and to not have a son. She's quite real to us."

"She might be the first woman of color that females in male-dominated countries have seen as confident, bright, educated, articulate and persuasive," says Barbara Perry, author of "Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier."

A symbol for women around the globe

The notion of a woman being a first in anything is alien in many parts of the world. Millions of women struggle against sexual violence, discrimination and poverty, several women activists say.

But Michelle Obama offers a personal rebuke to that message. Her personal story -- born into a blue-collar family; overcoming racism and once even making more money than her husband -- makes her a mesmerizing figure to women across the globe, says Susan M. Reverby, a professor of women's studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

"This is someone who appeals across the usual divides," Reverby says. "She is a celebrity you can imagine being, not a celebrity you have to watch from afar."

A hint of Michelle Obama's global appeal came recently when she spoke at an all-girls school in London, England. The students came from various backgrounds: Muslim, Christian, black and white. Yet they all surged forward, shrieking and even crying, as they hugged the first lady.

Thu Nguyen, a native of Vietnam, wasn't at the London school, but she experienced a similar sense of elation when Obama became first lady.

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In her native country, she says women "are not human beings." But when Obama became the first lady, Nguyen called her niece and told her that any hard-working woman could become the first.

Vietnamese women can identify with Michelle Obama, Nguyen says.

"We have a yellow color because we're Asian, so we felt a bond with [Michelle] Obama when she became the first black first lady," says Nguyen, who works at a nail salon in South Pasadena, California.

Some women's identification with the first lady, however, goes deeper than skin color.

Sue Mbaya of Nairobi, Kenya, says the first lady inspires African woman to assert themselves in their personal and professional lives.

Many African women are conditioned to be subservient, she says. They're prevented from rising to management positions in the workplace, and their families often relegate them to taking care of household tasks while sending their brothers off to school.

But Obama is a high achiever who didn't intimidate her husband, says Mbaya, a native of Zimbabwe who is the advocacy director for World Vision's Africa's region.

"I've always liked knowing that she was Barack Obama's supervisor when they first met," Mbaya says. "He once said that he wouldn't be where he is without his wife. That really appeals to me."

Women in the West also find inspiration in Obama.

Christine Louise Hohlbaum, who lives near Munich, Germany, says the first lady impresses German women because she is a powerful public figure who doesn't seem threatening. German history is marked by charismatic leaders who wielded personal power for malevolent ends, she says.

"She's the perfect blend of power and civility. That's important in German culture," says Hohlbaum, author of "The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save Time in Our 24/7 World."

How does Michelle Obama define herself?

While other women have defined Obama's appeal, the first lady is refining her role.

She has talked publicly about the pressures military families face. She has encouraged healthy eating by planting a White House garden. She's opened the White House to ordinary people and children. Service to community and family seems to be her theme.

She recently drew the most attention for what she did, not said, during a visit to London. She briefly embraced Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, breaking royal protocol. The Queen, however, according to press accounts, responded warmly to the first lady's embrace.

Obama has often been compared to another regal woman: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. But Autumn Stephens, author of "Feisty First Ladies," says that Obama reminds her more of former first lady Hillary Clinton.

"But Hillary really downplayed the mom part, whereas Michelle has really played it up," Stephens says. "She is straddling both worlds."

In a poll of first ladies, certain women are invariably cited by historians as the most noteworthy: Abigail Adams, Lady Bird Johnson and Eleanor Roosevelt, who is widely considered to be the most influential first lady, Stephens says.

Where would Stephens rank Michelle Obama?

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Michelle Obama inspires women with moving message of self doubt at Get Her There event

The former first lady embarked on an effort to bring better education to young girls.

Michelle Obama has been an inspiration to millions, particularly girls and women, since her days as First Lady of the United States and beyond, and now she is furthering her impact on young girls around the world.

MORE:   Michelle Obama's surprisingly honest revelation about daughters Malia and Sasha's home lives

The best-selling author has collaborated with none other than Amal Clooney and Melinda French Gates to launch a new campaign, through the Obama Foundation's Girls Opportunity Alliance, named Get Her There , "a global call to action to educate and empower adolescent girls around the world to reach their full potential."

The three women hosted an event in New York City, which HELLO! attended, where Michelle advocated for better access to education for young women , and opened up about growing up in the South Side of Chicago, as well as how she overcomes feelings of self-doubt.

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"I find myself as one of the lucky ones," she said when speaking about young women's access to education. She explained: "I came from a community and a family where we didn't have much, but my dad always had a steady job in the city, we had a roof over our heads, we had food to eat… I have two parents, a mother and a father who believed in my possibility, who saw me, who fueled my flame, constantly."

Michelle Obama hosted her Get Her There event in NYC on Tuesday 

However, she knows it isn't the same for everyone. In fact, the women made a point to acknowledge that there are over 100,000 million girls without access to the education they deserve , an issue they are determined to improve through the newly-launched campaign.

"Education made the difference in my life… Education has opened my life and my possibilities, and has given me the tools," she said.

Michelle was joined by famous faces including Amal Clooney and Melinda French Gates 

Michelle also spoke about how she tries to open herself up to these young girls and inspire them , telling the audience: "I don't want them to know Michelle Obama, former First Lady, I want them to know Michelle Obama the girl from the South Side of Chicago. I want to break down that wall of impossibility, to let them know that I have been there, and yes, every other moment I feel self doubt."

MORE:  Michelle Obama details why her daughters Malia and Sasha's health was affected when they first lived in the White House

MORE:  Barack Obama gets emotional as he shares story about raising Black daughters

She said: "The one thing I want young girls to understand is that those feelings are real, they are not crazy , they are indoctrinated in us all and we carry them around with us our entire lives."

Michelle wants to inspire girls 

The mom-of-two added: "Society intentionally does that to women and girls, it starts at a very early age. We question our value, our worth, we question how we look, how we talk, where we're from."

"How I combat it is pushing through and living life, one day at a time," she said, adding that: "In order to break these cycles of negativity, you gotta get up everyday and do the work right before you."

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Beyonce on Michelle Obama: She ‘Inspires All of Us to Do Better and to Be Better’

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Beyoncé praised the grace, brilliance and hard work of Michelle Obama , saying the former First Lady “inspires all of us to do better and to be better” in a short essay for Time ‘s annual “100 Most Influential People” issue.

At the start of the essay, Beyoncé recalled meeting Obama on the eve of Barack Obama’s first inauguration, remembering how she was “embraced by a warm, regal, confident woman who possessed a reassuring calm.”

“Loving Michelle Obama wasn’t much of a choice,” Beyoncé said. “It was something that came naturally, because of how she carried herself. Because she resembled us and was moving in spaces where, as black Americans, we weren’t exactly meant to be, she seemed so powerful.”

For Beyoncé, Obama projected a potent kind of familiarity — “The way she looked, walked and spoke, in that warm but authoritative tone, we saw our mothers and sisters” — while the pop star also noted her ability to be strong, ambitious and forthright “without sacrificing honesty or empathy.” Citing Obama’s Reach Higher initiative, which promotes continuing education past high school, Beyoncé said, “She empowers all of us to interrogate our fears and surpass greatness.”

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“I’m honored to know such a brilliant black woman who’s spoken about the sacrifice it takes to balance her passions while remaining a supportive partner and mother, and now a best-selling author with Becoming ,” Beyoncé continued. “She has continued to open herself up, even if it meant being criticized. She has continued to be a portrait of grace.”

Beyoncé and her husband, Jay-Z, have been longtime supporters of the Obamas, especially during President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign (Beyoncé even sang the National Anthem at his second inauguration). The Obamas, in turn, have been vocal fans of the two musicians, placing their songs on various public playlists . Last July, Michelle Obama was even spotted dancing with Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles Lawson, at a Beyoncé and Jay-Z show in Paris, France.

Along with publishing her essay on Obama today, Beyoncé also released a new live album,  Homecoming , to coincide with her new Netflix concert film.

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What Beyoncé’s Snub at the CMAs Says About Country Music’s Dangerous Hierarchy

I f country music is one big happy family, Black women are its bastard daughters. The illegitimate children that will never be recognized. Despite being born of its flesh, carrying the songs and traditions of the nation’s past in its blood, Black women in country have been denied legitimacy by the industry they’re so firmly a part of. Perhaps it’s because there’s a fear that, if the country music industry did truly recognize Black women as the genre’s heirs—to write them down as the rightful descendants of a great American dynasty—it (and everything it stands for) would likely cease to exist.

This fear has been put on full display, as the Country Music Award (CMA) nominations were announced on September 8, and Beyoncè did not receive a CMA nomination for Cowboy Carter . The message is clear: If country music is the music of America, then everyone who is not straight, male, and white isn’t legitimate.

The album’s success tells a different story, of course. Since its release, Cowboy Carter has dominated music, fashion, and politics. Beyoncé made history as the first Black woman to top Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Chart. She is also the first Black woman “ to have led Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart list.” Black women in country music, such as Mickey Guyton , received an increase in streams because of the album. Searches for “women’s cowboy boots” and Western-wear inspired clothing spiked around the time of the album’s release. Former First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris congratulated Beyoncé via social media about the album’s messaging.

It felt like a homecoming; for Beyoncé’s quest for legitimacy in country music has long been documented. In fact, the birthplace of Cowboy Carter is speculated to have been at the CMAs in 2016, where Beyoncé alluded to her mistreatment at the awards ceremony during her performance of “Daddy Lessons” with The Chicks. A CMA nomination, therefore, could’ve signified a shift in country music’s family dynamics that has historically tormented the industry.

Read More: Beyoncé Has Always Been Country

Country music operates on a hierarchy composed of race, gender, and class. And the problem is only made worse when—in the face of backlash or critique—country artists, executives, and insiders say the genre is one, big, happy family . A close knit community who protects and cherishes one another. An example of traditional American values.

It’s the same big happy family who cuddled up to Ronald Reagan when he described country music as “one of only a very few forms that we can claim as purely American.” Reagan, in turn,  welcomed the genre’s biggest stars to the White House in 1983, to appeal to a burgeoning section of America, who felt defeated by the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. 

But is it one big happy family and “purely American” if the genre’s top earners and gate keepers are predominantly white and male? When, like Reaganomics, the power in country music continues to trickle down? Similarly to the result of those economic policies, inequality within country music has increased, and those with limited access to power and capital in the industry feel the brunt of it. The social contract of the country music industry is rooted in the maintenance of de-facto segregation, a new age “separate but equal.” It enjoys Black sound on white performers, but does not give Black country musicians the support and resources needed to have a sustainable career, without adhering to the contract. Jim Crow never left America; he just went country.

So, what are Black women in country music supposed to do? Who will advocate for Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts—the Black women featured on “Blackbiird,” Beyoncé’s cover of Paul McCartney’s ode to the Little Rock Nine? Will change yet again be brought by the countless Black women in the country music industry, who have expressed their disappointments of the industry’s inability to change, before, during, and after the release of Cowboy Carter ?

Their disappointment is just and rightful. Because what type of man looks his daughter in the eyes, only to deny her birthright. 

In spite of this, there is time for celebration and joy. The War and Treaty, a husband and wife duo, received a nomination for Vocal Duo of The Year at the CMA Awards. We are also less than one month away from GRAMMY Awards Nominations. Cowboy Carter may have its day in the sun there.

Even still, it’s interesting—if a little bittersweet— to imagine what a Cowboy Carter CMA nomination would’ve looked like for Beyoncé and country music as a whole. In that reality, would Beyoncé have succeeded in her quest of legitimacy?  Would a nomination have granted  her a seat at the table? With that seat, would she have saved an extra for the Black women after her— and so on and so on? For Tanner Adell, for Brittney Spencer, for Tiera Kennedy and for Reyna Roberts. For the legacy of Linda Martell. Maybe.

But maybe it also doesn’t matter anymore. Because whether country music grants them legitimacy or not, Black women will continue on without it. Because it is the job of the children to liberate themselves from their parents’ identity, in favor of crafting their own. 

Black women do not need to seek validation from the institutions that dehumanize them. But instead, grant themselves legitimacy on the basis of their humanity.

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