Interview with the First Lady

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I loved that you said, poke them ...
Right, right, that's right, because you know how people feel. I know how I would feel if I were invited by the First Lady for dinner. I'd be a little intimidated. So I tried to encourage people.

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That's why I'm so touchy with kids, because I think if I touch them and I hug them, that they'll see that it's real, and then they'll relax and breathe and actually kind of enjoy the time and make use of it.

But it was one of the most powerful events for me, because, again, I see myself in those girls, and the fact that we cut across socio-economic backgrounds, that we invited girls from public schools, from parochial schools, kids from private schools, and that they're all sitting around the table as equals in this place, where they all felt some level of intimidation, right, so the playing field was relatively equal, it was a beautiful night.

But when you were growing up — you've talked so much about your parents' influence and your teachers, but in public life, who was Michelle Obama's "Michelle Obama"? Was there anyone?
You know, I had a hard time connecting to people that I didn't know as a young kid. I mean, the people who really moved me were the people that I knew in my life: my mother, the teachers that I had.

I mean, I have real strong memories of great teachers that I had in grammar school, the teachers who told me that I was smart, who pushed me to skip a grade, who challenged me with tough projects. Those are really the people, those are the stories that really guide me. Those are the folks that I'm trying to make proud.

The other folks are cool, but in terms of just the honest answer of who has moved me, it's sort of — it's the real-life people that I've had contact with.

But with that said, there are people like Dorothy Height. I mean, every time I see this woman — 93, 97, I don't know how old she is, but she's over 90 — and she is just as engaged substantively in the work of changing the lives of people as she was when she worked in the civil rights movement. She is in her wheelchair, scooted up to the table, coherently, clearly, concisely articulating the values of today in the same way she did 40, 50 years ago. I hope that I'm that cogent at her age and able to travel around the country and around the city sitting and chairing board meetings and being a presence in the way that she is.

So there are people like her, of course — and I've gotten to know her now over the years. So there are those grande dames, those amazing women who obviously stand out. But in terms of whose stories stay in my head, it's my mother's, my aunts', my neighbors', my teachers' from growing up on the South Side of Chicago.

But those girls in the room with you that night — you know, a half hour in the room with you as First Lady — that potentially changes everything.
I can only hope, right? You know, that's what I hope. That's what we all hope. But, you know, just to back it up, the goal is to keep being there, just keep doing that again and again and again so that it's not just one time. I don't want it to be just one time for this small group of kids. If I could divide myself up and do that again and again and again so that kids get the reassurance that you're not only important once but you're important over a span of time. So, you know, I hope that it's working out that way.

I have another question, but I wonder if what you — if you see what you're doing as something new. I mean, a new kind of role model here. I mean, if it ... you said that when you were younger, there weren't ... I'm trying to think of who would have been playing the role you're playing now when you were a child. Were there people? Did you imagine in public life there were people like you then? Or do you see what you're doing now as sort of a new thing?
No, I don't. I don't think it's new. I mean, my mother said this in an interview and I completely agree with her, and it's something that, you know, I want young people to remember, is that, my mom said in this Essence article, Michelle and Barack aren't new; there are thousands of Michelle and Barack Obamas all over this nation. And that is true. I know them, I've gone to school with them, I live with them.

So the truth is, is that there are thousands of role models like me. I just happen to be the First Lady. So that's why I feel like I have a responsibility because people see me, but every single day there are people doing what I'm doing. When I visit a health-care organization or a youth center or a service project, those heroes are working. They're serving on their boards. They're packing the boxes. They're teaching in the schools. And again, those are the people who have the real opportunity to impact because they'll be with those kids each and every day.

So the kids that I visited at Ferebee-Hope School yesterday — they're going to remember that the First Lady came to see them, and they're going to think about that. But over the course of their elementary school experience, it's going to be that third-grade teacher and how she dealt with them over the course of that year and, you know, the hugs that she gave and the attention and the intervention. That's what's, from my experience, that's what they'll remember. That's what they'll live with — those experiences, good and bad.

So I — it's just reminding us as a nation that you don't have to be the First Lady, you don't have to have the title to do the work and ... because it's happening all over the place.

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