photo: @MichelleObama
It’s time to accept that soon, our favorite first lady will no longer be inhabiting the White House, she has taught us so much, she stepped into the role and made ‘first lady’ mean something totally different from what it used to. No more tea dates and choosing china, she’s busy doing carpool karaoke, push-ups, and tackling society’s biggest issues.
We are really going to miss her, but we’re sure she’ll be around and still campaigning to make things better! With that in mind, some influential people recently wrote letters of appreciation to Michelle in T Magazine.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda remembers Michelle’s first speech in her beautiful essay, eventually describing her as a person “many degrees of cool.”
“She had the air of a woman who could balance a checkbook, and who knew a good deal when she saw it, and who would tell off whomever needed telling off. She was tall and sure and stylish. She was reluctant to be first lady, and did not hide her reluctance beneath platitudes. She seemed not so much unique as true. She sharpened her husband’s then-hazy form, made him solid, more than just a dream.”
Gloria Steinem
Gloria remembers Michelle as being strong and elegant at the same time, most of these women recognize her as truly unique. A woman who shows us that we shouldn’t be afraid to have it all, or be it all. She ends with the ultimate compliment, explaining how Michelle and Obama are the most balanced couple she has seen in the White House, and how she may have changed history.
“Though I’m old enough to remember Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House – and all the couples and families since – I have never seen such balance and equal parenting, such love, respect, mutuality and pleasure in each other’s company. We will never have a democracy until we have democratic families and a society without the invented categories of both race and gender. Michelle Obama may have changed history in the most powerful way – by example.”
Rashida Jones
Rashida’s essay details what Michelle taught her and her friends about what it is to be a woman. How many women struggle with wanting it all, wanting to be vulnerable yet strong, sexy and beautiful, powerful and sometimes needing care. But Michelle epitomizes femininity because she embraces who she is.
“Michelle Obama embodies the modern, American woman, and I don’t mean that in any platitudinous or vague way. Rarely can someone express their many identities at the same time while seeming authentic. My female friends and I often talk about feeling like we’re ‘too much.’ We’re complicated; we want to be so many things. I want to be a boss and also be vulnerable. I want to be outspoken and respected, but also sexy and beautiful.”
Read more of these beautiful notes at T Magazine.
Were you inspired by Michelle’s time as first lady? Are you sad to see her go or ready to welcome someone else into the White House?
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