Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was born on January 17, 1964, at Provident Hospital of Cook County in Chicago, Illinois,[3] to Fraser Robinson III,[4] a city water plant employee and Marian Shields Robinson.[5] Her mother was a full-time homemaker until Robinson entered high school.[6]
While at Princeton, Robinson became involved with the Third World Center, an academic and cultural group who supported minority students. She ran their daycare center, which also offered after school tutoring for older children.[15]
Robinson pursued professional study, earning her Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1988.[18] At Harvard, Robinson participated in demonstrations advocating the hiring of professors who were members of minority groups.[19] She worked for the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, assisting low-income tenants with housing cases.[20]
Post-law school career
Following law school, Obama became an associate at the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley & Austin, where she worked on marketing and property law.[21]
In 1993, she became executive director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organization encouraging young people to work on social issues in nonprofit groups and government agencies.[22]
In 1996, Obama served as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago.[23] In 2002, she began working for the University of Chicago Hospitals, first as executive director for community affairs and, beginning May 2005, as vice president for Community and External Affairs.[24]
Marriage and family
Robinson met Barack Obama when they were among the few African Americans at their law firm, Sidley Austin LLP.[25] Their relationship started with a business lunch and then a community organization meeting.[26] They got married on October 3, 1992.[26] Their first daughter, Malia Ann was born in July 1998 and their second daughter, Sasha was born June 2001.[27]
First lady of the United States
Obama alongside her husband as he takes the presidential oath of office.
Obama's initiatives as first lady were: Let's Move!, Reach Higher,[30]Let Girls Learn,[31] and Joining Forces.[32] Some initiatives included advocating for military families.[33][34] She made supporting military families and spouses a personal mission and increasingly bonded with military families.[34] In January 2010, Obama started an initiative, which she named "Let's Move!", to make progress in reversing the 21st-century trend of childhood obesity.[35][36] On February 9, 2010, President Barack Obama created the Task Force on Childhood Obesity to review all current programs and create a national plan for change.[37]
Fashion influence
In 2010, she wore clothes, many high end, from more than fifty designer companies.[38] She wore sleeveless dresses by Michael Kors, and her ball gowns designed by Jason Wu for both inaugurals.[39] She has also been known for wearing clothes by African designers such as Mimi Plange, Duro Olowu, Maki Oh, and Osei Duro.[40][41] Obama appeared on the cover in the March 2009 issue of Vogue.[42][43] She later appeared two more times on the cover of Vogue, while first lady, the last time in December 2016, with photographs by Annie Leibovitz.[44] In August 2011, she became the first woman ever to appear on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.[45]
In July 2020, she premiered a podcast titled The Michelle Obama Podcast.[52][53] In February 2021, Obama was announced as an executive producer and presenter on a children's cooking show, Waffles + Mochi.[54] It was released by Netflix on March 16, 2021.[55][56]
Time magazine features an annual "Person of the Year" cover story in which Time recognizes the individual or group of individuals who have had the biggest impact on news headlines over the previous twelve months. In 2020, the magazine decided to retroactively choose a historically deserving woman for each year in which a man had been named Person of the Year, reflecting the fact that a woman or women had been named Person of the Year only eleven times in the preceding hundred. As part of this review, Michelle Obama was named the Woman of the Year for 2008.[62]
