Q & A
With Author
& Former First Lady, Michelle Obama
Q. What was unexpected about the
writing process?
A. The process turned out to be really
meaningful for me. I spent a lot of time
just reflecting and thinking, which is
something I just didn’t have much time to
do for about a decade. Once Barack began
his campaign for president, every day felt
like a sprint. So it was nice to decompress
a little bit and ask myself, “How did I get
here? Where did my story take a turn?” I
uncovered a lot of smaller moments—
moments that folks might not know about,
but that I realised were really foundational
to the woman I became.
Q. What did you hope to accomplish in writing your memoir?
A. My main hope was to create something that could be useful to other people, to give them
something they could use in their own lives. So I focused on telling my story as honestly as I could.
I’m not settling scores or giving a political play-by-play. I hoped to bring people inside the
experience of growing up a working-class black girl on the South Side of Chicago who became
First Lady of the United States. It’s all of me, all right there on those pages, which means I feel a
little vulnerable knowing what I’m putting out there. But I hope if I can share my story, with all its
ups and downs, then other people might have the courage to share theirs, too.