First lady recalls her ‘doubters’
At Austin’s SXSW conference, Obama focuses on empowering girls, rules out presidential run
AUSTIN — First lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday recalled her childhood fight against “doubters” who thought she could not succeed, pressing the case for empowering girls through education during an event at the South by Southwest conference.
She drew disappointed groans from the crowd when she said, in response to a question, that she would not cap her achievements with a run for president. But she expanded her answer to fit her message that everyone can work for good from the place they find themselves.
“You don’t have to be president of the United States to do wonderful, marvelous things,” she said, adding, “I don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.
“We’re not through yet,” she said. “There’s a lifetime after the White House.”
In keeping with the conference’s music focus, she vocalized her good-bye to the Obamas’ time there, singing the line, “It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday,” from the Boyz II Men hit song.
Her appearance at the conference was in the form of an onstage dialogue with luminaries in the entertainment world: rapper Missy Elliott, songwriter Diane Warren and activist-actor Sophia Bush, with Queen Latifah as moderator.
Obama highlighted her husband’s administration’s Let Girls Learn initiative, which is aimed at addressing the challenges that keep 62 million girls worldwide from getting an education.
The issue has been a priority for the first lady, spurred when Boko Haram, the Islamic extremist group, kidnapped 200 Nigerian schoolgirls in 2014.
She is re-launching the #62milliongirls hashtag that she introduced in September to call attention to the issue.
There is a website, 62milliongirls.com, where people can pledge to take action to promote girls’ education through activities like fundraising events, work on campuses or support for Girl Scouts pursuing a global-action badge.
The first lady also is promoting a new song written by Warren to benefit the Let Girls Learn initiative.
People can download “This Is for My Girls” from iTunes, with proceeds going to the effort.
Asked about a pivotal moment in her life, Obama talked about pushing through childhood circumstances that did not necessarily point to success.
“For me, when I was younger, it was always the doubters,” she
“Growing up as a black girl on the south side of Chicago, where the expectations of me were limited … there were always people around telling me what I couldn’t do. My reaction to that, at that time, was to prove the doubters wrong.”
First lady Michelle Obama
said. “I don’t know about young people here, but growing up as a black girl on the south side of Chicago, where the expectations of me were limited as I was trying to make my way and do good in school, and apply to good colleges, there were always people around telling me what I couldn’t do.
“My reaction to that, at that time, was to prove the doubters wrong.”
She was a lawyer, city administrator and community-outreach worker before accompanying Barack Obama to the White House, but she said not every young person reacts the same way to the type of “negative energy” she encountered as a girl. That prompted her work to help them get past challenges the way she did.
Asked about her mu- sical influences, Obama cited Stevie Wonder, again turning the answer to fit her theme.
“My very first album of my whole life was ‘Talking Book,’” a birthday gift from her grandfather, she said.
“He talked about unity. He talked about love and peace, and all of his songs were empowering. They were impactful,” she said. “They were ones that would push you to look at change, to look at how you could affect the world.”
Michelle and Barack Obama — he spoke here last week — are the first sitting president and first lady to take part in the series of SXSW conferences and festivals that began three decades ago and draw people from around the world.