Michelle Obama to young readers: ‘The process of becoming isn’t finite’
'It is okay not to know who you are,' she said, addressing America's young, 'or exactly what you want to be or do right now.'
America’s “Forever First Lady” Michelle Obama announced the release of a young readers’ edition and a paperback edition of her best-selling memoir, Becoming, on social media Tuesday.
In her video, Obama expressed her hopes that when reading her book, young women realize that the process of “becoming” isn’t finite.
“It is okay not to know who you are,” she said, “or exactly what you want to be or do right now.”
Obama said that young female fans often tell her they “feel like somehow they should know the answers to all of these fundamental questions.”
“You might feel like once you’re grown that you’re supposed to have all the answers,” she said, “and that there’s a point in your life where you will feel settled, and everything will feel certain, and all of those anxieties will just fade away.”
However, she said with a laugh, she and many women “chuckle” at the idea that there’s one day in adult life when everything is figured out.
The 57-year-old mom made clear “the process of becoming yourself doesn’t work that way. Because, as I’ve always said, the process of becoming isn’t finite.”
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In her caption, Obama wrote she was “so grateful to have this opportunity to widen our community, and I’m especially excited for young people to read along as they begin their journeys of becoming.”
In the clip — in which she’s impeccably dressed in a flowery blouse reminiscent of the shade of maroon she wore that turned heads at January’s inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — Obama said her “promise to you is to give you my story in all its messy glory.”
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The young readers’ edition of Becoming features a special introduction just for kids written by the former White House resident, as well as more full-color inserts. In the paperback edition, Obama shares a letter she once wrote to her younger self.
She encouraged her readers to use her book to think about their own stories and life journeys, which she called the “most beautiful gift you’ll ever have.”
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