{"id":5998,"date":"2026-04-17T00:36:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyreaders.store\/?p=5998"},"modified":"2026-04-17T00:36:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:36:44","slug":"michelle-obama-reveals-how-her-looks-were-criticised-during-time-as-first-lady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyreaders.store\/?p=5998","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Obama reveals how her looks were criticised during time as First Lady"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The former First Lady appeared on Call Her Daddy, hosted by Alex Cooper, on January 21, where she spoke openly about the intense scrutiny she faced over her appearance while living in the White House.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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Michelle Obama, now 62, served as First Lady from 2009 to 2017 alongside her husband, Barack Obama. Over the years, she has been widely praised as one of the most admired First Ladies in U.S. history and made history as the first African-American woman to hold the role.<\/p>\n

During her time in the White House, Michelle led several major initiatives, especially in health and nutrition. These included the Let\u2019s Move campaign to address childhood obesity and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which aimed to improve the quality of school meals nationwide.Despite these achievements, Michelle has since spoken frankly about the challenges she endured behind the scenes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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She has previously explained that public attention often focused on trivial matters\u2014such as her clothing choices or even her arms\u2014rather than the substance of her work and policies.<\/p>\n

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On the podcast, Michelle expanded on the harsh and often cruel criticism she experienced. Alex Cooper referenced a comment Michelle had made on her own IMO podcast in November 2025: \u201cYou said, \u2018It is the habit of the culture of the world to put women in their place by attacking their physical being.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Michelle responded by explaining how media coverage prioritized her looks over her qualifications:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe top of the article would be she was wearing, not my education, not my professional career, but it started with appearance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was clear that, oh, my God, you don\u2019t know anything about what I did before I came here.\u201d<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Her frustration is understandable given her extensive academic and professional background. Michelle earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and later graduated from Harvard Law School.<\/p>\n

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Reflecting on this, she added: \u201cI mean, I practised law,\u201d before listing her past roles: \u201cI was an assistant to the mayor in Chicago. I ran a nonprofit. That quickly. My shoes become the most important thing about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Michelle emphasized the importance of awareness and responsibility, particularly for women in leadership: \u201cWe have to think a lot more, to strike that balance and to be thoughtful about what messages we\u2019re sending, giving, receiving.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get the power, when you\u2019re the boss, when you\u2019re running your own thing, let\u2019s just not become female versions of the thing that was broken. Are you building the world that you told your little girl existed?\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex then quoted another past remark from Michelle regarding speculation about her running for president. The host recalled: \u201cYou said, \u2018Don\u2019t even look at me about running because you all are lying. You\u2019re not ready for a woman, you\u2019re not.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Michelle stood firmly by that statement, responding: \u201cThere are men out there that were not gonna vote for a woman. Let\u2019s just be real about it, and let\u2019s put that on the table and talk about, well, what\u2019s that about? Let\u2019s not be mad because I made the statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the conversation, Michelle addressed young women directly, encouraging them to persevere despite setbacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need you and know that you may come up short, but keep going,\u201d she said, urging them to continue striving and pushing forward.<\/p>\n

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The former First Lady appeared on Call Her Daddy, hosted by Alex Cooper, on January 21, where she spoke openly about the intense scrutiny she faced over her appearance while … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-blog"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyreaders.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyreaders.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyreaders.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyreaders.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyreaders.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyreaders.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6000,"href":"https:\/\/dailyreaders.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5998\/revisions\/6000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyreaders.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyreaders.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyreaders.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyreaders.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}