Michelle Obama has been fortunate enough to be educated at Princeton University and Harvard Law School. But the author, and former First Lady of the United States while her husband Barack served as President from 2009 to 2017, knows that not all women have the same privilege.
Michelle is passionate about giving girls access to education and it's a cause she has continued to champion post-White House. She co-founded the non-profit organisation, the Obama Foundation, alongside her husband in 2014, and one of its programmes is specifically focused on female education.
Today, more than 98 million adolescent girls around the world are not in school. Cue: the Girls Opportunity Alliance.
The programme makes sure that grassroots leaders around the world have all the tools and financial support they need to help educate adolescent girls. It also encourages young people in the US and around the world to learn about the issue and get involved, whether that's doing a presentation at school to raise awareness to collaborating with girl group organisations.
In a similar vein, during her time as First Lady, Michelle set up the Let Girls Learn initiative in 2015 alongside Malala Yousafzai, a programme dedicated to sending more girls to school.
Five years prior, the author also launched Let's Move!, whose ambitious goal was to eradicate childhood obesity within a generation. The programme encouraged kids to be more physically active, schools to provide healthier meals and for companies to market healthier food.
Reflecting on Michelle's role as former First Lady, author Dr Marcia Sirota wrote on her blog: "It's obvious that Michelle Obama is a genuinely kind, caring person whose loving-kindness overflows from her very full heart.
"We've all been extremely lucky to have such an uplifting, inspiring and wonderfully kind First Lady of the United States. She's a role model, an advocate, an educator and an inspiration to everyone around the world."
Like this story? Sign up to our newsletter to get other stories like this delivered straight to your inbox.
