Listen up teen girls — actually, listen up all girls of any age.
On Sept. 29, lucky students had the opportunity to listen to Michelle Obama talk about education at Glamour’s “The Power of an Educated Girl” panel in New York City, and she certainly didn’t disappoint.
During her brief speech, Obama stressed the importance of education as well as raised awareness for her #62MillionGirls campaign, which is part of the White House’s Let Girls Learn initiative, shedding light on the 62 million girls worldwide without access to proper education.
She even dropped a little knowledge on how girls should approach young men who find their intelligence unattractive, by encouraging the audience to remove those kinds of people from their lives “whether that’s your boo or your best friend.”
She continued, “There is no boy at this age that is cute enough or interesting enough to stop you from getting your education. If I had worried about who liked me and who thought I was cute when I was your age, I wouldn’t be married to the president of the United States today.”
She also explained her personal motivation for her education campaign: “When I think about those 62 million girls that aren’t in school, I think about myself. I think about my daughters,” she said. “Because quite frankly all these girls, these are our girls, and I think about where I would be in my life if I didn’t work hard in school and had the opportunity to go to college and then on to law school. I wouldn’t be here.”
FLOTUS continued by stressing that her mission is to make education accessible to every girl, that young girls around the world would have the same educational opportunities she [had] and her daughters currently have. “I want you to be that hungry to get your education because it is going to be the key to your future.” she said.
Not to our surprise, Obama’s “drop the mic” moment was well-received. And while we would have liked to hear her take it a step further, she even got a high five from fellow panelist Charlize Theron. Take heed, ladies. This is a message every woman could benefit from, old and young.
