Copyright Parade
Michelle Obama first entered the national spotlight when her husband, Barack Obama, ran for president during the 2008 election. Nearly a decade after Barack finished his final term in office, Michelle is getting real about the “freeing” part of aging. While speaking to People in an interview published on Tuesday, October 28, Michelle, 61, discussed how she feels about aging both physically and mentally. “I’m not wincing at my gray hairs, but I am coloring them! My mother [Marian Robinson] was the same way. She dyed her hair until the day she died,” she said. “I don’t really do much else. Fortunately, black don’t crack.” While she doesn’t do much to change her appearance, Michelle noted that “health has always been paramount” for her when it comes to “what I eat, working out, regular doctors’ visits, all the things that allow me to enjoy this time.” “I’m as vibrant as I’ve ever been. My kids are grown and launched, they are healthy and happy. My husband is doing just fine,” she continued. “We are the former president and first lady, and so I feel like this is the first time in my life that when I say and do something, here in this interview, writing this book, these are my choices. That is freeing.” Michelle, who is set to publish her latest book, The Look, on November 4, also opened up about the “freedom” of embracing her style after leaving the White House. One look she’s adopted in recent years is braided hair. “Braids allow me to get them done, and then that’s one less thing that I have to think about. When I’m out of the public eye, I am swimming, I am playing tennis and braids represent that kind of freedom for me,” she said. “[In the White House] I wasn’t sure whether the country was ready for it. The Crown Act [which protects employees and students from race-based hair discrimination] hadn’t been passed yet, and just like fashion, I didn’t want my hair to become a distraction.” Parade Daily🎬 SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 She then reflected on her decision to wear braids to her and Barack’s portrait unveiling in 2022, saying that she “understood the significance” of the moment. “I wanted to send a message, add to the discourse of Black women in places of power, saying, ‘This, too, is an appropriate and beautiful way to wear your hair,'” Michelle explained. Looking back at her style while the first lady, Michelle said she “just understood the assignment” of how she was supposed to dress. “It was a complicated assignment. The role of first lady is a kind of job, non-job. You know that you’re supposed to be inspirational, yet accessible. You should be uniquely yourself, authentic, but representational at the same time,” she said. “And as a Black woman, I felt that I had to make sure that people could see my feminine side. Especially early on in the campaign, when I was being attacked as being angry, a shrew, demeaning my husband — all these labels were coming in on me that were essentially trying to rob me of that femininity.” Michelle admitted it wasn’t a “struggle” to dress the part because she “respected the position.” She continued, “I took the role as first lady very seriously. I was a famous person, but I wasn’t a starlet. And so that meant that the clothes could never speak louder than anything I had to say.”
