Michelle Obama's 63rd Birthday Countdown

Michelle Obama Timeline

About Michelle Obama

A Princeton- and Harvard Law-educated attorney from Chicago's South Side, Michelle Obama served as First Lady from 2009 to 2017, championed the Let's Move! initiative, and wrote Becoming, one of the best-selling memoirs ever published.

The mentor from the South Side

Michelle Robinson grew up in a small apartment on Chicago's South Side, followed her brother Craig to Princeton, and earned her law degree at Harvard. Back home at the firm Sidley Austin in 1989, the young attorney was assigned to mentor a summer associate named Barack Obama. She initially resisted dating her advisee; they married in 1992, and she went on to a career in city government, community outreach and hospital administration before the White House.

A memoir the whole world read

As First Lady from 2009 to 2017, she planted the White House Kitchen Garden and launched Let's Move! in 2010 to tackle childhood obesity. Then came Becoming: published November 13, 2018, it sold more than 2 million copies in its first 15 days, was the best-selling book published in the U.S. that year, and has sold roughly 17 million copies worldwide. Her narration of the audiobook won the 2020 Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album.

Getting girls there, 4,000 partners at a time

Through the Obama Foundation's Girls Opportunity Alliance, founded in 2018, she champions education for adolescent girls worldwide. The Alliance has connected more than 4,000 grassroots leaders and community organizations, and its Get Her There campaign has pledged millions - including a $2.5 million commitment to dozens of groups covering school costs, preventing child marriage and expanding access to learning - so girls everywhere get the chance her own education gave her.

Quick facts

• Born January 17, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois
• First Lady of the United States, 2009-2017
• Graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School
• Her memoir Becoming has sold roughly 17 million copies worldwide
• Won the 2020 Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for narrating Becoming
• Launched the Let's Move! initiative in 2010 to fight childhood obesity

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