Michelle Obama discussed her latest book, The Look, on Good Morning America.
The former first lady’s book, co-written with Meredith Koop and scheduled for publication on November 4 by Crown, is “a stunning journey through Michelle Obama’s style evolution, in her own words for the first time,” the publisher says.
GMA co-anchor Robin Roberts asked Obama, “Why this topic now?”
“During my eight years in the White House, although there was a lot of attention given to my fashion, my physical appearance, all of that, I made it a point to shy away from that conversation, because I was worried that it would become a distraction,” Obama replied.
Obama talked about her choice of designers while she was first lady.
“I really thought about what I wanted to say with my fashion," she said. “I wanted to talk about inclusion, diversity, opening up opportunities, and fashion was one of those tools that allowed me to do that. The designers that I chose, there were young designers. There were women designers. There were also immigrant American designers.”
Roberts asked Obama if she felt societal pressure because she was the first Black woman to be first lady.
“For sure,” Obama said. “You can’t afford to get anything wrong.…Don’t get me wrong, every first lady faces the kind of scrutiny, every woman in the public eye faces a certain level of scrutiny because of her physical appearance. We live in a culture, sadly, where if somebody wants to go after a woman, the first thing they do is go after our looks, our size, our physical being as a way to make us feel small, to keep us in place.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
