Michelle Obama: Fearless Flotus

Michelle Obama not only served as the 44th First Lady of the United States of America, but is also an American lawyer, writer, and the founder of Let’s Move!, an initiative towards the prevention of child obesity, as well as an advocate of civil rights for women and LGBT people.

Michelle Robinson was born in Chicago in 1964. In 1985 she graduated from Princeton, and in 1988 she completed a law degree at the prestigious Harvard Law School, after which she worked at Sidley Austin, a Chicago corporate law firm of high repute. Though Sidley didn’t usually take on first-year law students as associates, in 1989 they asked Michelle to mentor a summer associate named Barack Obama. When he finished his term as an associate and returned to Harvard, their relationship continued long distance, and in 1992 they married. At the same time, Michelle was evaluating in those years whether a career in corporate law was really what she wanted. Corporate law, while lucrative, was not what she’d intended when she started college. She lost her father to kidney complications in 1991, which furthered her process of reflection; she was later quoted saying by the New York Times, “I wanted to have a career motivated by passion and not just money.” She left Sidley Austin and went to work for Chicago, first for the Mayor and then providing her expertise to Valerie Jarrett, the head of the planning and development department. In that position she was working for job creation and to bring new life to Chicago’s neighborhoods, and after this turning point, she never looked back.

After spending a few years working in hospital administration for the University of Chicago Hospitals, Michelle became First Lady of the United States when her husband won the presidential election of 2008. In this role, she advocated for military families, working women balancing family with career, and arts and arts education. Michelle also supported LGBT civil rights, working with her husband for the passage of the Employment Non- Discrimination Act and the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. In 2010, she began to take steps to create a healthier lifestyle for the youth of America with the “Let’s Move” campaign to prevent child obesity. These are just a few of many of her accomplishments as the first African American First Lady in the White House. Now that she has left it, she is preparing to continue her advocacy work and write a planned memoir as she and the Obama family settle into their new residence in Washington, D.C., where they will remain until daughter Sasha Obama finishes high school.

“There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made.”

— Michelle Obama

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media

Michelle Obama: Fearless FLOTUS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Obama

Michelle Obama not only served as the forty-fourth first lady of the United States of America but is also a lawyer, writer, and the founder of Let’s Move!, an initiative geared toward the prevention of child obesity, as well as an advocate of civil rights for women and LGBT people. Michelle Robinson was born in Chicago in 1964. In 1985 she graduated from Princeton, and in 1988 she completed a law degree at the prestigious Harvard Law School, after which she worked at Sidley Austin, a Chicago corporate law firm of high repute. Though Sidley didn’t usually take on first-year law students as associates, in 1989 they asked her to mentor a summer associate named Barack Obama. When he finished his term as an associate and returned to Harvard, their relationship continued long distance, and in 1992 they married. At the same time, she was evaluating in those years whether a career in corporate law was really what she wanted. Corporate law, while lucrative, was not what she’d intended when she started college. She lost her father to kidney complications in 1991, which furthered her process of reflection; she was later quoted by the New York Times as saying, “I wanted to have a career motivated by passion and not just money.” She left Sidley Austin and went to work for Chicago, first for the mayor and then providing her expertise to Valerie Jarrett, the head of the Planning and Development Department. In that position, she was working to create jobs and bring new life to Chicago’s neighborhoods, and after this turning point she never looked back.

After spending a few years working in hospital administration for the University of Chicago, Michelle Obama became first lady of the United States when her husband won the presidential election of 2008. In this role, she advocated for military families, working women balancing their family with their career, and arts and arts education. She also supported LGBTQIA+ civil rights, working with her husband for the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. In 2010, she began to take steps to create a healthier lifestyle for the youth of America with the Let’s Move campaign to prevent child obesity. These are just a few of many of her accomplishments as the first African American first lady in the White House. Since leaving the White House, she has continued her advocacy work and even written a memoir.

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Black Women by Becca Anderson and MJ Fievre, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

TRISHA PRABHU: KEEPING KIDS SAFE ONLINE

https://www.vogue.in/culture-and-living/content/how-21-year-old-trisha-prabhu-is-cementing-herself-as-a-important-voice-against-cyberbullying

Sometimes empathy and compassion can be a vehicle for change. At
age twelve, Trisha was heartbroken when she read the news of Rebecca Sedwick, a thirteen-year-old who took her own life after years of cyberbullying. Having been a victim of online bullying and harassment herself, Trisha knew that something had to be done. She developed and patented “ReThink,” a technology that detects and prevents cyberbullying at the source by changing minds before posting a hateful message. ReThink’s success has been noted on a global platform and was featured on the TV show Shark Tank. In 2016, she was invited by Barack Obama to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit and was the first freshman to win the President Innovation Grand Prize from Harvard University, where she is currently attending.

“I knew I’d stumbled onto a world-changing idea—and ReThink was born.”

—Trisha Prabhu

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Girls by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

MALKA OLDER original visions of future societies

https://brilliantbaltimore.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BBF19_Headshot_Malka-Older_SFWA.jpg

Malka Older is a science fiction writer as well as an academic who also works in humanitarian aid and development, responding to natural disasters and other emergencies in such places as Darfur, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Japan, and Mali. She earned a BA in literature from Harvard and then a master’s degree in international relations and economics from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and as of this writing, she is currently a doctoral candidate. She has also conducted research on the human and organizational factors involved in the response to the catastrophic failure of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant following an earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011.

After entering the field of speculative fiction with her short story “Tear Tracks” (2015), Older’s first novel, the political science fiction thriller Infomocracy, was named one of the best books of 2016 by the Kirkus Review. The full Centenal Cycle trilogy, including Infomocracy’s two sequels, Null States and State Tectonics, was nominated for a Hugo Award. The trilogy posits the dissolution of nation-states into “centenals,” affinity groups with approximately 100,000 people in each, though as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that this system has not eliminated political infighting. Her first short story collection, And Other Disasters published in November 2019. She is also the creator of Ninth Step Station, a cyberpunk crime drama serial set in Tokyo.

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women Writers by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.