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"I couldn&amp;amp;#8217;t imagine a list of 2009 Women of the Year that didn&amp;amp;#8217;t acknowledge America&amp;amp;#8217;s First Lady. In a year of thrilling female achievement, special recognition is owed to the woman who&amp;amp;#8217;s known, both here and abroad, simply as Michelle. She&amp;amp;#8217;s Michelle the first African American First Lady, who, as the great-great-great-granddaughter of a slave, is a powerful symbol of our nation&amp;amp;#8217;s progress. And she&amp;amp;#8217;s Michelle the devoted mom, who&amp;amp;#8217;s raising her girls, Sasha and Malia, on the world stage. She&amp;amp;#8217;s Michelle the wife of Barack, who still likes to steal off for date nights despite the Secret Service third wheels. And Michelle the glamorous style icon, who can&amp;amp;#8217;t sport shorts without sparking a cable television debate. Finally, she&amp;amp;#8217;s Michelle the political player, who can speak out on an issue as potentially radioactive as health care reform while maintaining a 60-plus percent approval rating. But Michelle Obama&amp;amp;#8217;s most impressive achievement may be that, despite it all, she still seems so disarmingly, charmingly normal. I&amp;amp;#8217;ve interviewed her several times and have been struck with how comfortable she is in her own skin. She may tower over me, but she is decidedly down-to-earth. But don&amp;amp;#8217;t be fooled. Beneath her casual, informal style and a persona that is a combination of elegance and sportiness (I would definitely want her on my softball team if I played softball) are an eloquence and a command of the facts that is truly impressive. Recently I sat down with her to find out how life in the White House has gone so far. At first, she unapologetically focused on getting her girls settled in their new and perhaps overwhelming lives. Now that she&amp;amp;#8217;s accomplished that, she&amp;amp;#8217;s focusing on issues she can advance. Something tells me we&amp;amp;#8217;ll see Michelle&amp;amp;#8217;s unique imprint on a host of causes. We had a wide-ranging conversation about everything from her world travels to the obsession over her fashion dos and don&amp;amp;#8217;ts. And, fun surprise, I asked a few questions posed by Glamour readers, too. I can&amp;amp;#8217;t think of a better person to help me kick off my new gig as a Glamour columnist, interviewing a new female role model every month. Katie Couric: Mrs. Obama, you&amp;amp;#8217;ve been in the White House for about a year. What has been the most surprising thing about being First Lady? Michelle Obama: We&amp;amp;#8217;ve had some just amazing experiences traveling abroad, being able to introduce our children to the world&amp;amp;#8230;. I&amp;amp;#8217;m also humbled by the response and the receptiveness, not just here in America, but around the world. There&amp;amp;#8217;s a part of that warmth and enthusiasm and hope that is surprising and humbling. KC: The girls must have eyes as big as saucers when they go to some of these places. MO: They are very blessed&amp;amp;#8230;. That&amp;amp;#8217;s why I think that mentoring is such a critical part of the role I can play in this position. I see how little bits of exposure and big bits of exposure really change my girls significantly, and I want that for more girls around the country and the world. KC: Throughout history, First Ladies have had sort of pet causes, if you will. I know that you&amp;amp;#8217;ve explored a number of areas, but have you focused on one that you want to give your all to? MO: I&amp;amp;#8217;ve always tried to make sure that what I do really connects with the broader agenda of what my husband is trying to do&amp;amp;#8230;. But I also find that I have to be very passionate myself about the issue to be able to represent it well. One of the big issues that I&amp;amp;#8217;ve talked a lot about&amp;amp;#8230;is childhood health, nutrition and obesity. One reason we planted the [White House vegetable] garden was to set an example about what food can mean, but to also begin a broader conversation about how we&amp;amp;#8217;re feeding our kids, what they know about the food that they eat, how they&amp;amp;#8217;re taking care of themselves. So I think we&amp;amp;#8217;re going to spend a lot more time in the years to come&amp;amp;#8230;finding ways to move our children&amp;amp;#8217;s health to a better place. KC: How do you move this notion from the White House garden to the homes and schools of America&amp;amp;#8217;s children? MO: When I talk about the issue, I&amp;amp;#8217;m really coming at it from pre-White House times, when I was a working mother with a busy husband, a very demanding job and two little kids to feed&amp;amp;#8230;. I had to learn what it means to feed and care for your kids in a country where fast food is abundant, where time is a rarity, where eating out is a trend, because families are so busy&amp;amp;#8230;. Yes, I&amp;amp;#8217;m First Lady, but I know the struggles. KC: Let me ask you about your role models growing up. Who were they? MO: They were the people in my life. My mom, for sure. My dad. The teachers. For me, role-modeling was immediate, it was touchable. It was rare for me to idolize a movie star or a singer&amp;amp;#8230;because, truly, children connect with who is in their lives, present and accounted for. When I was little, I wanted to be a mother, because that&amp;amp;#8217;s who I saw. I saw my mom caring for me. I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t play doctor. I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t play lawyer. I didn&amp;amp;#8217;t have those visions until I was in college, meeting people who were doing those things. That&amp;amp;#8217;s why we&amp;amp;#8217;re trying to encourage moms, teachers, fathers, to be that presence in their children&amp;amp;#8217;s lives, in their communities, because it really makes a difference. KC: You had an event at the White House where you invited women [such as Alicia Keys and Sheryl Crow] as well as children from Washington, D.C.-area public schools. Why did you want to do that? MO: After I got out of law school and worked in a big law firm, I thought, There are so many kids like me, in my neighborhood, that could be here [if they had] more support from their families, better financial aid. But the gap is so wide once you miss that opportunity. So I was always interested in figuring out, How do you bridge that? I felt, as a lawyer, when I was mentoring and working with kids, that I gained a level of groundedness that I just couldn&amp;amp;#8217;t get sitting on the forty-seventh floor of a fancy firm. Selfishly, it gives me joy&amp;amp;#8212;it makes me feel like my life has a purpose. And I thought, Imagine what we can do in the White House, particularly with the kids in the D.C. area, many of whom have never set foot on the White House lawn. KC: And, in fact, you&amp;amp;#8217;re broadening out that effort, aren&amp;amp;#8217;t you? MO: Yes. We&amp;amp;#8217;re gathering a group of women around the administration to serve over a longer period of time as mentors to girls in need. If we can have that kind of impact in one night, just imagine if we were working with girls over the course of a year or two&amp;amp;#8230;. We can change lives. KC: Do you worry about the kind of women who are celebrated in today&amp;amp;#8217;s society? I know I do, having two daughters. Do you think there are enough positive role models out there? I worry about that. MO: There are so many really good role models out there, we just have to make sure that we don&amp;amp;#8217;t glorify just one type. We have the first Latina Supreme Court Justice, [Sonia] Sotomayor, who is ready to be a force in kids&amp;amp;#8217; lives. I could name hundreds of people like her. KC: But I wish the media would focus on&amp;amp;#8230; MO: Well, that&amp;amp;#8217;s what you&amp;amp;#8217;re doing. It&amp;amp;#8217;s conversations like this that will remind us of the power that we have, and our ability to take hold of this issue and present a broader set of possibilities for our girls. I worry about images, but I know my kids, my girls, know the difference. KC: Let me ask you about health care, because recently you said, &amp;amp;#8220;If we want to achieve true equality for women, then we have to reform the system.&amp;amp;#8221; What exactly did you mean by that? MO: Well, first of all, we have to remember that it&amp;amp;#8217;s usually women who are making the health care decisions for their families&amp;amp;#8230;. [True equality would mean] making sure that there&amp;amp;#8217;s equity in terms of how insurance reimburses certain procedures; making sure that we have preventative care that&amp;amp;#8217;s covered [so] women can get their mammograms and Pap screens without extra charges. [It means] policies that don&amp;amp;#8217;t identify preexisting conditions that are unique to women, whether it&amp;amp;#8217;s having a C-section or being a victim of domestic violence. There&amp;amp;#8217;s so much going on in the system that makes it difficult for women to really have a strong economic hold if insurance is always an issue. KC: I want to get to some questions from some Glamour readers. Rachelle Williams from Silver Spring, Maryland, wants to know&amp;amp;#8230; MO: Hi, Rachelle! KC: &amp;amp;#8230;who mentored you for your career. She says, &amp;amp;#8220;There must have been someone believing in you. How can I find&amp;amp;#8221;&amp;amp;#8212;this part is sad&amp;amp;#8212;&amp;amp;#8220;somebody to help me?&amp;amp;#8221; MO: I was blessed throughout my entire career. I had people rooting for me. It started with my parents, but it extended to almost every teacher that I had. When I was a young lawyer, there were other women and men in the firm who took me under their wing. What I would tell Rachelle is that she should look for those mentors, because sometimes mentors don&amp;amp;#8217;t find you&amp;amp;#8212;sometimes you seek them out. And that she shouldn&amp;amp;#8217;t hesitate to plop herself in someone&amp;amp;#8217;s office and ask them to be that support&amp;amp;#8230;. Oftentimes, they&amp;amp;#8217;re flattered and glad to lend a hand. So I would encourage any reader to seek out a mentor, then follow through and be very focused and persistent. KC: Many readers wanted to know how you manage all your duties. &amp;amp;#8220;I&amp;amp;#8217;m in grad school with no kids and barely have time to see my boyfriend,&amp;amp;#8221; Ashley George from Oviedo, Florida, wrote. &amp;amp;#8220;How is it possible to have it all&amp;amp;#8212;and your sanity?&amp;amp;#8221; MO: I get very humble with this question, because what I was doing years ago with no support&amp;amp;#8212;I shouldn&amp;amp;#8217;t say no support, but without staff and&amp;amp;#8230;. KC: You had your mom, right? MO: I&amp;amp;#8217;ve always had my mom. I&amp;amp;#8217;ve always had a supportive husband. So, now, with all the support around me as First Lady, I feel like this is easier than when I was back in Chicago. I have always tried to put my kids first, and then&amp;amp;#8230;put myself a really close second, as opposed to fifth or seventh. One thing that I&amp;amp;#8217;ve learned from male role models is that they don&amp;amp;#8217;t hesitate to invest in themselves, with the view that, if I&amp;amp;#8217;m healthy and happy, I&amp;amp;#8217;m going to be a better support to my spouse and children. And I&amp;amp;#8217;ve found that to be the case: Once my kids were settled, the next thing I did was take care of my own health and sanity. And made sure that I was exercising and felt good about myself. I&amp;amp;#8217;d bring that energy to everything else that I did, the career, relationship, on and on and on. KC: Yvonne Hyde-Carter from Yeadon, Pennsylvania, wants to know: &amp;amp;#8220;How do you put up with the constant scrutiny of your life and appearance, such as how long your pants are?&amp;amp;#8221; She didn&amp;amp;#8217;t ask this, but I&amp;amp;#8217;ll add, do you ever want to tell people, &amp;amp;#8220;Get a life&amp;amp;#8221;? MO: Oh, no. KC: Seriously! MO: It&amp;amp;#8217;s part of the job. You know? KC: But you must roll your eyes sometimes and say, &amp;amp;#8220;Oh, my God.&amp;amp;#8221; MO: All we can do as women is make the best decisions for us. And that includes everything from how you look to how you dress to whether you choose to stay at home or work when you have kids. All those decisions are so personal, and we have to start with finding what brings us joy and what brings us our own individual confidence. And if we&amp;amp;#8217;re feeling good with those choices, then it makes what everybody else has to say less important. People are always going to have opinions, and people have a right to their opinions, particularly when you&amp;amp;#8217;re the First Lady; you&amp;amp;#8217;re representing the nation. So I can&amp;amp;#8217;t be surprised that people are interested. But I&amp;amp;#8217;ve tried to be at peace with the choices that I make first, and then be open to everyone else&amp;amp;#8217;s reflection. KC: Candice Jones from Memphis wanted to know how you landed such a good guy. Maybe he landed you, right? &amp;amp;#8220;Did you know that Mr. O was a great catch when you met him? What dating advice can you give a 26-year-old professional?&amp;amp;#8221; MO: You know, Bar&amp;amp;#8212;my husband, the President of the United States&amp;amp;#8230; KC: Is that still weird to say? MO: Oh, yeah, I&amp;amp;#8217;m trying to do it with a straight face. He was always special, you know? And not special, like, He&amp;amp;#8217;s gonna be important, he&amp;amp;#8217;s gonna be president. He was special in terms of his honesty, his sincerity, his compassion for other people. Cute&amp;amp;#8217;s good. But cute only lasts for so long, and then it&amp;amp;#8217;s, Who are you as a person? That&amp;amp;#8217;s the advice I would give to women: Don&amp;amp;#8217;t look at the bankbook or the title. Look at the heart. Look at the soul. Look at how the guy treats his mother and what he says about women. How he acts with children he doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t know. And, more important, how does he treat you? When you&amp;amp;#8217;re dating a man, you should always feel good. You should never feel less than. You should never doubt yourself. You shouldn&amp;amp;#8217;t be in a relationship with somebody who doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t make you completely happy and make you feel whole. And if you&amp;amp;#8217;re in that relationship and you&amp;amp;#8217;re dating, then my advice is, don&amp;amp;#8217;t get married. KC: Or get out of it. MO: Get out of it. And find that person who brings you complete and utter joy with who you are at the moment. KC: Thanks so much. MO: Thank you, Katie. To watch a video version of this edited conversation, go to cbsnews.com/video/katiecouric."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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