Michelle Obama’s Full Interview With Jenna Bush Hager From Vietnam | TODAY

so we just met with some incredible young women some of whom sperits burn their books hmm no electricity who walked hours to get to school you've traveled around the world what type of resilience does it take to be a successful of those as you know I don't even think I I know because when you meet these girls and you see what they go through you see their hunger and their Drive and it's not just a question of one obstacle its obstacle after obstacle day after day year after year and they just persevere that's why it's important to shine a light on on these young women because imagine if we weren't investing in that kind of talent that kind of determination if we just let that be squandered because of cultural norms or lack of resources so we need to tell their stories we need for people around the world to see these girls up close to go into their homes to hear their stories to have them share their voices with us you had a book come out this year and I sat down with you in Chicago and then I read afterwards that the night before your book came out you thought that this may be a flop yeah I mean when I read that I was like is there a typo is that right no that is absolutely true I mean we still post white house we still for the most part live in a bubble it's a little bit bigger of a bubble but you know my interactions with the world are still kind of filtered so I've spent a year kind of locked away with a team of people talking and writing and it was all very personal and I let it all out right but I hadn't yet until that point being to step out on a stage and talk about what I had written and I thought well maybe I'm crazy you know maybe you know my husband read the book and said yeah honey you know that sir yeah it's good you know my mom liked it you know I thought well everybody who knows me likes the book maybe they want to hurt my feelings so yeah you know and I share that because there's so many young girls young people who think that folks in big places big important people don't have doubts and we do we do even after leaving the White House getting through to terms in the White House yeah I still had doubts that maybe just maybe this this whole book thing was just in my head so it took a minute for me to know that it was gonna be okay when we were talking with some of those young women about confidence yeah and you I think you said something like don't let the haters get into the doubters we live in a world where there's people that want to hate you know whether they do it online from their their basement or wherever it is do you ever does that stuff ever get to you you know you you you practice not letting it get to you you have to develop protective tools for yourself I tell young people first of all don't read it you know don't don't go into that sphere and take in that energy because that energy isn't even the full reflection of who we are as a people you know one of the things I say that it's it's harder to hate up close you know social media creates a distance that allows people to say things that they probably don't even mean so why take that in why I breathe that air why drink that juice when there's so many other things that you can focus on so over the the span of my lifetime it wasn't just the eight years in the White House but over the span of a full career and being a mother and all the worries that come with that and you know having a solid marriage you have to learn how to protect yourself emotionally and how to do the things that keep you feeling whole and so I apply those whenever I can what are those things that keep you feeling home surrounding myself by positive energy because for every hater out there there are ten other people who were there ready to give you an attaboy so why don't we to the those few naysayers and not let the real true positive energy in so I learned to do that I surrounded myself with people who support me who remind me of my strengths who build up my confidence and some of it is just persevering and pushing through what I told the girls our earlier the day the one of the things I practice is just putting your head down and doing the work you know that booked and right itself yeah let me let the work speak for itself if you have something that you feel passionately about you don't want to waste time trying to convince people that they should share your passion just focus just do the work show through your actions that this is meaningful and that will distract you if you're working hard you just don't have time to let the haters in speaking of working hard I've read that your husband is writing his memoir on legal pads but also are you showing him how the you've sold a book how are you doing over there you Barack definitely writes along hand in on a yellow pad with pen to paper so he is a he's a different kind of writer then I could never work that way I'm more of a talker I have to be in a group that have conversations I need people around to sort of first of all remind me what happens because half of the stuff that happened over the eight years I'm like yeah well that work there was you know so that's a better process for me but yes he is working on his presidential book not his memoir because he wrote that before dreams from from my father so this is his he is working on his account of his eight years his presidential post presidential book that all of the former's were gone so yes it is a torturous process but he's gotten feedback and it's it's looking good it's gonna be a wonderful book so you are out traveling together he's here we are off to Malaysia to continue this work out in 2007 2500 the people what's that like what's life on the road like you know the the beauty of post-presidential travel is that we aren't trying to do everything in like two days all right our normal trip to Asia in the White House would have been three countries on the other side of the world in three days and then you get back home exhausting really no time to really be in the space and you know enjoy and go to dinner or go to a temple or really take in the culture I say I've traveled the world but I spent eight years in freight elevators and you know going in back stairwells been to India twice where both times the way there were no people on the street so it's not the normal way to travel but on this trip we're taking a little more time than we usually take and we're doing it together I mean the truth is that for eight years Barack and I rarely traveled together because we didn't want to be away from the kids at the same time and I was very clear about not being away from the kids for any longer than a week maybe the most ten days so that sort of restricts a lot of the travel that we could do together but now there were empty nesters there are no kids we're just sort of living our lives and and and and taking our time and taking some of the sights in and being with each other it's kind of neat I can't believe y'all are empty nesters I feel like it was just yesterday and there are people saying that about you see Jenna and you're on you're not kids you're little girls when they were elementary age students like some of the age of the little girls they've seen here and now you've just posted a picture and they're poised women how are you again so proud so proud you know as mothers we're always proud of our kids to me you know it's it's an easy thing to tell me to talk about my girls and how wonderful I think they are because I'm their mom but they've grown up in in an awesome way under circumstances that are highly unusual to spend your childhood growing up before the eyes of the world and to come out of that that whole situation whole you know they're kind they're compassionate they're smart they're everything that I see in the girls that are here in Vietnam and around the world I mean that's one of the reasons I'm so passionate about girls education because I see myself I see my daughters in these girls they they are no different they had they they have the same ambition they have the same Drive they have the same hopes they have the same possibilities and how could I only invest in my girls and think that that was enough when there are millions of girls who deserve just as much might have been born across the world yeah that's right and these girls that we met you know are going to college or university students you have you dropped your youngest at college yeah yeah were there tears there were we were really good about it you know we didn't want to embarrass her because you know she had roommates and it was a good it was a typical drop-off where you know you're trying to make sure she brought too many shoes and too many jeans they didn't really understand that you liked it three drawers got half of the closet I tried to tell her but you know I'm just her mother I don't know anything so we were rushing to get her done so that distracted us in the room we were I was more about organizing and getting in and out so that that that held back the tears but then we all all four of us went to lunch and it was at the end after lunch when we said that final goodbyes when we got into a car me and Barack and Malia who was there with us and then sascha drove off on her own and said that last goodbye that's when we were like like this is it's not like she'd never left before but there was a finality to it because they you know sending your kid off to college is the official the official start of their next chapter and I'm excited for them right I'm excited for my girls to grow up and to become independent and to build lives of their own and it test out their dreams and their theories in the world I'm excited for them you know but it is you feel a little melancholy that they will never be the little ones that sit on your lap and listen to your every word and look at you adoringly those days are over so yeah there were a few tears you just announced that you donated a lot of money from the merchandise of your book tour the girls Opportunity Alliance so why was that something you felt like you should do oh my goodness yeah it's like what's the saying you put your money where your mouth is and it was the plan all along because we did these big arena tours and you sort of need to have a t-shirt you're gonna go yeah so it's like you gotta have a t-shirt it's a tour right I mean you want tour you know like a rockstar crazy no no we're like at the 18 please starve just like let's make sure we have some mugs and t-shirts okay so what are we gonna do with this money let's donate all of the proceeds to girls education because here's the thing when you come to countries like this you understand that a little goes a long way I mean I want people out there to understand that a well-organized bake sale the proceeds from that could change the life of a girl and there are so many people in the states who feel like this issue is so overwhelming and it is it big butt when you're a little girl in a neighborhood and you hear about these girls around the world and you want to help and you think well I don't have I don't have half a million dollars you don't need a half a million dollars some of these school fees are $20 $50 $100 so imagine what we can do if I take my resources put those on the table and urge folks around us around the world in our country to match those dollars I mean that money will change a girl's life so I couldn't ask people to contribute to go to the GoFundMe page if I wasn't doing the same thing so it was it's it's a privilege to whom much is given much as expected so there is an election going on of you I'm sure you know yeah I've heard how involved do you plan to be you know we we just launched our when we all vote campaign you know because one of the biggest ways I think I can help is to make sure that people understand the importance of voting and the power of voting in a democracy and to make sure that all folks particularly young people minorities women are registered to vote and they're educated on how to get it done in their communities so that's one way that we will be involved forever because it's not just every four years when there's a presidential election I mean a lot of the legislative policies that impact people on the ground don't happen in the White House they happen in the Statehouse so it's important for people to vote for their state senator or their council member and to know who the district attorney is and how they're elected but there's not a lot of work to educate people on that importance the importance of that knowledge and actively and being an engaged citizen in a democracy so that work we will do forever when it comes to the candidate we have to wait and see who who who's the victor and then part of it is waiting to see what they do they want our help or do they want my help and well you know I don't assume I didn't think I would sell a book so I'm still that person it's a whole wait to be asked met with a lot of people through your book tour and there's an impeachment proceedings going on do what do women say to you and do you feel like this is something we can come back from it's it's surreal I think because the last impeachment hearing a lot of young people weren't around for that so this is all new I don't think people know what to make of it but do I think we can come back from it oh yeah I mean as my husband points out that's why it's important to understand history because we've seen worse times we've seen tough times in this country you know we've gone through depressions and mores and bombings and terrorist attacks and we've gone through Jim Crow and you know a whole range of things in this country and we've always come out stronger and that's what we have to continue to believe because what's our choice to ball up in a corner and call it a day well that's not fair to this next generation that's coming before us that are counting on us to get this right we owe it to them to stay focused and engage and optimistic on their back so yeah we have to move beyond this and we have to come together as a country you know we have to stop demonizing one another it's not enough for them it's not an R or D we are all here as part of this country we all want the same things fundamentally that's what you learn when you travel around the country on an international tour you go go to other places around the world is that people all fundamentally want the same thing you know they they want to be able to earn a decent living they want to work they want to be able to support their families they want to be respected in their jobs they want to be able to send their kids to college perhaps or make sure they have a decent education they want to retire with a little that is true for everyone it doesn't matter what color your skin is what what letter you have by you you as with regard to your political party what language you speak we all want the same things it's just sometimes that gets lost in the noise speaking of I think you're friends with both Ellen and my dad next to each other which caused some sort of online backlash your husband recently talked about the dangers of canceled culture what do you say to people that that want to be closer with each other or how what do you say to them well this is part of what the for me the that the book my book becoming was about that when we when we drop our guards and we let ourselves become vulnerable and that vulnerability allows us to share our true stories with each other not you know not the the stuff on the surface but the things that really connect us like how we were raised the values that we learned around the dinner table the people who impacted us in our lives the things that made us scared you know the things that gave us courage that when we share that truth we can see ourselves in each other a little bit better no matter no matter what you know your dad is someone that I've you take the politics out of him and I had an opportunity to sit and by your father at funerals the highs and the lows and we shared stories about our kids and about our parents our values are the same we disagree on policy but we don't disagree on humanity we don't disagree about love and compassion I think that's true for all of us it's just that we get lost in in our fear of what's different so yeah we've got a you know we got to work on that but I think that this generation coming up you know I think they know more than we did each generation knows a little bit more you know while one can argue that social media is problematic it's also opening young people up to new ideas to each other to other parts of the world my hope is that they will be more open minded and more secure and who they are so that they can welcome other people's stories into the mix but it has to begin with us being willing to be vulnerable and share who we really are with our neighbors so that we're not strangers to each other and that way we don't we can't let somebody else from the outside tear us apart because we know each other right I know you I've seen you we broke bread together you know I may not agree with you but I like you you are my neighbor that takes work and commitment you've had a remarkable year how would you describe 2019 as you wrap it up whoo and a few words Wow 2019 surprising exciting fun inspiring can't wait for the next chapter and what is what is what are you looking forward to in 2012 of this more work on girls education shedding a light on great young people around the world in the United States building up that next generation of leaders were placing ourselves you know getting out of the way and letting some young people sit in some of these seats yeah we'll be doing that Barack and I for the rest of our lives and do you need a vacation after your year well there'll be that yeah they'll be vacation that goes without saying there'll be lots of vacations you

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Id: irOKwPvv00A

Length: 21min 18sec (1278 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 11 2019