Jill Biden, the wife of President-elect Joe Biden, has spent a large portion of her life
as a politician's wife, but that doesn't mean her life has always been this way.
Here are some things you may not know about the next First Lady.
Jill may be the epitome of a refined, well-mannered politician's wife, but she had to undergo
a lot of personal development first.
In fact, she even described herself as having a rebellious streak in her younger years.
During an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jill fessed up to sneaking into
a popular swim club late at night so as to skip out on the pricey membership fees.
She and a close friend opted to scale the fence late at night during the summer and
have the pool all to themselves.
Jill admitted,
"I can't even believe that I did it."
According to Jill, it was "a long, long time" before she ever told her mother about doing
that.
She also engaged in other harmless indiscretions, like pulling pranks and sneaking out of school
to dine on sandwiches at a local hoagie shop.
As the eldest of five daughters, Jill took on a different role as the fearless protector
of her younger siblings.
After she had enough of watching her younger sister being bullied, she simply walked up
to the perpetrator's door, rang the doorbell, and punched him square in the face.
While she may have been in trouble temporarily, she did manage to win her father's praise
for that one.
Though Jill may be best known for her respected and long-standing career as an educator, make
no mistake — she's well versed in other industries as well.
From a very young age, Jill had a strong work ethic and worked various jobs in order to
make her own money.
According to The New York Times, she landed her first job ever at the ripe age of 15 years
old.
She admitted,
"I wanted my own money, my own identity, my own career."
During an interview with New Jersey Monthly, Jill explained that one of her first jobs
involved serving at a seafood restaurant in Ocean City, New Jersey — a job she claims
she loved.
But that's not all — Jill also dabbled in modeling.
She told Vogue in 2008 that in an effort to earn extra money, she took on small modeling
gigs for a local agency in Wilmington, Delaware.
Jill was quick to explain that while she did a few jobs here and there, she certainly didn't
consider herself a model.
She added,
"I might've done five jobs where you get paid, like, 20 bucks.
But I wasn't a model."
Discussing her first blind date with Joe, Jill told Vogue,
"We went out to see A Man and a Woman at the movie theater in Philadelphia, and we really
hit it off.
When we came home, [...] he shook my hand good night.
I went upstairs and called my mother at 1:00 a.m. and said, 'Mom, I finally met a gentleman.'"
Immediately after marrying Joe in 1977, Jill quickly got to work diving headfirst into
her new role as stepmother — though she doesn't think of herself as a "step" anything.
During an interview with Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jill was careful to explain that while she
never asked Hunter and Beau to call her "mom" — it just happened organically.
She revealed,
"The kids are the ones that first said it.
They wanted our family to be a whole, complete family.
They initiated that.
In any interview, if the interviewer said step-mom, they'd pipe up and say, 'We don't
say that.'
That's how the kids wanted to define it."
Joe also touched on their blended family in his own memoir, Promises to Keep: On Life
and Politics.
He echoed his wife's same sentiments, stating that the transition happened gradually.
One day he simply noticed his boys referring to Jill as "Mom" while reserving "Mommy" for
their late mother.
"Beau and Hunter said, no, we have mom and a mommy.
Our mommy died; this is our mom."
Joe recalled,
"I'm sort of used to being in charge, but in truth it was Jill and the boys who shaped
the contours of our remade family."
"She put us back together.
She gave me back my life.
She gave us back a family."
Jill may be famous for being the wife of a politician, but don't get it twisted — her
passion lies in being an educator.
In a tweet, Jill famously declared,
"Teaching is not what I do.
It's who I am."
Her lifelong career as an educator proves just that.
And if you thought that a life-changing event like her husband becoming President of the
United States is going to deter her, think again.
During an interview with CBS News, when asked if she planned to keep teaching should her
husband win the 2020 election, she replied,
"I'm gonna continue to teach.
It's important, and I want people to value teachers and know their contributions, and
lift up the profession."
And with a bachelor's degree, two master's degrees, and a doctorate degree, why wouldn't
she?
Her resume is also quite impressive.
According to Forbes, Jill worked in the public education school system for 13 years, as an
English teacher and a reading specialist.
After that, she transitioned to Delaware Technical and Community College, and, while Joe Biden
served as Vice President, Northern Virginia Community College.
In addition to being an accomplished educator, Jill also tacked "accomplished author" to
her resume, having written several children's books and her memoir, Where the Light Enters:
Building a Family, Discovering Myself.
During an interview with People, Jill described her memoir as "the story of how [they] built
and rebuilt our family," which also touched on how she and Joe dealt with the tragic loss
of their son Beau.
She wrote candidly,
"Sometimes I feel like I've forgotten how to be the mom after the death of my son.
I worry about my children worrying about me, feeling like they need to be the strong ones.
It's not the right order of things.
How can I be there for my children when I feel so lost?"
When describing her grief in the book she also wrote,
"I feel like a piece of china that's been glued back together again.
The cracks may be imperceptible — but they're there."
Like seemingly everything else in her life, Dr. Jill Biden has handled grief with grace.
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