*Suspenseful music*
*Girls screaming*
We're here at the O Magazine offices, waiting for 3 groups of high school girls to come
they think they're just doin a midterm elections conversation
but they have no idea what's in store for them.
My name is Ashley Thomas I work here at Oprah Magazine
Hi, I'm Bree Green, I'm the Senior Video Producer for OprahMag.com
We're so excited to have you here today
We're gonna watch one of our favorite interviews
So something that will really get us inspired
Excited?
Yes!
It's about to happen
we all know that there's a big surprise coming
but the girls right now are so cute, they're taking notes,
they think that they're just going to be on this video talking about what their thoughts
on the interview were.
I'm so excited I'm like shaking, I can't wait.
Thank you for coming to Oprah Magazine offices!
You could tell the First Lady was getting choked up, right?
Yes
Oh my gosh, I know we all sort of left the room kinda like this
a little bit
So we just wanted to talk to you about what you just saw, what you think about it.
She sort of made us realize that she is a normal person and that she didn't have a perfect
life like going into office.
She had to adapt too and she had to learn.
She talked about her checkbox and how like she had certain things that she needed to
do to get where she was.
I really appreciated the way that she was opening up about her like deepest fears that
she had growing up
Especially with the way about how they told her that she talked like a "white girl"
I even had a teacher that would uhm-
*Girls gasp*
Oh my God!
What're you talking about?
What're y'all talking about in here?
I was uh- talking about you.
Oh look, you guys have your notes!
You were taking notes?
Yes
So, what did you think?
What'd you think of our conversation?
It was amazing!
Well what were you saying before-
what's your name?
Salam
Salam, what were you saying when I walked in the room?
In the interview, you were saying that people would tell you that you talk
like a white girl and
in my essay I had to hand in for class, my teacher, she accused me of plagiarism and
gave me a zero on it because my vocabulary was too large
and I was talking like a white girl.
My question for you was "Was there ever a time you wanted to give up and how did you
overcome thinking of that?"
It was the time in the campaign, people were attacking me
for being too loud, for being too black, for being too-
whatever, I go through every detail- excruciating detail of all the
horrible comments that people were saying about me over the course of the campaign-
people challenging whether I cared about my country- all of that stuff.
And that was painful.
And there was a part of me that thought,
"These folks are trying to take my voice, y'know, they're trying to turn me into something
that I'm not and they don't even know me"
And I want people to read that, to know that even me here standing today, somebody who's
considered
popular and admired and on magazine covers that
you can go through some real tough public times and get through it.
And I just refused to let these people define me
but I knew that I had to get out there and define myself-
especially as First Lady.
I knew I wouldn't have the luxury of walking in there and assuming
that I had the grace that other First Ladies would be given because I was black- uhm so
it made me work harder and smarter.
And did like people try to censor you throughout your husband's campaign and like to hide and
not talk about your struggles that you went through as a child?
No one tried to censor me,
but people didn't pay attention to me which was- and I talked about this- it's like there's
something in politics-
it's still very male dominated and most candidates are men and even in the campaign,
your own campaign-
the wife is treated as the wife.
And what I realized was that
if I didn't speak up for myself, they would keep treating me like a wife.
You said in the interview that you had an obligation to help people and be a role model
for people, uhm where does that need come from?
Seeing my father sacrifice but also seeing him be somebody that was engaged in the community
because he was a precinct Captain in Chicago.
And I saw my father with his disability, y'know, getting in his car, going from house to house,
sitting down and talking to ladies and-
that was some of the first memories that I had of people serving.
Over the course of my life I just sort of saw this as a responsibility that we have
and a choice that you can make.
The other thing is like service, for me, selfishly, is something that gives me strength.
I was doing something that I cared about, mentoring young people.
I mean, there's nothing that I love more than talking to young people like you.
I could spend all day here because I wanna help you.
You know, you feel good when you give back, y'know?
And I recognized that as an important feeling that I wanted to have, not as a hobby but
I wanted to have that feeling every single day.
In the White House, if I needed a break from all the crap that was going on, my team knew-
"Get her in front of some kids," y'know?
I want you guys to be as powerful and confident and capable as you can be
so, I think it's a worthwhile investment.
You could just see in their eyes how, not only excited and in awe they were, but it
was just so meaningful to them
I mean one girl was literally just looking up with tears coming down her face.
I will never forget the looks on all those girls' faces because I am that girl, just
a little bit older.
I know what it's like to be a young brown woman and look up to someone like Mrs. Obama
and Oprah Winfrey and think "Wow, like I want to be like that one day,"
So, the fact that we had the opportunity to give that gift to those girls, it's something
that I will never forget.
Were you shocked?
Who was shocked?
Raise your hand if you were shocked.
I wanna hear it from you guys, what do you guys think?
My friend, Ayanna, she kept saying "Oh my god I don't know what we're gonna do here
but what if we do something crazy like meet Oprah or something,"
I was like "girl, shut up, that's not gonna happen,"
And then when we came here and I saw their faces,
I was like "oh my god, this is like crazy" I was like jumping for joy.
So now I just feel so motivated and it just makes me wanna work harder.
I feel like so inspired 'cause like,
I hugged Michelle Obama AND Oprah..
like you're in class and you're joking like "you get a car, you get a car, you get a car"
and then it was like today,
"you get a hug, you get a hug, you get a hug."
And it was so great and I just feel like,
I feel like there's like this light inside of me that I just wanna go home,
I wanna do my homework,
I wanna clean my room,
I wanna go on Oprah's instagram and
like all of her pictures, like-
once in a lifetime experience.
I just wanna thank you guys for coming, we think that it was worth your time today
Yes!
What do you say?
Thank you!
No, no, no I mean what do you say, that wasn't it worth your time?
Oh
*Laughs*
I wasn't trying to get you to say thank you.
This group of girls from 3 different schools in New York and they were all so well spoken,
so eloquent, so smart, very wise beyond their years, y'know the things
they were talking about, as far as their thoughts on the interview,
I don't remember thinking like that when I was in high school y'know there's so many
opportunities and so many things in the future and there's so much to be inspired by so,
I was inspired by those girls.
Thank you guys so much for watching, I hope you enjoyed that surprise as much as we did,
it was such a special day.
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