I wanted to ask you, Mrs.
Obama, you know,
so many women struggle with self-doubt,
do you?
And if you do.
How do you push past it?
Mm hmm.
I talk about this all the time,
especially with
the young girls
I meet,
because they look at people
like us in these positions.
And they think, well,
you must have been born into that place,
which is the 11 of the reasons
why when I meet with young girls,
I don't care where in the world it is.
I don't want them to know.
Michelle Obama, the former first lady.
I want them to know.
Michelle Obama, that girl
from the Southside of Chicago.
I want to break down that
that wall of impossibility
to let them know that I am them
and they are me.
And yes,
every other moment I feel self-doubt
because when you and Sissi
he intentionally
does that to women and girls,
it starts at a very early age.
We are.
We question our value, our worth.
We question how we look how we talk,
where we're from.
They are people with power
who want us to stay small.
They want us to stay doubtful.
And so our cultures reinforce that.
So the one thing I want
young girls to understand
is that those feelings are real.
They are not crazy.
They are they
they are indoctrinated in us all.
And we carry them around with us
our entire lives.
And I don't care
how far you go,
whether you go to the White House,
you are constantly batting away.
Those negative messages
are being not enough.
And yes,
I deal with that to
and I don't want young women,
young girls to get ahead of themselves
to think that they have to fix it all now
in order to break the cycles
of negativity,
you got to get up every day
and do the work right before you.
That means getting your education
when the opportunity presents itself.
And then focusing on that,
doing the work, doing your homework,
getting to the next stage in life.
Because if you take
those small steps over time,
you build up a lifetime of another story
for yourself.
No one can do that for you.
You have to look over your life.
And we as women
sometimes feel like
we have to have done everything right
before we can take credit for
the things that we have done.
But there is power and
what we do every day.
And I have to remind myself of that
every single moment.
But now that I'm older,
I can now look back and say, yeah,
I am worthy.
I have value,
but is not because I'm sitting here.
I had that value
when I was three,
when I was five,
when I was seven, when I was 12.
And for the young girls out there,
you have it now
you just have to take the time
to realize it
and be patient with yourself
as you do it.
Because the process takes a lifetime
takes a lifetime.
I am trippin right now that you just said
that you deal
with self-doubt all the time,
like somehow that didn't
seem to right in the back.
Write back there. Me too.
Right back there
I was like, Don't trip, don't follow
me.
Don't I?
The same the same things
Amal and I were like,
What are you wearing?
Is this color right?
Well, this be stupid
to be doing this work with you and also,
what are you wearing?
So what do you do, Amal,
when self-doubt attacks you?
Because that's what it feels like, right?
It kind of feels like an attack.
I don't know.
I mean,
I think I get super charged by
the people I love and just having
an amazing family and friendships and,
you know,
now two kids
who are kind of looking up at
you expecting you
to have all the answers.
And if it's put a fine point on
why we're doing all of this,
you know, and I think it's
I imagine them kind of
and they're only five,
so they're not quite on top of
current events. Yeah.
And if you don't believe that,
I bet you they know
more than most people.
Well, actually,
my son
drew a
picture the other day of a prison,
and he was like, Putin should be in here.
And I was like, oh, my goodness.
Maybe I went a little
I didn't know anyone.
I don't know what he overheard,
but I am working on Ukraine now.
I you know,
but I do think about in a few years when
maybe five or more when they sort of
start to learn about some of these issues
that we're talking about
and what's happening in the world.
And, you know, when they ask us,
what did you do about this?
What did you say about that?
You know, what will my answer be?
And I, I hope it will be a good one.
I think it's important to tell all girls
that you can be whatever you want to be.
You can be a mom
and a working mom or a working woman
and not a mom or mom
and stay home
like all of these choices are. Okay.
And guess what?
You can also get it wrong with your kids.
So same thing.
My kids
my daughter was five my oldest,
and she told her doll to lay down
because it had HIV aids
and she needed to take care of it.
And I thought, oh, my God, I've
gone way too far on my work.
No, prison drawings?
No.
I have one question
that I'd like you all to answer
because I thought
this is a brilliant idea.
So the Girls Opportunity
Alliance asked girls
to write to their 25 year old self.
And since we are so young,
I'm going to ask you to reverse that.
What would you
and I'll start here with you, Melinda,
what would you tell your 25 year old self
now that you've lived a life
I would say
life is even more beautiful ahead
than you realize.
And I would say to my 25 year old self,
you knew in high school who you were
and you let go of some of that for
lots of reasons.
People,
situations, college people around you,
you knew who you were
and once you learn to re
be the girl you were in high school
is when you grew into the full
woman that you could be. Boom
Mrs.
Obama, that part
just simply
what I would tell
myself, you are good enough,
you are valued,
you are worthy,
your story matters, your voice matters.
You will do
the great things that you know
you can do.
There was something that struck a chord.
It's like we all knew who we were
when we were little.
We knew our power.
Then it was just second guessed.
So I would tell myself to follow
that instinct that
pay attention to that flame in you
because it is real and keep it fueled.
And don't let anybody try to blow it out
because you're going to need it.
Once you
in.
It's so inspiring to hear Mrs.
Obama and Melinda Gates
share about
what they would tell themselves
in their 25 years old.
I think the best thing I would say is
if there's nothing,
if there's something good
that someone can be put to invest on
and has the best interest in this world
is knowledge and
let's keep on encouraging our girls.
Keep on doin it.
Keep on believe in yourself.
Keep on. You'll get in there.
Keep on
Let's get her there.
No interest
among them, what they said.
I know it's hard being last on this one.
You know, I would say
define failure as not trying
because actually
going for things and falling
flat on your face is fine.
It's a learning experience.
It makes you stronger.
But if you don't try
and if you don't actually
follow your dreams
or even admit what they are
and go for it,
something that will stay with you.
So the idea is go for it.
Get there and get others there
because you do work all around the world.
Where in the world
are you most concerned about?
What is happening to girls and women
right now?
Everywhere?
It's unfortunately I mean, you know,
at the moment
I'm working on with our foundation
gathering evidence of crimes
being committed
against women and girls,
among others in Ukraine.
You know, I've spent seven years
working on cases
where I represent
women who were victims of
enslavement and sexual violence
committed by ISIS.
And that's women from Syria and Iraq.
We know one in three girls in the world
has suffered
sexual or gender based violence.
That's a huge number.
And the problem is
it's going to keep happening
if we don't have accountability.
So at our foundation,
we call what we do
waging justice, because,
you know,
we cannot assume that
justice is just going to happen.
You have to actually fight for it.
You have to make it happen.
And, you know,
you can't even assume
that things are going to move
in the right direction.
We are think backsliding.
You know, ask a girl in Afghanistan
where the clocks have turned back.
20 years on her rights set against that.
I do also see
through my work
the bravest people in the world
being women and young girls
who sometimes have suffered
the worst crimes, you know,
genocide and sexual enslavement.
And they are the ones fighting back,
fighting for justice.
And I have to say
you know, today, watching on our screens
what's happening in
Iran with girls who've suffered,
you know, the worst brutality,
but a protest movement
and you know,
being led by
girls in school
uniform who are facing off against
a regime
that is using force to torture and kill.
And they're still determined
because if
they're not the ones on the front lines,
they they can't rely on others
for change.
And I think that's incredible.
And I think it also gives us perspective
If girls like that can risk everything
to, you know,
just be free
to show their hair
and have just basic freedoms, then
we can all do more,
you know, from where we're sitting.
And so I, I find that really inspiring.