The Women in Time’s Most Influential List 2011: Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama. A pretty well known, household name right now I would say. Nevertheless, let’s take a look.

• She is the current First Lady.
• While she is involved in many causes, her best known one (in my opinion) has to do with eating healthy and ending childhood obesity (Let’s Move which “will give parents the support they need, provide healthier food in schools, help our kids to be more physically active, and make healthy, affordable food available in every part of our country.” – From the White House, link in the sources).
• She also recently started an initiative for military families – big kudos there!

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Michelle_Obama_official_portrait_headshot.jpg

I have to say if I were First Lady, I don’t think all of the issues she worked on would be the same issues I would work on, but every First Lady sort of has their cause. We’re different people – and that’s okay. But nevertheless, her work has seen real results and I think that makes her influential because she’s not just saying “This is what we should do.” And then people ignore her. No – people have listened to her and made changes. Look at some of what Let’s Move has accomplished (taken from their website, link below):

• Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act
• “Three of the largest food service providers have committed to improving the food they provide to schools.”
• Working on putting more than 5,000 salad bars in schools
• Chefs Move to Schools
• Working to ensure more playgrounds and Safe Routes to School
• Let’s Move Cities and Towns

And that’s just part of it – so you can definitely see that this initiative she is leading is being highly influential in this country in her own way.

Sources:

• Michelle Obama – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• First Lady Michelle Obama – The White House
• Let’s Move!

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