PHOTO GALLERY: FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA FINDS HER GROOVE

If her husband had taken a different path, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama may have been best known as a highly-paid hospital administrator in Chicago, raising her kids and enjoying her husband the way millions of women do nationwide. Instead, on Jan. 20, 2009, she became the first lady of the United States of America, with access to a fully-stocked kitchen, a few trains, planes and automobiles, a housekeeping staff and more access to the president than anyone else in the world.

Over the past year, as blogs have sniped at her fashion sense and questioned her agenda, something interesting has emerged. The White House has reportedly tripled its visitors, more people have answered the first lady’s call to service than ever before, and even when her husband’s poll approval numbers slide, hers have continued to be high. As of December her approval numbers were at 57 percent, according to The Washington Post.

While Mrs. Obama has not so far advocated for any particular cause more than others, she told reporters from seven print publications assembled at the White House for a Q&A session that childhood obesity is one upcoming issue she will focus on. "I want to leave something behind that says because of the time that this person spent here, this thing has changed," she said. "I hope that will be in the area of childhood obesity."
 
While pundits and bloggers may be divided on Obama’s mission and wardrobe, there are others who she has impacted through her commitment to work/family balance. While it may not be on the official White House agenda, interested observers have been inspired by what they see. During the conversation at the White House, she told reporters that she was happy that her children “were sane,” despite the obvious fishbowl they live in.

“What she represents to me is that it is possible to be a phenomenal woman in and of your own right,” says Atlanta-based entrepreneur Sheri Riley of Glue, Inc., herself a married mother with one young daughter. “I see that it’s possible to have a healthy, happy and whole marriage. She has also allowed me to continue to be prouder that I’m an African-American woman with the shape of my hips and the roll of my eyes. What she is doing in the White House is what black women are doing all over the country in their homes. It gives me pride to see a representation of my self and my girlfriends and the fact that she showcases what’s normal for African-American women. She’s not the exception.”

The identification with Michelle Obama is definitely strong in the African-American community, but those outside of it are inspired as well. Mary Tomer, 28, a white New Yorker who works in advertising, became so interested in Mrs. Obama that she started a blog, www.Mrs-O.org, shortly after the Democratic convention in 2008. She also released a coffee-table book, “Mrs. O: The Face of Fashion Democracy,” featuring interviews with designers like Jason Wu, Michael Kors, Thakoon and Isabel Todelo, who’ve dressed the First Lady. Her blog tracks Obama’s daily fashion choices.

“My mother has always been fascinated with Jacqueline Kennedy’s’ style and passed that along to me,” Tomer says. “I think the comparison with their style became too literal. But in the way that women connected with them imparted through their style is how our generation is finding our new Jackie O.” 

Tomer says that while critics have lampooned some of Obama’s fashion choices, her eclectic style and mix of high and low-end labels actually make her more relatable to .....

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