Representation matters. Especially for children.<\/p>\n
When children see\u00a0people in media and positions of power that look like them, it broadens their horizons and teaches them they can be whatever they like.<\/p>\n
The presidency of Barack Obama showed people of color \u2014 across the globe \u2014 that a black man could hold the most powerful position in the world. And the Obama family was a powerful example of grace and dignity as they stood strong when faced with unrelenting racist attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they go low, we go high,\u201d Michelle Obama famously said.<\/p>\n
An recent example of the power of representation comes from Ella-Lorraine Brown, an eight year old living in the Los Angeles area. For her school\u2019s Cultural Heroes Day, she dressed as Michelle Obama.<\/p>\n
However, she didn\u2019t dress up like the Michelle Obama from her days as first lady, but as a Princeton University student. \u201cI loved it because by choosing to portray her hero as a college student, the focus was on Michelle\u2019s accomplishments as an individual, not just as an attachment,\u201d Ella-Lorraine\u2019s mom, Karlyn Johnson Brown, who is also a Princeton alum, told Makers.<\/p>\n
While Michelle Obama is best known for being first lady, don\u2019t sleep on her previous accomplishments. Obama is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. She then moved on to work for the prestigious law firm Sidley & Austin.<\/p>\n
Later, Obama became\u00a0the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago and then,\u00a0the Vice President for Community and External Affairs of the University of Chicago Medical Center.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s Ella-Lorraine dressed as Michelle Robinson.<\/em><\/p>\n Previously, on Cultural Heroes Day, Ella-Lorraine has dressed up like Ruby Bridges,\u00a0the first African-American child to desegregate an elementary school in the South, and pioneer pilot Bessie Coleman.<\/p>\n Ella-Loraine\u2019s parents have made representation a central part of her development as a child. \u201cWe try to surround Ella-Lorraine with women who are go-getters like Michelle, women who are independent and smart, level-headed and loving,\u201d her father, Eugene Brown, told Makers. \u201cPlus, he says, \u201cWe make sure she knows about those who have gone before and have passed on.\u201d<\/p>\n While today she is a role model, representation played a big role in Michelle Obama\u2019s path to success. She applied to Princeton University because she saw someone who looked like her get accepted to\u00a0the prestigious university.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe truth is that if Princeton hadn\u2019t found my brother as a basketball recruit, and if I hadn\u2019t seen that he could succeed on a campus like that, it never would have occurred to me to apply to that school \u2014 never,\u201d Obama said according to NJ.com. \u201cAnd I know that there are so many kids out there just like me.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how Twitter reacted to Ella-Lorraine\u2019s photos:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Share image via NASA HQ Photo\/Flickr.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Representation matters. Especially for children. When children see\u00a0people in media and positions of power that look like them, it broadens their horizons and teaches them they can be whatever they like. The presidency of Barack Obama showed people of color \u2014 across the globe \u2014 that a black man could hold the most powerful position…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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