--- title: United States Twenty Dollar Bill: Read Obama's letter to 9-year-old description: "Why don’t women have coins or dollar bills with their faces on it?" canonical: https://time.com/3765227/woman-us-currency-obama-letter/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-31T17:16:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:44:29.239Z og:title: Exclusive: Read a 9-Year-Old’s Letter to Obama About Putting a Woman on U.S. Currency — and His Response og:description: Read the adorable request, and Obama's response og:url: https://time.com/3765227/woman-us-currency-obama-letter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt288ea64405fc448d/69878605524fc01d02ded2d0/rrfiwe7cdis7viokbzmrtgwthkvumbxva_lps0q8z6w.jpg?branch=production&width=954&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 954 og:image:height: 537 og:image:alt: rrFIWe7cdiS7ViOKBzmrtGwTHKvumBxVA_lps0q8Z6w og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Exclusive: Read a 9-Year-Old’s Letter to Obama About Putting a Woman on U.S. Currency — and His Response twitter:description: Read the adorable request, and Obama's response twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt288ea64405fc448d/69878605524fc01d02ded2d0/rrfiwe7cdis7viokbzmrtgwthkvumbxva_lps0q8z6w.jpg?branch=production&width=954&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Exclusive: Read a 9-Year-Old's Letter to Obama About Putting a Woman on U.S. Currency — and His Response > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=77e52311-809c-455a-ba46-27f846252ac4&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 10 Questions for Gloria Steinem [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Gloria Steinem](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zHI7xfDR.m3u8) (5:22)  _Published 2011-08-04. The feminist icon talks about her new HBO documentary, the current state of feminism and why she once considered getting a ‘tramp stamp’ tattoo_  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Mar 31, 2015 5:16 PM UTC  Sofia, the girl who wrote to Obama asking him to put a woman on U.S. currency Sofia, the girl who wrote to Obama asking him to put a woman on U.S. currency Courtesy of Kim B., Sofia's mother  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Mar 31, 2015 5:16 PM UTC The little girl who asked Obama last year why there aren’t any women on U.S. bills has finally gotten a letter back from the President — _and_ she’s invited to the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. President Obama made waves last year when he mentioned he had received a letter from a little girl asking him to put some women on U.S. currency, which he called a “[pretty good idea](http://time.com/3066424/if-women-had-their-own-currency-heres-what-it-would-be-worth/).” That letter was from Sofia, a Massachusetts girl who was just finishing third grade at the time. “I was studying Ann Hutchinson, who stood up for women’s rights,” she says. “Almost everyone who chose a boy, on their poster they had pictures of different dollar bills or coins with their person on it. So I noticed, why don’t women have coins or dollar bills with their faces on it?” Sofia, now 9, knew immediately what she had to do. “I just came home from school and said, ‘I need to write to the president.’” Sofia’s mother provided her letter exclusively to TIME:  Image courtesy of Kim B., Sofia's mother For a while, Sofia didn’t hear anything back from the President. She says she “sort of forgot about it” until her dad showed her the President had mentioned her letter in a speech. “I was really excited about it, because I thought that maybe it would actually happen,” she says. In the months since Sofia wrote to Obama, a [campaign to put a woman](http://time.com/3747908/the-campaign-to-get-a-woman-on-the-20-bill-is-picking-up-steam/) on the $20 bill has gone viral. The [W20](http://www.womenon20s.org/candidates) movement is hosting an online poll so the public can vote on which woman should replace Andrew Jackson. The group plans to petition Obama and the Treasury Secretary to make it happen. Almost 220,000 people have voted in the online poll so far. And Sofia, who is now in fourth grade, is a junior ambassador for the campaign. **MORE** [10 Countries That Put Women on Cash Before the U.S.](http://time.com/money/3754777/countries-women-currency/?iid=time%5Fspeed) Even though she’s a longtime fan of Ann Hutchinson, Sofia wants to see Rosa Parks on the $20\. “What she did was really important,” she says. “If it wasn’t for her, we’d still be segregated today.” She got her whole class to vote in the online poll, and her third grade teacher got her class to vote as well. Last month, Sofia finally got a personalized letter back from the President, along with an invitation to attend this year’s White House Easter Egg Roll. Here’s what President Obama wrote to her:  Image courtesy of Kim B., Sofia's mother “The women you listed and drew make up an impressive group,” Obama wrote. “And I must say you’re pretty impressive, too.” “I’ll keep working to make sure you grow up in a country where women have the same opportunities as men, and I hope you’ll stay involved in issues that matter to you,” he continued. “If you keep focusing in school and trying to help others whenever you can, there are no limits to what you can accomplish.” Sofia wants to be a teacher or a scientist when she grows up — after a younger friend was diagnosed with cancer, she decided she wants to study cures. But she also has some advice for other kids her age who want to make a difference. “Write a letter to somebody important,” she says, “because something could happen and it could actually change.” _Read next:_ [_The Campaign to Get a Woman on the $20 Bill Is Picking Up Steam_](http://time.com/3747908/the-campaign-to-get-a-woman-on-the-20-bill-is-picking-up-steam/?iid=time%5Freadnext) ### See Photos of Barack Obama in College  Chance Encounter In 1980, when Obama was a freshman at Occidental College in Los Angeles, he was approached by an aspiring photographer named Lisa Jack, who asked him if he would be willing to pose for some black and white photographs that she could use in her portfolio. Lisa Jack  Handsome Of her first meeting (in a campus eatery) with Obama, Jack remembers only that "He was really cute. But what else does a 20-year-old girl remember?" Lisa Jack  Styled In the photos, Jack says, "You can see he is just posing, initially, but as the shoot goes on, he starts to come out. He was very charismatic even then." Lisa Jack  Prop Jack never realized her dream of becoming a photographer and is now a psychologist. Lisa Jack  Pose Jack and Obama would see each other only a few more times while students. But in 2005, while on a tour, she spotted Obama on Capitol Hill and yelled hello. "He knew exactly who I was after all this time," Jack says. "I was amazed." Lisa Jack  Doubt On a dare from a skeptical friend, Jack decided to track down her negatives from the shoot. Lisa Jack  Searcher Initially, before she dug the film out from her basement, Jack never thought her pictures would have much life beyond her own darkroom. Lisa Jack  Smile When she found them, the images of Obama "blew me away," she says. "I had no idea I'd taken a whole roll of film." Lisa Jack  Charm For a while, Jack put the negatives in a safety-deposit box, so that they could not be used until after the election, when there would be no chance they could be used for a political purpose.  Thoughtful Today, Jack says, she hopes the photos reveal a "spirit of fun and thoughtfulness." Lisa Jack  The Man Who Would Be President "I'm not political," Jack says, "(But) these are historic photos and they should be shared." Lisa Jack ## Transcript [00:00] Hi I'm Belinda Laskin. I'm an editor at large at Time [00:02] magazine and I have to admit this week that the person I'm [00:06] interviewing, and this happens in many reporters careers, [00:09] has actually had a material affect on my life, and in fact on [00:13] many working women's lives. But despite that I'm going to [00:17] try not to go too easy on her. Welcome Gloria Steinum. [00:21] So, you have participated for May a documentary of your [00:24] life. Why a documentary about your life, now? Are you [00:28] dying? No, they might think so, though, but, am planning to [00:32] stay here till a 100, at least. [ LAUGH ] What would [00:36] you say to people who feel, today, that the fight for [00:39] women's rights is all over, but shouting. I guess I would [00:43] send them out for an eye exam, a hearing exam. [00:46] [ LAUGH ] In other words, they're wrong. But I, but, [00:48] [ LAUGH ] but I've, I realized that that idea is, is out there [00:53] because it's a way of stopping, progress. So we hear, [00:56] words like post- racist, post- feminist. When [01:01] people I think would not say post democracy, I think people [01:05] would concede at a minimum that we haven't reached [01:09] democracy yet and we certainly haven't reached equality [01:12] of women of all races or racial equality. In [01:17] one of your earliest journalistic coos' you went undercover [01:19] at the Playboy Barney Club to show. What a dreary and [01:23] dead- end and horrible job it was. In the documentary, you [01:27] express some regret about that. Would you like to explain [01:30] why? Well, at the time, it was a gigantic career error, [01:34] [ LAUGH ] because I had just narrowly begun [01:38] to get serious writing assignments. And after I did that. [01:43] Suddenly, I could, I, I literally lost an assignment, to write [01:47] about the US information agency. But once feminism [01:50] began to dawn on me, I realized, wait a minute, you know, I [01:53] had more in common with the women who were working [01:56] there than I did with the editors who sent me there. I'm [02:00] Australian, and my country's most famous feminist let me [02:03] continue in Germaine Greer, is like you, very [02:08] good looking, and I wonder how much you think that helps, [02:14] when you are standing up for women's rights. First of all, I [02:15] have to tell you honestly. You don't think Germaine Greer [02:18] is good looking. No, no, no, wait a minute [ LAUGH ], that I [02:20] was, then when I became identified as a feminist, [02:24] I was already close to 40. So it was clear to me that [02:28] before and after I was a feminist I had a completely different [02:31] measure of how [ LAUGH ] I looked. Before I was sort of, a [02:36] pretty girl you know, attractive, afterwards [02:40] I was beautiful suddenly and so it was more a comment on [02:43] what people thought feminists looked like. Than it was, [02:48] on how, I actually looked. The [02:52] hard part for me is that sometimes those have been used to [02:55] say that well she didn't work. She just got this because she [02:59] looks good. But given that, beauty has a strange [03:03] persuasive power. And that people advertise [03:08] success is beauty when Jocks proposed with a product to [03:11] sell something. Has it ever occured to your something [03:15] trojahn horsey about it. Well, I would love to be a trojahn [03:17] horse for revolution, hmm good idea. Hahaha [ LAUGH ]. [03:21] No fine, i just feel that we just feel free to look however we [03:25] want to look. We ought to be free to wear whatever we [03:28] want and, and, be safe in the street. But if, if [03:32] my being a pretty girl, listen, I'm 77 [03:36] now I thought this would be over by now but anyways [03:38] [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] You know, was [03:44] helpful, fine. You know, then it disproved a myth. So this is [03:50] you. No botox nothing. I hear botox hurts. I [03:55] though about getting a tattoo [ LAUGH ] [04:01] A tattoo would be on the neck No I was going to get a tramp [04:03] stamp on my 70th birthday. Oh, a tram stamp. [ LAUGH ] [04:09] What is your view of the Dominique Strauss- Kahn [04:12] situation? I'm very grateful to the NYPD [04:17] that plucked him off the plane. [ LAUGH ] I'm [04:21] very grateful to the maid who, you know, knew she had [04:25] rights, and brought an accusation. It's a great step [04:30] forward and one can see it's impact say, in France, you [04:33] know, on the woman who also suffered [04:37] an attempted rape by him and is now bringing a, a lawsuit. [04:42] How do you feel about the direction feminism has taken [04:45] with pessimism and third wave feminism. Are you [04:49] encouraged by what you see? Yes. No, I'm very [04:52] encouraged because I see the, the humor and the [04:56] hopefulness and the, they just have much better detectors [05:01] that we did. [ LAUGH ] They just don't take the [05:05] same I am out of bias and it is [05:09] great to see. 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