--- title: Michelle Obama Essence Interview Education Reach Higher description: Read Michelle Obama's interview with ESSENCE. First Lady Michelle Obama discusses her family life and the importance of education in a new interview with ESSENCE.... canonical: https://time.com/2934727/michelle-obama-essence/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-30T16:01:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:40:56.110Z article:section: Politics og:title: Michelle Obama Essence Interview Education Reach Higher og:description: Read Michelle Obama's interview with ESSENCE. First Lady Michelle Obama discusses her family life and the importance of education in a new interview with ESSENCE.... og:url: https://time.com/2934727/michelle-obama-essence/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcda0db24384b3cea/698699cd13c79fe0d5192dc7/essence-first-lady-michelle-obama-page-001.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: ESSENCE First Lady Michelle Obama-page-001 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Michelle Obama Essence Interview Education Reach Higher twitter:description: Read Michelle Obama's interview with ESSENCE. First Lady Michelle Obama discusses her family life and the importance of education in a new interview with ESSENCE.... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcda0db24384b3cea/698699cd13c79fe0d5192dc7/essence-first-lady-michelle-obama-page-001.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Michelle Obama: 'Nothing Is Cooler Than Having a Good Education' by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 30, 2014 4:01 PM UTC  ESSENCE by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 30, 2014 4:01 PM UTC [Read Michelle Obama’s interview with ESSENCE](http://www.essence.com/2014/06/30/michelle-obama-essence-august-issue-cover). First Lady Michelle Obama discusses her family life and the importance of education in a new interview with ESSENCE. “The people we admire in our society today are athletes, singers, reality stars. You don’t see teachers an doctors and lawyers revered in the same way,” Obama tells the magazine. “So, naturally, kids gravitate to what they think is cool. But one of the things I’ve tried to tell my girls, and try to tell all the children I talk to, is that there is nothing cooler than having a good education. Education is going to open the doors to the opportunities that are going to give you the freedom later on in life to make really cool choices-like having a good job, being able to own a home, being able to take vacations and travel the world. That’s what being cool is.” Obama also appears on the cover of ESSENCE, a fellow Time Inc. publication. The interview with the First Lady is accompanied by a special look at education in America. Obama is promoting a new initiative encouraging post-high school education called Reach Higher. For more from the First Lady’s interview, visit [ESSENCE](http://www.essence.com/2014/06/30/michelle-obama-essence-august-issue-cover). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2934727/michelle-obama-essence/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2934727/michelle-obama-essence/"},"headline":"Michelle Obama: 'Nothing Is Cooler Than Having a Good Education'","datePublished":"2014-06-30T16:01:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:40:56.110Z","description":"Read Michelle Obama's interview with ESSENCE. 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