I try to be thoughtful about spreading the wealth: young designers. Mixing things up is important to me.

After I got out of law school and worked in a big law firm, I thought, there are so many kids like me, in my neighborhood, that could be here if they had more support from their families, better financial aid. But the gap is so wide once you miss that opportunity. So I was always interested in figuring out, How do you bridge that? I felt, as a lawyer, when I was mentoring and working with kids, that I gained a level of groundedness that I just couldn't get sitting on the forty-seventh floor of a fancy firm.

Talking is good. Conversations have to be forever.

The work-life balance is a harsh reality for so many women, who are forced every day to make impossible choices. Do they take their kids to the doctor...and risk getting fired? Do they work weekends so they can afford to send their kids to better childcare...even though it means even less time with their families? Do they take another shift at work, so they can pay for piano lessons for their kids...even though it means they have to stop volunteering for the PTA? It just shouldn't be this difficult to raise healthy families.

I was an incredibly devoted student, and I would often wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning to study. But even so, there were still people who thought that a girl like me with a background like mine wasn't really "college material."

I want to feel like the things I did made a difference. That's one of the reasons I spend time greeting people on rope lines, because I'm always thinking, 'Maybe this interaction, particularly if I'm meeting kids, will change someone's life.' That's how I think about the work I do as First Lady. It's a rare spotlight. I want to make sure I don't waste it.

I think that mentoring is such a critical part of the role I can play in my position. I see how little bits of exposure and big bits of exposure really change my girls significantly, and I want that for more girls around the country and the world.