Overview
- In new interviews, Obama says she intentionally avoided discussing fashion and beauty during her eight years in the White House to keep focus on the administration’s work.
- She explains she did not wear braids publicly in office because she felt the country was not ready and did not want her hair to become a distraction before the Crown Act.
- The Look, a coffee-table memoir with more than 200 previously unpublished images, is set for release on Nov. 4 with a simultaneous audiobook read by Obama.
- She recalls wearing braids for the 2022 White House portrait unveiling to signal that the style is appropriate and beautiful for Black women in positions of power.
- Contributors in the book, including longtime stylists Yene Damtew and Njeri Radway, describe braids as practical, professional, and central to Black women’s self-expression, as Obama reflects on pressure to project femininity under early campaign attacks.