Michelle Obama in Lenny Letter: 'I see myself in these girls'

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2016/03/16/michelle-obama-lenny-letter-see-myself-these-girls/81855738/

First Lady Michelle Obama is having a big day. Dress-for-success, media-blitz big. And she kicked it off with a move that will likely be overshadowed, but may have been the most endearing.

She took a page out of her husband’s playbook this morning, speaking directly to her audience on their level and preferred medium. In an essay for Lenny Letter — an email newsletter by Girls Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner — she talked up her Let Girls Learn initiative in a way that felt like she wasn’t actually pushing a political agenda. Though, she clearly is, and will follow this warm-up with a keynote at SXSW and partnership with Zendaya, Missy Elliott, Kelly Clarkson, and Janelle Monae who recorded a song written by Diane Warren called “This Is for My Girls.”

“I see myself in these girls — in their ambition and their determination to rise above their circumstances. And I believe that because you’re Lenny Letter readers — women who are talented, passionate, and ambitious — you’d see yourselves in these girls too,” she wrote.

It was a bit of flattery but it works. Dunham had a hunch that there is a large swath of educated and engaged young women that yearns for more thoughtful coverage of topics that pertain to their everyday lives, and she was right. Lenny has grown to 400,000 subscribers and has a 65% open rate (just trust us, it’s huge). And it seems she’s attracted exactly the audience she set out to — one that is would be happy to have a personalized letter from Michelle Obama in their inboxes.

She's such a wonderful First Lady, I'm going to miss them both.