Michelle Obama

Ten years ago this month, Barack Obama was swept into office on a wave of hope. For his wife, Michelle, the rocky road leading to the White House would provide the chance to forge her own path of unity and change

It was a rockstar’s welcome. In the Denver arena, 15,000 screaming fans greeted the woman who strode onto the stage. For all appearances, it was the confident entrance of a seasoned public figure, from the megawatt grin to the perfect teal dress. But when Michelle Obama took to the podium that evening at the Democratic National Convention in 2008, it was after two bruising years on her husband’s campaign trail for the presidency. She knew that if Barack clinched his party’s nomination, and then the White House, it would be the culmination of a lifetime of defying expectations for both of them. But if there was one thing the then 44-year-old lawyer and mother knew about, it was facing challenges head on – and winning.

The South Side of Chicago is predominantly black and poor, and it was where secretary Marian Robinson and water-filtration plant employee Fraser Robinson set up home, renting the upstairs rooms of a relative’s small bungalow. They first welcomed son Craig, and then on January 17, 1964, Michelle LaVaughn arrived.

Although it was a happy home, Fraser battled multiple sclerosis, his bravery in the face of the disease making an indelible impression on his young daughter. By Year 6, Michelle was in a gifted class and later went to the city’s first selective high school. Despite making the honour roll for four straight years, teachers said she wasn’t “Princeton material”. She applied to the university anyway – and got in.

In 1981, when she arrived at the Ivy League institution, undergraduates were still predominantly white, and would ask to touch her hair. Once, when a professor criticised her work, “I decided I was going to do everything in my power to make that man regret those words,” Michelle later said. She started rising before dawn to study.