Former United States First Lady Michelle Obama has posted never before seen pictures of her childhood and family life in the lead up to the release of her memoir "".
The unpublished family photos accompanied by short reflections have been posted on the former First Lady's Instagram. They provide a rare insight into her childhood and early twenties from growing up in the south side of Chicago, entering Princeton as a minority student to marrying Barack Obama and life in the White House.
"The process of writing this book has been so personally meaningful and illuminating for me. As I prepare to share BECOMING this fall, I hope you'll also think about your own story, and trust that it will help you become whoever you aspire to be," Obama wrote in her latest Instagram post. "Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own."
1. Michelle with her mum and dad
Obama begins the walk down memory lane by sharing a snap of herself as a child with her mum and dad in their apartment in the South Side of Chicago and paying tribute to her parents for helping her think for herself and find her voice.
"My father, Fraser, taught me to work hard, laugh often, and keep my word. My mother, Marian, showed me how to think for myself and to use my voice. Together, in our cramped apartment on the South Side of Chicago, my family helped me see the value in our story, in my story, and in the larger story of our country," she writes.
2. Michelle at university
Obama's second picture is one of her at the lawn of Princeton, where she graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. Michelle shares how nervous and out of place she felt at being the first generation in her family to attend university and being one of few black students on the campus of the prestigious Ivy League school.
"This is me at Princeton in the early 1980s. I know that being a first-generation college student can be scary, because it was scary for me. I was black and from a working-class neighborhood in Chicago, while Princeton’s student body was generally white and well-to-do. I’d never stood out in a crowd or a classroom because of the color of my skin before. But I found close friends and a mentor who gave me the confidence to be myself. Going to college is hard work, but every day I meet people whose lives have been profoundly changed by education, just as mine was. My advice to students is to be brave and stay with it. Congratulations to the Class of 2018! ," she writes.
Obama went on to study law at Harvard Law School and was awarded law degree in 1988.
3. Michelle and Barack on their wedding day
This loving photo show Barack smiling radiantly with Michelle's foot on his knee, the two of them bursting with happiness.
"You can’t tell it from this photo, but Barack woke up on our wedding day in October, 1992 with a nasty head cold. Somehow, by the time I met him at the altar, it had miraculously disappeared and we ended up dancing almost all night. Twenty five years later, we’re still having fun, while also doing the hard work to build our partnership and support each other as individuals. I can’t imagine going on this wild ride with anybody else," she writes.
4. Moving into the White House
When you're with your beau it doesn't matter if you're chilling in your pj's or hanging at the White House.
"Home has always been where our family is...It hasn’t mattered whether we’re lounging on a couch in Chicago’s Hyde Park or, as we are here, in the White House. We did our best to make the White House a comfortable place where our girls could climb trees and host slumber parties, where we’d have dinner together as a family, and where we tried to live by the values our parents instilled in us," writes Obama.
