Michelle Obama To Release ‘Becoming’ Companion Journal 

Michelle Obama To Release ‘Becoming’ Companion Journal

Michelle Obama vulnerably opened up about her life journey in her No. 1 best-seller Becoming last year. From being raised on the South Side of Chicago to becoming the first Black First Lady, Obama didn’t hold back when she shared her story. Now, she wants others to do the same.

She’s gearing up for the release of Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice, which will serve as a place for readers to document their own life moments. The publisher, Penguin Random House, said in a statement that the book

“includes more than 150 inspiring questions and quotes that resonate with key themes in Mrs. Obama’s memoir and that are designed to help readers reflect on their personal and family history, their goals, challenges, and dreams, what moves them and brings them hope, and what future they imagine for themselves and their community.”

Obama will pen the introduction as well. See the excerpt below.

“I’d only kept a journal for a short period of my life, for a couple of years during my late twenties as I was getting more serious with Barack and contemplating a new career. It was a tumultuous time filled with change, and I found that dedicating time to writing my thoughts down helped me navigate all the transitions. Then I put it away and didn’t pick it up again until I began writing my memoir. Instantly, I was transported back to that earlier version of myself, with all the warmth, heartbreak, and frustration flooding in.”

The experience left me asking myself, ‘Why didn’t I journal more?’ The answer, like for so many of you, I’m sure, was that I simply got busy. I switched careers. I got married. I had children. Somewhere along the line, I ended up in ball gowns at the White House, however that happened.

Michelle Obama

“Looking back, I wish I’d taken more time to write down what I was thinking and feeling. I didn’t journal much because I talked myself out of it—journaling can feel a little intimidating and layered with implication, the idea being that once you put pen to paper, your thoughts have extra weight and meaning.

“What I recognize now, though, is far more simple: We don’t have to remember everything. But everything we remember has value.”

The book will come from Random House imprint Clarkson Potter. It’s set for a Nov. 19 release.

Obama’s Becoming sold 1.4 million copies in its first week. It became the best-selling book of all of 2018 in its first 15 days. It sold 10 million copies as of March 2019.

Will you be grabbing the new journal? Tell us in the comments!