Becoming by Michelle Obama

Review by Thanusree Mallela, 12

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Becoming by Michelle Obama is a reflection of her past in the lens of a women who is constantly growing. This memoir explores the racism and difficulties that Obama, as a middle class women of color, experienced throughout her life. She writes with a tone that encourages the reader to learn from her difficulties and realize that growing isn’t a finite process. She writes

“Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child—What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end.”

This quote is the essence of the memoir. Obama encourages the reader to acknowledge the racism and poverty and death that she has experienced and move on to the most important aspect of her memoir, how she has grown from those experiences and continues to grow. Her memoir isn’t an autobiography about another women of color who has been wronged by the world, while memoirs of that nature do hold consequence, it is about growing from adversity while willing to discuss societal issues openly. Her memoir isn’t about her skin color and her husband, but instead about her becoming something greater than what she is defined by.

Becoming is a worthy memoir that captures and never releases the readers attention, discussing intimate details of Obama's life and somehow remaining relatable.