Michelle Obama Pens Thought-Provoking Letter About Global Education For Girls

It's for things like this that we named her in our list of inspiring women who rock at motherhood. Michelle Obama has become the latest contributor to the Lenny Letters movement by sharing her thoughts on global education for girls. Lenny Letters was founded by Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner to promote feminism and female issues. Other celebrity contributors include Jennifer Lawrence and Sarah Silverman. The First Lady of The United States opens her letter with: "So often when people talk about the issue of global girls’ education, they dive right into the policy weeds. "They talk about the numbers — how 62 million girls worldwide aren’t in school right now. They talk about the barriers girls face to getting an education — how their families can’t afford the school fees; or the nearest school is miles away, and walking there each day means risking assault and kidnapping; or there is a school nearby, but it doesn’t have adequate bathrooms for girls, so they have to stay home when they have their periods, and they sometimes fall behind and wind up dropping out."

It only takes one school, one village, one girl to make a difference. Find out how you can help #LetGirlsLearn at letgirlslearn.peacecorps.gov.

A photo posted by First Lady Michelle Obama (@michelleobama) on Jul 14, 2015 at 11:54am PDT

The letter highlights the harsh realities facing many girls across the globe: "Just imagine for a moment what it’s like to be in their shoes. Imagine being a bright, curious young girl with all kinds of ideas about what you want to be when you grow up. And then one day, someone taps you on the shoulder and says, 'Sorry, not you. You’re a girl. Your dreams stop here. You have to drop out of school, marry a man 20 years older than you whom you’ve never met, and start having babies of your own.'" Michelle continues to explain that her initiative, 'Let Girls Learn', is launching an action plan to alleviate the number of girls in need of education and pleads for readers to take action before sharing an anecdote about a girl she met in Cambodia. "She wakes up at four every morning to cook for her family, water their crops, and tend to their cows. Then she gets on her bicycle and pedals for an hour to get to school, where she studies as hard as she can to fulfill her dream of becoming a math teacher. "She told me, 'I have been through a lot of hardships. I know that I need to overcome them. I’ve never thought that they are the barrier to stop me. I’ve never thought of giving up … I never lose hope in myself.' "Against the most heartbreaking odds, these girls never lose hope in themselves. The least we can do is give them a chance to go to school, fulfill that hope, and become who and what they are meant to be." Find out more about Let Girls Learn at 62MillionGirls.com. Read more Lenny Letters HERE.