at that. Fantastic. Really cool shot.

Technology has impacted American's relationship with government for 240 years. We’ve gone

from stump speeches given on actual stumps to radio, to television, and now the internet.

And things are moving faster than ever: when Barack Obama took office in 2008, he was proudly

known as the first “BlackBerry president.” But that BlackBerry isn’t exactly proof

of being tech savvy anymore. His administration has had to rapidly embrace platforms like

Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. The public is more engaged with government in more ways

than ever before.

But its Michelle Obama whose taken it even farther. With her initiatives aimed specifically

at young people, she’s pursued even newer tools like Vine, Instagram, Snapchat, and

Periscope. The First Lady’s office has stood at the forefront of the changes the White

House has faced online, while still balancing her strategy with a unique authenticity. Somehow,

Michelle Obama is a politician who’s remained cool.

We had the chance to speak with Michelle and her communications director Caroline Adler

about how they pulled that off.

Nilay: So, in less than a decade, it's been an enormous amount of change, how did you

think about handling that change, why did you decide to so aggressively embrace social

media?

FLOTUS: If you think about the campaign, this Presidency, we were always striving to be

cutting edge nowadays, this generation, they're not watching nightly news, they're not reading

the newspapers, they're not watching the Sunday morning shows, they're on their phones. So

we had to start thinking of creative and fun ways to connect with those folks. Because

what we understood was this generation, they're looking for authenticity, they're looking

for what feels real and natural, so I knew that my issues had to be real and natural

to me if I was going to be anyway compelling to the audiences that we were trying to reach.

So that’s been refreshing. so people can get to know me directly. they can see that

im kinda silly some times, that i care, they can feel the passion. they don’t have to

have that filtered through another source. And young people, in particular, like that.

It’s true. In so much of what Michelle does online, she seems authentic and natural. It

could be her dunking on the Miami Heat with Lebron James. Or hanging out with a few Vine

superstars. Or rapping with Jay Pharoah. In each of these, it feels like she’s having

fun.

But behind the scenes, a lot of work goes into what she says and and what platforms

she uses to say it. The First Lady has four initiatives she and her team promote. Each

requires a different approach to find the right audience on the right platform. So something

as simple as turning up with a turnip takes a lot of planning.

Nilay: When you are planning to do something on Vine, when you're planning to do something

on Instagram, how does that idea come up, how did Turnip For What happen? Walk me through

that.

FLOTUS: The beauty is, I'm surround by a lot of millennials, so I usually get ideas from

my team.

Caroline Adler: And it's often about, what is the the strategic priority, what is the

strategic goal that we want to achieve. So each of the First Lady's four initiatives:

Let's Move, Joining Forces, Reach Higher, and Let Girls Learn, each have a goal, and

they have a different audience, and when we're looking at our goal for each initiative, at

a certain time, we wonder, "Well, what's the platform that will serve us best?" So, for

Turnip For What. So that was actually a product of the First Lady's first Vine Q&A.

Vine: Hey its Michelle Obama I'm excited to answer your questions.

Question: Mrs. Obama, what's your favorite fall veggie?

FLOTUS: My favorite fall vegetable is a sweet potato.

Question: My name is Jordon, How do you get kids to work out when they don't want to?

FLOTUS: I remind kids that working out is just like playing.

Question: On average, how many calories do you burn every time you Turn Up?

FLOTUS: Turnip for what? *music*

You know, we want to make healthy eating and active kids part of the conversation.

And it was all because we started out wanting to have a conversation on platforms where

our audience lived. So that was Vine.

Nilay: So who had that idea? Was that your idea? Was that the President's idea? Did Lil

Jon call you? FLOTUS: No, no – one of our team, you know.

And it helped that, what helps with me and the President is that we're connected enough

to pop culture that I know who Lil Jon is, I know the song, my kids are singing it, so

when somebody says "Why don't we do Turnip For What?" I get it immediately, and I was

like "OK, that could be cute".

Nilay: One thing that strikes me about all of this, which I think is fascinating is that

the tools that you use to create the media are the same tools that the public is now

using to both consume what you create and also to create their own media, they're intimately

familiar with how to use Snapchat, they're intimately familiar with how to use Instagram.

I think that's really changed the nature of the communication, and I think it's changed

the nature of politics. Do you see that, has it changed how you approach being First Lady

at all?

FLOTUS: What we learned is that we have to be nimble. You can't sort of be stuck in the

way things we done or the way we did things even in the first term, because the social

media platforms are ever changing and you've gotta be ready to move and shift with them.

My whole goal, the question that I ask myself, that our team, we ask ourselves, is "What's

gonna work? What's gonna move the needle, what's gonna change the conversation" because

what we talked about even coming in is that we don't want to be an administration, a Presidency

that's just into meaningless slogans. We want to do things that are actually going to change

people's lives, and the only way to do that is to constantly make those shifts so that

the message is getting directly to the people you're trying to reach. And if that means

Vine, alright, let's bring some of the VIV'ers in here and lets do some fun stuff with them,

if that's what young people are listening to. If we want to get more people into the

White House and have them access the people's house, well then let's use virtual videos

to open up these tours so that millions of people who can never come and see these rooms

have the opportunity to do it. That's the beauty of this administration. We have all

these wonderful tools to just open things up more and more, and it's been so much fun

doing it. Caroline Adler: One thing I would add is,

it's a little known fact, the First Lady's office doesn't have any Congressional authority

or any independent funding. FLOTUS: We got nothing.

Caroline Adler: We got nothing. Except a great principle.

FLOTUS: And a good team. Other than that... Caroline Adler: We want to have impact, we

want to open the White House, and you want to move the needle on all of the initiatives,

that have become hallmarks of this office, social media is a great opportunity for that,

and I think that you'd, I hope you would agree the next people who are here, it expands the

office, it expands the impact that you can have without those other resources.

But even though there’s so much good to be found online, there’s also a lot of bad.

These new platforms can be used for abuse. And the past few years have seen people, particularly

woman, people of color, and other underrepresented groups, who suffer the kind of harassment

that silences them.

It’s something The Verge and I take very seriously. It’s why our parent company Vox

Media teamed up with Intel and others to launch #HackHarassment, a way to work with social

platforms to safeguard their users from online abuse.

Nilay: What do you think platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, can do to stop this problem.

FLOTUS: And as a mom, this is one of the things that I worry about, because we were talking

about this the other day in the office, it's just, these platforms, not only do you bypass

the middle man, but with young people, you can bypass the parent. My kids first connection

to social media happened without me involved, because they can get their phones and they

can tap into this stuff, and they're using it, before you even know. So the truth is

these kids have access at younger and younger ages to these platforms with no real guidelines

on how to use it, because that's sort of the point. We want them to get in there and figure

it out. But when you're talking about really young kids, they don't know what they're using,

it's like giving a twelve year old the keys to the car and going "Just see what happens.

Get out there on the road, figure it out." And bad stuff can happen. So one of the things

I hope that the social media platforms, all you guys can get together and help teach these

kids all the many positive ways that they can use these platforms, because there are

so many. Make those positive uses trendier. Get your hottest celebrities and start figuring

out different ways that you can use Instagram to highlight good stuff, and that that becomes

how these tools are used, and kids will follow those trends.

because they will follow trends, they will do what's cool, it's just, you guys have to

make the right thing cool. Nilay: Well, you've been helping out a lot,

doing cool stuff. FLOTUS: Yeah, we'll keep doing it.

Nilay: So you've got one year left: what do you want to accomplish this year, what kind

of legacy do you want to leave particularly with communicating with young people?

FLOTUS: This platform is so unique. We will never have this again. The White House, this

experience, social media allows the country to grow with the White House, we, or the White

House to grow with the country. You know, there are constant changes, young people expect

and want something different from their leadership. And social media gives us the tools to stay

connected and to again, be flexible and to reach people where they need to be reached

so they get the messages and understand the policies that we are desperately trying to

implement. You can't do it now without this kind of connection.

So we're going to spend these 12 months on every single issue, making sure we're driving

to the very end.