Michelle Obama

The former First Lady - who served in the White House with her husband Barack Obama and their two daughters Malia, 25, and Sasha, 22 - urged her school days version of herself to be less “afraid” of what her classmates thought of her.

The 59-year-old author wrote in PEOPLE magazine: "If I could give my younger self just one piece of advice, it would be this: Stop being so afraid! That’s really what strikes me when I look back – the sheer amount of time I spent tangled up in fears and doubts that were entirely of my own creation. I was afraid of not knowing the answer in class and looking stupid, or worried about what some boy thought of me, or wondering whether the other girls liked my clothes or my hair, or angst-ing about some offhand comment someone made to me in the lunchroom.”