How Michelle Obama inspired Parker Curry, 3, to write her own book

It’s official: Parker Curry, 3, is having a better year than all of us.

In March, Parker became an internet celebrity after a photo of her standing awestruck in front of Michelle Obama’s official portrait in the National Portrait Gallery went viral. The photo also led to Parker meeting her idol in person.

Now, the toddler — who dressed up as her hero for Halloween — is following in the former first lady’s footsteps and writing her own Becoming story.

During the Washington, D.C., stop on Obama’s book tour, Parker was reunited with the author and shared the news that she had signed a book deal of her own. “‘We’re both authors now, Parker!’ Michelle exclaimed, excited for our newest venture and happily sharing her support,” Parker’s mom, Jessica, wrote on her blog, Happy Mama, Happy Babies. “I melted.”

According to Page Six, the book will be about “a little girl named Parker looking at Michelle Obama’s portrait.”

After that memorable moment in front of the iconic painting of the former first lady by artist Amy Sherald, Parker had the opportunity to actually meet Obama in March, and the two had an epic dance party. “Keep on dreaming big for yourself,” Obama posted on Twitter. “Maybe one day I’ll proudly look up at a portrait of you.”

Parker continued to draw inspiration from the former first lady throughout the year. Parker wore a dress that was inspired by the one Obama wore in her official portrait, which Jessica said was “her first, immediate response” when asked what she wanted to be for Halloween.

“We asked her a few times, ‘Are you sure?’” her mom said. “‘Yes, I do. I want to be Michelle Obama.’”

Parker “believes Michelle Obama is a queen, and she wants to be a queen as well,” Jessica has said. “As a female and as a girl of color, it’s really important that I show her people who look like her that are doing amazing things and are making history so that she knows she can do it.”

Obama continues to inspire girls and women around the world with her memoir, Becoming, which details her life’s journey and how she found her inner voice and strength. In less than a month, it became the bestselling book of 2018, with more than 3 million copies sold. The Associated Press reports that the memoir is already one of the fastest-selling nonfiction books in history.

Parker Curry isn’t the only young girl who wants to follow in Obama’s footsteps. Eight-year-old Ella-Lorraine Brown recently made headlines for dressing up as Michelle Obama, known then as Michelle Robinson, as a freshman at Princeton for her school’s Cultural Heroes Day. “I loved it because by choosing to portray her hero as a college student, the focus was on Michelle’s accomplishments as an individual, not just as an attachment,” her mom, Karlyn Johnson Brown, told MAKERS.

As Obama has explained on her sold-out book tour, she hopes that telling her story will encourage others to become who they’re meant to be. “My hope is that this book will inspire everyone to tap into their own journeys of becoming and to share those stories with one another.”