8-year-old Ella-Lorraine Brown is no stranger to embodying her favorite female heroes, such as Bessie Coleman as well as Ruby Bridges. When her school’s Cultural Heroes Day approached, she knew exactly who she wanted to be this year: Michelle Robinson.

Before Mrs. Obama was a first lady and before she met Barack, she was Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, a freshman at Princeton University. 

Instead of dressing as the former first lady, Ella-Lorraine portrayed Michelle when she was a braid-wearing, wide-eyed, Ivy League undergrad.

“She was really in awe of the idea that with hard work you could become anything,” Ella-Lorraine’s mom and fellow Princeton alum, Karlyn Johnson Brown, told Yahoo News. Although several other girls dressed as Michelle Obama, Johnson says that Ella-Lorraine was the only one to go as a pre-White House Michelle.

“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,” Brown added.

Ella-Lorraine’s parents have always encouraged their daughter to represent Black women whenever the opportunity came.

“Ella-Lorraine has never known a time when Black women weren’t publicly honored and ‘Black girl magic’ wasn’t a highly celebrated thing. That’s awesome,” says Brown.

“We try to surround Ella-Lorraine with women who are go-getters like Michelle, women who are independent and smart, level-headed and loving,” her father, Eugene Brown, told Yahoo.

“We make sure she knows about those who have gone before and have passed on,” he added.

For previous school projects, Ella-Lorraine has dressed up as pioneer pilot Bessie Coleman as well as school integration leaded Ruby Bridges.