Michelle Obama to offer ‘back-to-school’ tips as iVillage guest editor

First lady Michelle Obama will be guest editor on iVillage the week of Aug. 20, the media company announced Monday.

Obama will be the website’s first-ever “guest editor,” and iVillage promises that starting next Monday, readers will get “an inside look at how she gets her family ready for a new school year and how the Obamas stay healthy and active all year.” The first lady’s editorial theme for the week is “Rev up your back-to-school routine.”

The popular opinion-focused website iVillage is owned by NBC Universal and geared mainly toward women, offering content focused on health, beauty, family and romance.

“Women get so much strength and inspiration from each other and I was thrilled to have the chance to work with iVillage and its energized, engaged audience of millions of women,” Obama said in a statement released by NBC Universal. “As children across the country get ready to go back to school, this is an exciting — and sometimes overwhelming — time for American families. As Guest Editor, I hope to start a community dialogue on this topic so we can all share tips and advice to get our kids off to a great start in this new school year and help our families be healthier.”

It will be the first lady’s first time acting as an editor of a media outlet, but marks another instance of Obama’s outreach to women online. She also penned blog posts for the women's media site BlogHer, an iVillage community affiliate, and filmed a video chat with Hispanic moms representing the forum Mamiverse.com.

Obama has become an important surrogate for her husband’s campaign in her appeal to the key female voting bloc, and her interaction with niche but highly participatory Web audiences is a strategic move.

During the week, Obama will also urge users to sign up for a six-week “Get Moving Now” challenge to achieve the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award. The challenge is supported by the first lady’s anti-childhood obesity initiative “Let’s Move!” The site will also promote the Twitter hashtag #swaponething, “where users share their tips about a healthy choice they make in lieu of a less desirable one.”

Obama will participate in what NBC is billing as a “chat” with iVillage Chief Correspondent Kelly Wallace on Aug. 20 at the White House. The website and the official iVillage Facebook and Twitter accounts are currently taking questions for Obama.

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