Last week, a two-year-old girl named Parker Curry visited the National Portrait Gallery with her mother and became so entranced by the new painting of Michelle Obama that she couldn't look away.
Her mother, Jessica Curry, took a photo of Parker gazing up at the portrait in awe. "All I wanted was just one pic," Jessica told The Washington Post. "She was just so fixated on the portrait and wouldn’t turn away from it." By the next morning, Jessica's photo had gone viral.
Michelle Obama initially responded to the photo with three heart eye emojis. Then, on Tuesday, she invited Parker over to her office so the two could meet in person. There, they had their own little dance party to Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off."
"Parker, I'm so glad I had the chance to meet you today (and for the dance party)!" Obama wrote on social media. "Keep on dreaming big for yourself... and maybe one day I'll proudly look up at a portrait of you!" She also shared a photo of herself having a chat with her pint-sized new friend on the office couch.
Speaking with CNN about the photo's impact, Jessica Curry explained, "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."
"In further discussion with (Parker) yesterday and today, I realized that she believes Michelle Obama is a queen," Curry added. "And she wants to be a queen as well."
