Michelle Obama launches Global Girls Initiative to "elevate organizations"

Former first lady Michelle Obama announced Thursday the Global Girls Alliance, an organization that will support some 1,500 girls education groups around the world.

Echoing one of the causes that she defended from the east wing, Obama said in an interview on the show "Today" that sending Girls in the classrooms had a workout effect. "When you educate a girl, you educate a family, a community, a country," she said. "If we are concerned about climate change, if we care about poverty, we need to be concerned about education,"

Obama said the Global Girls Alliance would provide funding to organizations in the field as well as training, technical support and networking opportunities.

Asked about the progress made by the #MeToo movement over the last year, Obama "I'm surprised how much it has changed and how much has not changed, and I think it's from there that comes fire, "she said. "Too much is too much … The world is a sadly dangerous place for women and girls … and I think young women are tired of it."

And reaction to the movement, especially men, Obama was resolved. "Change is not a straightforward, smooth path – there will be bumps and resistance. There has been a status quo … and it changes and there will be some discomfort. It's up to women to say, "Sorry to feel uncomfortable, but I'm paving the way for the next generation."

In today's interview, the former first lady said she was sticking to her famous slogan: "When they go low, we go high," even though prominent Democrats issued a different note lately.

"Fear is not an appropriate motivator – hope always wins out," she said. (As could be expected, she answered the recurring question of whether she would one day be categorically emphatic "absolutely not.")

And she joked about her friendship with former President George W. Bush, captured shortly after Sen. John McCain's funeral in August, when Bush had surreptitiously handed Obama a treat. "We are still companions of siege," she said, explaining that because of the protocol, they always sit next to each other whenever former presidents and their wives meet. "He is my partner in crime … I love him to death."

(The mints, she teased, were old – they were in a White House box that the former president had apparently removed from her mandate.)

It was a simple gesture that circulated widely on social media, but Obama said his interest underscored people's desire to see bipartisan civility. "They are hungry for that," she said.

The Global Girls Alliance is not her only project – Obama's memoir "Becoming" falls next month, after which she embarks on a national tour of the book in the rock-star style (she sold all stages) . And she launched a voter registration campaign called When We All Vote, calling on friends such as Tom Hanks and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

[Tickets to Michelle Obama’s book tour are going fast — and raising eyebrows]