Michelle Obama joins Snapchat as ‘MichelleObama’

By Angela Moon

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Michelle Obama joined the popular messaging app Snapchat on Tuesday to promote her upcoming trip to Liberia, Morocco and Spain to encourage education for girls.

Her Snapchat account “MichelleObama” will be used to give “young people a fun way to follow her trip” with her teen daughters Malia and Sasha to promote girls’ education, one of her signature issues as the first lady of the United States, the White House said. She begins her trip at the end of June.

Actress Meryl Streep and Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto are also scheduled to join her in Africa. [L1N1971US]

Obama’s first Snapchat post on Tuesday was a selfie with caption: “Oh hey! Look who just joined @Snapchat. Add: MichelleObama.”

Obama already has 4.6 million followers on Twitter and 5 million followers on Instagram.

Snapchat, a mobile app where posts disappear within 24 hours, has more than 100 million active users, most under the age of 25.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Andrew Hay)