Asked by MSNBC’s Kristen Welker why he included a photo of President Obama donning tiara in a his collection of “2014: A Year in Photos,” White House photographer Pete Souza said, “I thought it showed a very human side of him. He has a lot of fun with babies and young kids and I think he just got caught up in the moment that if they are wearing their tiaras, he is going to wear one too. I asked him to do it and he went along.”
“Was there a lot of urging?” Welker asked. “Can you take us behind the scenes?”
“Not much urging at all,” said Souza. “I think he said something like this picture is just for us.”
According to Tulsa World, an 8-year old Brownie named Miriam was the one who asked the president to put on the tiara during a brief meeting with her scout troop in May.
“I was like, ‘I have a tiara for you. Do you want to put it on?’” Miriam said she asked the president.
“He said, ‘No, thank you. I’ll give it to my girls,’ ” she recalled.
“Once the press left the room, he said, ‘Don’t tell anyone, but I’ll put on the tiara,’ ” Miriam said.
President Obama, who famously said, “I’m not interested in photo-ops,”and once quipped, “You don’t put stuff on your head if you’re president,” allowed his official White House photographer to stick around for the tiara photo-op after the press had been banished from the room.
The White House tweeted out the picture on New Year’s Eve with the hashtag #WomeninSTEM (because nothing says “science” and “gender equality” like a tiara or something).
Tiaras.
President Obama.#WomenInSTEM.
Here are 9 ways we geeked out in 2014 → http://t.co/c84BftixkB pic.twitter.com/rSXVuMRy8E— White House Archived (@ObamaWhiteHouse) December 31, 2014
How do you feel about the leader of the free world (and commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces) posing in a tiara as part of an orchestrated photo-op? Do you think it’s important for the world to see the “human side” of the president or do you think he should work on projecting an image of strength?
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