Michelle Obama has called out people who focused on her appearance rather than her achievements.

The 62-year-old former First Lady - who is married to Barack Obama - has opened up on the way people seemed to talk more about her physical appearance, particularly during her time in the White House from 2008 to 2016.

In a teaser for her appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, she said: "The top of the article would be she was wearing, not my education, not my professional career, but it started with appearance.

"It was clear that, oh, my God, you don't know anything about what I did before I came here."

Michelle - who is an attorney and author - got her undergraduate degree at Princeton University before moving onto Harvard Law School.

She added: "I mean, I practiced law. I was an assistant to the mayor in Chicago. I ran a nonprofit.

"That quickly, my shoes become the most important thing about me.

"We have to think a lot more, to strike that balance and to be thoughtful about what messages we're sending, giving, receiving."

Michelle pointed out that women in power need to make sure they are improving on what has come before them, and doing right by the next generation.

She explained: "When you get the power, when you're the boss, when you're running your own thing, let's just not become female versions of the thing that was broken.

"Are you building the world that you told your little girl existed?"

However, she reiterated her stance that the US is not ready for the female president, and insisted people shouldn't get "mad" at her for pointing that one.

She said: "There are men out there that were not gonna vote for a woman.

"Let's just be real about it, and let's put that on the table and talk about, well, what's that about?

"Let's not be mad because I made the statement."