Photo credit: Janet Donovan
“It reminds all of us, that people with public profiles are human beings too,” said Mark Dybal while introducing Barbara Bush and her sister Jenna Bush Hager at a book party in their honor for Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life at The Jefferson Hotel co-hosted by Mark, Connie Milstein, Tammy Haddad and Anita McBride. “This is what we call Washington 60 Minutes,” said Haddad who took over the mic. “It’s such a great book because it’s so uplifting, it makes me jealous that I don’t have a sister.”
Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager
Book synopsis: “In this funny and heartfelt memoir, the twin daughters of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush offer their perspective on growing up in the public eye. Hager (a correspondent for NBC’s Today Show) and Bush (CEO and founder of Global Health Corps) describe their early childhood in Midland, Tex.; attending public high school while living in Austin’s governor’s mansion; and coming of age in the White House under the close scrutiny of the public, the press, and the Secret Service.
Some of the anecdotes are hilarious, as when then–Vice President George H.W. Bush (known here as “Gampy”) set out on a nighttime search for his young granddaughter’s misplaced stuffed animal, with a band of Secret Service agents trailing with flashlights, or when prankster Jenna’s water broke at her baby shower (even her husband didn’t believe it because the sisters had fibbed in the past). There are many loving reminiscences of the sisters’ close relationship and of the bond they share with their parents, advice and guidance from their grandparents (with some witty one-liners from grandmother Barbara “The Enforcer” Bush, who said to her son, “I don’t care if you are the president of the United States, take your feet off my coffee table”), as well as sober reflections on the war in Iraq, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the tough and sometimes unpopular decisions the authors’ father made while in office. Readers will be entertained by this charming, wild, and wonderful pair of life stories.” Publishers Weekly
“Here’s what I want to know, and I know I’m not alone,” asked Haddad. “Have you guys ever fought?” “Some things shouldn’t be documented,” said Jenna. “We actually, and this is the perfect example, we fight over Mark,” said Barbara. “I traveled with Mark to Ethiopia and the whole time I tried to make sure that he loved me more than Barbara and I think I did it. I don’t even need to brag about it. I know where I stand in Mark’s heart.” “Anyway, yes, we fought for sure and if people say their young, teenage daughters don’t fight, then I want to meet them.” What they both agreed on is that they have never fought over the same man.
Barbara and Jenna live four blocks from each other in New York. Since Jenna gets up earlier, Barbara is the first one to get the text wake up call. What they text about “depends on the day. I think the beauty of a sisterhood, whether it’s a sister or a friend, is that they’re the person you reach out to when you’re happy, they’re the person that you reach out to when you’re sad. Or, you can just say, Good Morning,” said Barbara.
Their parents, former President George W. and former First Lady Laura Bush, were definitely surprised when their daughters decided to write the book, especially since they don’t have much free time. Jenna has a young daughter and is on NBC’s Today Show and Barbara is working with Global Health Corps. “It really opened my eyes to the fact that we already have the tools we need to solve most global health issues and yet if you’re poor you often don’t have access to that. Global Health Corps is based on the Teach for America model, but applied to global health. We competitively recruit young leaders from around the world and they go through our program, solving the most pressing global health issues in the Unites States and in other countries. Throughout the year they go through our training focused on policy change and advocacy so that they have the frameworks they need to affect change in their lives. We’ve worked with about a thousand young people, and 98 percent continue to work in global health every day. We think in ten years our alums will be the minister of health in their country or they’ll be running the Gates Foundation. They’ll be in positions of influence where they can continue to affect change in global health. We bring our fellows together throughout the year, and they lift each other up. It’s hard working in global health. You can wake up and see the negative or you can see the positives. We actually select for optimists, so a lot of it is finding what we call rational dreamers, who dream the world can be different, but rationally work to do that every day. That’s so meaningful, in order to pick yourself up every single day and do work that is complicated but worth it.”
“It was hilarious because yesterday,” said Jenna. “When we aired a piece on The Today Show about the book and Barbara’s work and my work … it was all five of us were sitting around the table and it was Barbara solving the world, and they’re like it’s like really important work and then it flashed on me and I’m saying, ‘Today I’m going behind the scenes in Nassau.’ All of us burst into laughter because it was like, ‘Aw, it’s really mind boggling work I’m doing here.’ It’s really fun and I do get to tell great stories of extraordinary people. I was hired as an education correspondent eight years ago. Tomorrow I’ll be drinking wine with Kathy Lee Gifford before 11:00 am, so I’m not sure how I got here. Now Savannah Guthrie is my next door neighbor. She’s my very best friend, well not my very best friend. She’s a dear friend, and I think that shows you the unexpected beauty of life: That if you kind of keep your eyes open that you can find these incredible things. My favorite story was with Maya Angelou right about a year before she passed away. I was pregnant with my daughter Mila, and those that have watched me on TV know that I cry freely. She was talking about a memoir that she wrote about her mother, and about being a mother and so I was in a lot of tears because I was thinking about my unborn daughter, although I didn’t know she was a girl then, and thinking about this exceptional woman and how I could possibly raise a human like that. So far she isn’t writing poetry, but she’s exceptional.”
Barbara Bush, Marie Royce, Jenna Bush Hager
Guests dined on shrimp boats, tuna tartar and squash soup in between edging in for photos with the duel authors.
