Melanija
Knava [Melania Knauss] was born in Novo Mesto, Slovenia in
1970 and grew up in Sevnica, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia). Her mother
worked in textile industry and father was an automobile salesman. She
attended the University of
Ljubljana for one year, leaving to pursue a career in modeling.
She began in Slovenia and later in the fashion cities of Paris and
Milan using the Germanic version of her name – Melania Knauss.
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| Fashion Photo 1999 |
In 1996, Melania moved to New York City
and appeared on covers of Vogue,
Harper's Bazaar,
Glamour, and in Style.
She also modeled for a swimsuit edition of Sports
Illustrated. Melania met the
future 45th
President, Donald
Trump in 1998.
During
an interview with Greta
van Susteren at Fox
News, she revealed that in addition to her native language of Slovene
and English, she can speak Serb-Croatian, French, Italian, and
German. She tried acting in 2001, appearing with her future husband
in a fashion comedy film Zoolander
starring Ben
Stiller.
Melania
and Donald were married in January of 2005 at the Trump estate in
Palm Beach, Florida. Donald kept to his real estate business and
Melania continued her career as a model and starting new businesses.
By 2010, Melania showed she had business savvy and a sense of design,
with Melania Timepieces and Jewelry that was marketed on QVC.
She named her product lines after famous cities – New York, Palm
Beach, and Paris. Her goal was to make her products affordable so as
to have access to all women, pricing her Jewelry between $30 and
$200. Melania also served as chairwoman of the American Heart
Association, raising $1.7 million for research.
In a
luncheon at the White House, Melania hosted International Women's Day
and discussed her intention to fight for gender equality and against
repression of women globally.
 |
| Children's Hospital |
Children
has been the center of Melania's position as First Lady. Her priority
and focused mission have been on numerous issues involving children.
She visits children hospitals and schools, sometimes in surprise
visits to spend more time with children. Melania spends much time
with children in the US, but also when she travels to other nations
with her husband she makes a point to visit children there. Melania
escorted the Queen of Jordan to Excel
Academy in Washington, DC, the first public charter school for
girls. She also visited the American
International School in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and participated in
a calligraphy lesson with children at Kyobashi
Tsukiji Elementary School in Japan.
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| Tokyo, Japan Calligraphy Class |
In the
spring of 2019, Mrs. Trump invited a group of local students to the
White House to speak with them and listen to their stories to better
understand challenging issues of youth today.
One of
those issues that has involved many lives that Mrs. Trump has focused
upon is the opioid epidemic. She has worked to raise awareness about
opioid abuse and the impact it has on babies and the unborn. During a
visit to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, First Lady Trump learned
more about research in neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) which is a
condition resulting from drug abuse in pregnant mothers. She
continues to work and find ways to safe-guard children against drug
abuse.
Another
issue focused upon by First Lady Trump concerns children being
harassed, abused, threatened and bullied online. Indeed, her first
act as First Lady she invited executives from big tech firms like
Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Twitter for a White House summit to
discuss online harassment. Her interest in this was two-fold – her
love and concern for children and letters she received from children
discussing the matter.
 |
| Barron & Melania Trump |
In May
of 2019, First Lady Trump launched BE
BEST program, an awareness campaign focusing upon the well-being
of children. BE BEST also supports families and children affected by
the opioid abuse crisis by raising awareness of NAS and works to
educate parents on the importance of healthy pregnancies. She
promotes herself as a loving mother and it is obvious in her
relationship with Barron
Trump.
First
Lady Trump believes we have a responsibility to help children cope
with various issues today and is committed to protecting and teaching
children of the United States and other nations because they are the
treasure of any nation's future.
 |
| Town-And-Country Magazine 2019 |
First
Lady Melania Trump is the second First Lady whose poise, grace and
intellectual standards – not since Jacqueline
Kennedy. But unlike
Mrs. Kennedy, the media and “high society” has not been kind.
Mrs. Trump has suffered ridicule of her accent by cruel TV pundits
that I refuse to provide names to prevent them any publicity. Fashion
magazines have not focused upon our First Lady's grace and beauty and
style like Jacqueline Kennedy experienced. Indeed, they have bashed
and criticized her choice of attire that demonstrates how there is an
element of cruelty and snobbishness within the culture of our
society. It has been despicable that hatred for our 45th
President has bled off onto our First Lady.
Let us
hope that as we struggle through this virus epidemic that those cruel
pundits will either go away or reform. And, as I am sure President
Trump will be serving his second term that the next four years media
will treat our First Lady with the respect she deserves and fashion
magazines will see her qualities and feature more of her in the
future.
Our
First Lady is not just a pretty face, she is an intellectual and loves her adopted country.
The following is a video providing a biography as she began her tenure as 45th First Lady of the United States:
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