Madeline Stuart Quotes

I was brought up as a normal kid.

I had a really normal childhood except I acted. It was like, my brother played soccer, and I was on television sometimes.

I've always been like that. I was a tomboy when I was a kid, so I was always playing baseball and basketball and football and stuff as a kid with the boys.

I was a tomboy growing up, and an athlete.

So as my kids will tell you, they had a pretty normal life.

Honestly, I was a troublemaker. The environment I grew up in, my mom and my sister, they decided they were going to sign me up in every single thing to keep me busy. I played football, basketball, baseball. Anything, whatever was in season, I was signed up for it. Basketball was one of the things that just stuck.

We wanted our children to have as normal a life as we could.

I love the idea of my daughter looking back at her childhood and growing up with a dog.

In an increasingly complex world, we have a simple and bold vision that all children should have the opportunity to grow up healthy.

I used to go to sports camp every summer. I'd make a lot of new friends, and it was all athletic. It was basically a place for parents to send their kids to run out all their summer energy for two weeks.

I've said this time and again: My greatest concern coming into the White House was making sure my girls came out whole and normal, and decent and kind, just like I would expect them to if we were living on the South Side of Chicago. And it takes work to keep White House life normal for the kids.

I was the ultimate tomboy because my oldest brother used to always beat up on me and wrestle and make sure I was engaged in sports, because I was his excuse to be able to go hang out with his friends.

That's all I care about is being healthy.

Although I was good at my studies, I also thought to myself that I should play cricket as well. And when the cricket team that consisted of the boys from our village used to play, I was able to play with the team that had older players.

I grew up playing soccer with the boys - quite far from reading magazines.

Growing up, my father coached my basketball team, and my mother drove me into St. Louis for various rehearsals between musical productions and Radio Disney.

I started off playing sports when I was five years old. I played three or four sports all throughout the year.

I think anything that happens to you between the ages of zero to 18, and probably further on, has a lasting impact on you.

My early family life was incredibly happy but I was very, very protected and very much living in a bubble. I was born with my legs bent inwards and clawed feet.

I was always a tomboy. I always wanted to be around the boys, always wanted to play sports - basketball, football, kickball, whatever it was. I was real aggressive. I wanted to be around the bros!

As soon as I was old enough to move and walk, I went straight to sports. My mom said I never even played with toys.

I love kids, and I really liked the idea of getting involved with something that was all about giving kids the opportunity to walk, run, or maybe even play soccer someday.

Is there such a thing as a normal childhood?

We had a normal childhood. I played baseball, and we played violin in orchestras three times a week. I learned more from that than anything else.

When you're little, every experience writes on the canvas of who you are.