Successful Slovenian model-turned-American first lady Melania Trump has had both good and bad experiences in the public spotlight since her husband, Donald Trump, was elected president in 2016.
Her birth name is Melanija Knavs. The world now knows her as former First Lady Melania Trump. She was born on April 26, 1970 in Novi Mesto, Slovenia, in the former Yugoslavia. She grew up in the town of Sevnica, where her father sold cars and her mother worked in the textile industry.
However, Melanija was interested in fashion, her former school friend Mirjana Jelančić remembers.
"She loved to design, to make new clothes from old ones."
Knavs stopped her design studies and began to develop a career as a model in Europe under the name Melanija Knaus. In the 1990s, success brought her to the United States.
"As a model and someone who is often invited to luxury parties in New York, that's how, as far as I know, she met Donald Trump," says Kathryn Jellison, a professor at Ohio University.
Knaus became Melania Trump on January 22, 2005. A year later, she gave birth to her son Baron, her only child. In the same year, she became an American citizen.
Melania's life changed drastically when her husband ran as a Republican candidate for the US president in 2016, and she joined him in the campaign.
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the USA in January 2017.
As first lady, Melania Trump traveled the world and started projects such as the "Be Best" campaign, which focused on child welfare, Internet safety and opiate abuse. She made less public appearances than many first ladies, but she still received intense media attention, Jellison notes.
"In some circles, she was criticized for her fashion choices, for her decision not to move into the White House right away and the "Be Best" campaign, which was not one of the most successful when it comes to first ladies and public service."
After leaving the White House, Melania Trump practically disappeared from the public eye. She made occasional appearances to support her husband's new bid for the White House and to promote her autobiography.
"Writing this memoir has been a deeply personal journey for me," she said in a post on Twitter.
Austin Smith from Wisconsin voted for Donald Trump in 2016. He told us what he hopes for if Melania Trump returns to the White House.
"I would like her to start several projects. One of the topics I am passionate about is school lunches".
Jasleen Kaur, who votes for Democrats, would like Melania Trump to be, as she says, "an influential first lady."
"I would like her to go among the citizens, talk to people in urban communities, travel around the country and present herself, not only as a figure standing behind the president but as a woman who has a certain power."
Analyst Jellison, however, believes that, as first lady in her second term, Melania Trump would likely continue to largely avoid publicity.
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