Stopping at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library & Museum, former first daughters and twins Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush visited College Station on Saturday, April 23 on Saturday, April 23 as part of their “The Superpower Sisterhood” book tour.
Daughters of former President George W. Bush and granddaughters of the late George H.W. Bush, the sisters share their unique perspectives to being everyday Texans, as well as living as the former first daughters. Hager serves as a host of NBC’s TODAY Show as well as an editor-at-large for Southern Living magazine, while Barbara is the co-founder and board chair of Global Health Corps.
“The Superpower Sisterhood” is the third of the sister’s shared authorship with their first being “Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life,” published in 2017 and “Sisters First,” which is the children’s book version published in 2019. Hager also has various books she has authored including “Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope” and “Our Great Big Backyard,” which she authored with her mother Laura Bush.
“Our first book, ‘Sisters First,’ is a love letter to sisterhood. Obviously, we were born twins and I think we both agree that it’s the best thing that ever happened in our life because we had a partner in everything we did. We went to totally normal life in Texas to very unusual circumstances, given the role of our granddad and our parents,” Barbara said. “We had a partner to go through to navigate that with when none of our friends could necessarily relate.”
Their new book focuses on celebrating sisterhood and friendship, while bringing to light the story of Emma, an only child, based on their mother, who begins relationships with two sets of sisters who move into the neighborhood. The five use their “superpowers,” such as being good at math, to figure out how they can help their community. 
“Our mom desperately wanted siblings and unfortunately, our grandmother suffered a number of miscarriages,” Barbara Pierce said. “She never got blood siblings, but she has the same friends that she has had since she was a little kid in Midland, Texas. They go on a hiking trip each summer and they’re like her sisters.”
Written during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sisters noted that they wrote the book virtually through phone calls, emails and text messages. 
“We didn’t really think about … why we wrote it the way we did, but I wrote when I was not together, I didn’t see my family. It was early, early days of the pandemic, everyone was so supportive,” Hager said. “We were doing it back and forth via text and email and phone calls, which was also fun to have a project that was different to do together.” 
The sisters’ love of reading is no surprise to most as the family’s love of reading has been ever so present, especially with the programs their grandmother and former first lady was involved in including the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.
“It’s in our DNA,” Hager said. “It’s hard not to love something when the people that you love, love it so much, you know, and so it’s ingrained in us.”
Former speechwriter for George H.W. Bush and producer for “41 on 41: A Documentary About George H. W. Bush, The 41st President of the United States, As Told by 41 Extraordinary Storytellers,” Mary Kate Cary served as the moderator of Saturday’s panel. Cary is also the George & Barbara Bush Foundation Advisory Council chair and is a professor of politics at the University of Virginia. 
“It’s always a pleasure for me to be at the Bush Foundation here, and especially this auditorium where the Bush’s were many times over the years,” Cary said.
George & Barbara Bush Foundation CEO Max Angerholzer said the mission of the organization is to protect and support the legacies of the Bush family. 
“[The Bush family] stood for inclusiveness, civility, selfless service and helping others, and I honestly believe, and I think you’ll all agree with me, that those ideals and values are more important than they’ve ever been,” Angerholzer said. “We take great pride in being able to support and represent them every day and when you think about that legacy, selfless service is at the top of it, and that’s key to the ethos of Aggieland as well.”
Getting to host the sisters at a place so dear to their family, Angerholzer said the two serve as a prime example of their family’s dedication to others.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t say that the entire Bush family follows in the example of George and Barbara Bush, and all the children [and] grandchildren have found ways to give back and to do meaningful things to society, no more so than Jenna and Barbara” Angerholzer said.