The immediate past US president made the remarks during a round-table event with students in Chicago discussing politics and civic engagement yesterday.

Former US president Barack Obama has spoken about his past as a youth. According to Obama,he wouldn't have been the US president if everything he did were in pictures.

The immediate past US president made the remarks during a round-table event with students in Chicago discussing politics and civic engagement yesterday.

"If you had pictures of everything I had done when I was in high school, I probably wouldn't have been president of the United states, said Obama.

So I would advice all of you to be a little more circumspect about your selfies and what you take pictures of. Just a suggestion. But it is a real problem. It's one of the biggest challenges of being in Public life.

I wrote a book about my early journey "Dreams from My Father" a ;long time ago and because I had been pretty honest about the struggles I went through as a young man, when I ran for office, there was something revealed about the guy smoked pot (Cannabis smoking) and I was like; Yeah I know, It's in my book. And I learned from that, I didn't sugarcoat it or suggest somehow that it was something I recommend for everybody. But that's what teenage kids did at that age when/where I was growing up. Not everybody, some were wiser than me but I wasn't then wise. So I think the best you can do is to own your life and your mistakes and the changes that you go through."