After growing up in the public eye as daughters of former U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, Malia and Sasha Obama are making intentional strides to establish identities separate from their family legacy.
In a candid conversation on the Sibling Revelry podcast, hosted by Kate and Oliver Hudson, Michelle Obama opened up about how her daughters continue to grapple with defining themselves outside of the Obama name. The 61-year-old best-selling author appeared on the podcast alongside her brother, Craig Robinson.
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When asked by Oliver if their children ever experienced the tension between emulating their parents and wanting to detach, Michelle replied with a laugh, “Where do we begin?” She added, “Our daughters are 26 and 23, they are young adult women. But they went through a period in their teen years…it was the ‘push away.’”
She emphasized that the struggle is ongoing. “They’re still doing that, and you guys know this of children with parents who are known. You’re trying to distinguish yourself. It’s very important for my kids to feel like they’ve earned what they are getting in the world,” Michelle said, according to Hello Magazine.
“And they don’t want people to assume that they don’t want to work hard, that they’re just naturally handed things, they’re very sensitive to that. They want to be their people.” One of the most visible signs of that independence came when Malia Obama professionally dropped her last name.
During the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, she debuted her short film The Heart under the name Malia Ann, using only her first and middle names. “And we were like, ‘They’re still going to know it’s you, Malia.’ But we respected the fact that she’s trying to make her way,” Michelle said. Still, despite their efforts to forge their own paths, the Obama daughters haven’t rejected their upbringing.
“They understand us as full human beings now in the same way that I discovered that about my parents,” Michelle noted, highlighting how Malia and Sasha continue to embrace the core values instilled by their parents. This interview came shortly after Michelle spoke on SiriusXM’s Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa, where she recalled the immense effort it took to protect her daughters from the media spotlight during their teenage years.
“That was a lot of work,” she admitted, describing weekends as “a nightmare” due to constant coordination to allow the girls a semblance of normal life. “They had to drive and they had to go to prom and they were on teams…and they had drinks, and they tried out smoking,” Michelle shared. “And every weekend was a nightmare, because we had to work to make sure that they, being regular teenagers, didn’t wind up on Page Six.”