Malia Obama’s Life Growing Up In The Spotlight
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Malia Ann Obama, the oldest daughter of former President Barack Obama, certainly can’t remember a time when she didn’t have to appear next to her father for photographs at significant occasions.
Malia was already in the public glare as the daughter of a U.S. senator before her father became the first African American to win a presidential election in 2008. Barack served as a state senator in Illinois from 1997 to 2005, and then as a senator in the United States Senate from 2005 to 2008. Malia Obama was born on July 4, 1998, into public life, frequently accompanying her father to speeches and dinners alongside her mother, Michelle Obama, and younger sister, Natasha, also known as Sasha Obama.
Malia spent her whole preteen and adolescent years at the White House, from 2009 to 2017, as if the normally difficult preteen and adolescent years needed any more pressure. She transformed from an adorable youngster to a beautiful, accomplished young adult right in front of America’s — and the world’s — eyes! While she was often in the photos, Malia wanted to stay under the radar as she grew older. Her metamorphosis, on the other hand, has been stunning. Continue reading to see how much Malia has changed and evolved as she has grown up in the spotlight.
Malia Obama was 6 when her dad was elected to the U.S. Senate
When her father, Barack Obama, was chosen to represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate in 2004, Malia Obama was a sweet 6-year-old. This marked the start of her life in the spotlight. According to Vanity Fair, the Obama family waited for the election results on November 2nd in a hotel room with Malia sitting on Barack’s knee and Sasha on Michelle’s. Malia had assisted her father in casting his ballot. Barack and his family grinned widely the entire night, and Malia flashed her missing front baby teeth as she was the favourite to defeat the Republican Alan Keyes.
Even though they were beginning to get more notoriety at the time, the Obamas were still primarily simply a typical family. Barack’s keynote address to the Democratic National Convention in Boston in July 2004 cemented his reputation as a charismatic politician. Barack created the conditions for what would later turn out to be his successful presidential campaign by calling for cooperation across party lines.
“Our nation is frequently divided into Red States and Blue States by pundits, with Red States belonging to Republicans and Blue States to Democrats. But I also have some news for them. In the Blue States, we worship a great God, and in the Red States, we don’t appreciate federal investigators snooping around in our libraries, “As he stated during his address,
She sometimes hoped Barack Obama wouldn’t win in 2008
Barack Obama’s political standing in America grew between 2004 and 2007, and along the way, his endearing family received more notice. When the then-U.S. Senator declared his candidature for the 2008 presidential nomination at the Old State Capitol, where none other than Abraham Lincoln began his own political career, in February 2007, according to The New York Times, interest in the Obamas surged.
Naturally, Barack brought his family with him. Along with his ladies, he stood in front of the lavish Sugar Creek limestone building. As shown in YouTube recordings of the event, Malia Obama, who was 8 years old at the time, dressed to be warm with a black coat, a white scarf, matching gloves, and a beanie.
The entire family had a hectic year. Barack and Michelle Obama, however, claimed to People in 2008 that they tried to establish a schedule for the girls even while on the campaign trail. According to the story, the happy parents made sure that they had family movie evenings and assigned Malia and Sasha Obama jobs like setting the table and doing the dishes in exchange for a $1 allowance each week. Malia reportedly stated in 2007 that she occasionally hoped her father would lose the race, while Barack claimed it was mostly because to her anxiety over moving out of Chicago.
Malia Obama got a dog when she moved to the White House
A life of relative normalcy would be completely left in the past for Malia Obama when she moved into the White House less than a year later with her toys and other belongings. However, it wasn’t all bad. Barack Obama said that his children would finally receive a dog in his victory speech to the nation. While most people don’t necessarily find choosing a puppy to be difficult, the Obamas did. According to The Mercury News, this is because Malia is sensitive to animal hair, so the family had to locate one that was hypoallergenic.
Additionally, they preferred adoption above purchasing, and balancing these two requirements proved challenging. “Obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me. So whether we’re going to be able to balance those two things, I think, is a pressing issue on the Obama household,” Barack told the press.
America was agitated by the quest for the ideal First Dog. The late U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy gave the Obamas a Portuguese water dog instead of a shelter pup. According to The Guardian, the Kennedys owned Portuguese water dogs, and the senator learned that one of his dog’s litter mates had given birth to puppies in need of lifelong homes. After the cat of a cousin, the girls gave him the name Bo. The Obama family welcomed Sunny, a second Portuguese water dog, in 2013.
Barack Obama tried to keep his kids away from the spotlight
Michelle and Barack Obama consented to take part in an Access Hollywood interview while on the campaign trail in July 2008, and they accompanied Malia and Sasha Obama, who were 10 and 7 at the time. The girls played a significant role in the interview by responding to questions and acting adorable for the camera. The Obamas presumably anticipated that the interview would spark some interest in their young kids, but they just could not foresee the intensity of the response.
According to a 2008 Today article, Barack later thought their inclusion of them was a mistake, and the four Obamas never again sat down for an interview together. “I think that we got carried away in the moment. … I was surprised by the attention it received,” Barack said. After learning the lesson, Barack and Michelle Obama worked diligently to keep their daughters’ lives as private as humanly possible.
Malia showed early on that she was a diligent worker. Malia worked as an intern in television studios in New York and Los Angeles while she was a student at Sidwell Friends School, indicating that she might be interested in pursuing a career in the entertainment sector. Malia served as a production assistant, which frequently entails mundane work, during her internship on the set of the Halle Berry-starring miniseries “Extant.” Berry told Andy Cohen in 2017: “I had wild respect for her for that. She was down to do whatever a PA is required to do.” So much praise!
Malia Obama kicked off her career as a TV writer
Malia Obama worked as a summer intern at HBO in 2015, during which she also spent some time on the “Girls” set collaborating with the show’s writers. She was praised for her performance. Lena Dunham, the show’s creator and star, remarked on SiriusXM Satellite Radio, “She is very brilliant. “I once questioned [Malia] about her favourite film. Do you want me to mention my favourite directors, actors, or cinematographers, she asked? You are wiser than me, so let’s just get this over with, I thought.” The “Girls” showrunner said that Malia was being instructed in the duties performed by their writer’s assistant.
Malia Obama changed course and took an internship at the American embassy in Madrid a year later, according to Fox News, a decision that led some to speculate about whether the young Obama was interested in following in her father’s footsteps. However, Malia secured an internship at The Weinstein Company in New York City in 2017, when she was in between high school and Harvard, revealing her actual interests, as reported by Page Six. Her path in the entertainment industry hasn’t ended there, either.
She finished her degree in lockdown
A global pandemic’s entrance at Harvard disrupted Malia Obama’s stay there, just like it did for her fellow undergraduate students. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Visual and Environmental Studies in May 2021 and spent the state of emergency with her family, including her parents, sister Sasha Obama, and her sister.
Their family learned the value of following a routine while they were stranded at home, Michelle Obama shared on her self-titled podcast in August 2020. She said that although the girls of her and Barack Obama studied on computers for the majority of the day, they always engaged in a pleasant activity after school. “Right about five o’clock, everybody comes out of their nooks,” she said. Puzzles have grown in size.
Michelle also explained that her family had started holding card game tournaments. “Barack has taught the girls Spades, so now there’s this vicious competition,” she continued. “They wouldn’t have sat down, but for this quarantine, to learn how to play a card game with their dad.”
The former first lady also discussed how Malia and Sasha had been mentally impacted by the isolation. For them, it’s a relief, Michelle pondered. I’m not sure if they’ve expressed it, but they seem tranquil. Malia and Sasha’s mother remarked, “It’s almost like they needed the world to halt a little bit,” because they had constantly been caught up in a frenzy of media attention and political upheaval.
Malia Obama joined in with Black Lives Matter protests
Malia Obama opted to make her own stance and take part in racial justice protests after growing up in a political environment.
Barack Obama recalled how his daughters joined the Black Lives Matter protests in 2021, saying, “Malia and Sasha found their own ways to get involved with the demonstrations and activism that you saw with young people this summer, without any prompting from Michelle and myself, on their own initiative.” “They didn’t approach it with the intention of garnering attention. They were firmly in planning mode, “Added he. The former president gushed about his daughters, saying how practical and accomplished they were in their advocacy.
Michelle Obama acknowledged that she is concerned about the safety of her politically engaged daughter. She told CBS News that even though Malia was no longer a child, she still felt protective of her. “I don’t want to have to worry about her entering a world where she has to worry about how people would treat her because of the colour of her skin,” she said. As an adult, Michelle continued, she wants to know “that she is not at risk out there in the world because she is a Black woman.”
She lives with Sasha Obama in a Los Angeles apartment
Malia and Sasha Obama occasionally “couldn’t be more different,” as their mother remarked to British Vogue. Michelle Obama stated that “neither method is better or worse, because they’ve both grown into clever, caring, and independent young ladies who are entirely capable of charting their own paths,” adding that “one communicates freely and often, and one opens up on her own terms.”
The two are close and have even moved in together despite their differences. The Daily Mail first seen them out together in Los Angeles in January 2022, which led to claims that Sasha had migrated to the West Coast to be with her sister. She may even have transferred from her course at the University of Michigan to the University of University of Southern California, according to an insider.
Michelle revealed on “Good Morning America” in November of that year that Malia and Sasha shared an apartment in Los Angeles and that they had had a family dinner there. She remembered, “They tried to create two extremely weak martinis and prepared a charcuterie board.” “They were aware that they lacked all of the components, but they were still making an effort because they were entertaining us. And enjoying seeing them develop as individuals is enjoyable.” The former first lady also made fun of the sisters’ apparent obsession with maintaining their property. They were unconcerned about the water stains on my White House table, but they did get their coasters out, Michelle chuckled.
Malia Obama’s parents are fine with her dating
Since she first went to prom with a date and the Secret Service in tow, Malia Obama’s dating history has been the subject of international rumours. During her family’s COVID-19 quarantine, she met British student Rory Farquharson at Harvard and brought him home. In December 2020, her father, Barack Obama, said on “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” “He was sort of stuck — there was this whole visa process, he had a job set up, so we took him in.” And although he’s a good child, I didn’t want to like him. Malia is currently seeing Ethiopian music producer Dawit Eklund, who was also born into a political family.
In a November 2022 interview with “Good Morning America,” Michelle Obama insisted that her daughters dating while they were young was “natural,” adding, “I believe it’s lovely.” “I want them to be aware of their desires and characteristics in a partner. And to do that, certain people must be tried on.” Barack had also “learned how to be a worried Black parent” without being overly protective, she continued. “They are 24 and 21, respectively. They were high school students “the previous first lady clarified. “They attended prom. They are life-seasoned.”
“I don’t worry about it because they’re really solid smart girls — young ladies now,” Barack told ABC News. Noting that he had adjusted to the idea of his kids dating, he joked that due to the Secret Service, “There’s only so much they can do!”
She doesn’t have any public social media
Malia Obama doesn’t have any open social media accounts, unlike many other young ladies her age. Both of the Obama daughters want to avoid online attention after spending so much time in the spotlight, despite the fact that her sister, Sasha Obama, appeared to have opened a sparsely utilised Twitter account in 2017. However, as Michelle Obama said in a 2020 conversation with Oprah Winfrey, they do have their own private accounts for friends exclusively. But because they chose to let their girls live their own lives in college without always keeping an eye on what they were doing, she and Barack Obama don’t follow them. Michelle said, “It’s preferable for them to be checked by someone younger than me.”
Malia talked on keeping a low profile after all of the media attention the Obama girls encountered during their father’s presidency when she gave her first-ever on-screen interview in Michelle’s 2020 Netflix documentary “Becoming” in honour of her mother. She said, “Not having to deal with that same scrutiny, being able to let all that leave your head, creates so much more space,” in a tape made available by Entertainment Tonight.
“This has proved, in a way — it’s just like damn, those eight years weren’t for nothing, you know?” Malia said in reference to her mother’s “Becoming” book tour and their family. She spoke with Michelle. “You see that huge crowd out there and that last … speech you gave — people are here because people really believe in love and hope and other people.”
Donald Glover has praised Malia Obama’s writing skills
Malia Obama was hired by Donald Glover to write for his next Beyoncé-inspired Amazon Prime series, which is said to be called “Hive,” after she had success working with Lena Dunham on “Girls.” The premiere date for the show has not yet been disclosed by the streaming service as of this writing.
Obama earned her spot on his writing crew via merit alone, the multi-talented actor and singer said Vanity Fair in March 2022. In his writers’ room, Donald praised her writing, saying, “Her writing style is outstanding.” “She is indeed a lady of incredible potential. She is really motivated and well-focused.” Steven Glover, his brother, made fun of the fact that the other members of the crew put her to the test.
“Well, you know, we just hurt her feelings. We can’t be easy on her just because she’s the president’s daughter,” he continued. “Nah, she’s very down to earth, and cool. So, it’s not a problem at all.” Stephen also explained that Obama’s childhood stories were a great source of inspiration. “Donald always says perspective is important, and people with different perspectives are important for a writers’ room,” he said, adding that she came up with a lot of interesting ideas. “And for sure, she definitely has a unique perspective on everything.”
Donald also told TMZ that Malia Obama had a bright future in the entertainment business, saying, “I think she has the potential to pretty much do anything she wants.”