Malia and Sasha Obama captured the hearts of people across the nation when their dad, Barack Obama, was elected President of the United States in 2008. During their dad’s two terms in office, they grew up in front of our eyes. Despite the celebrity status that accompanied being America’s first daughters, they had relatively normal childhoods, and their down-to-earth upbringing prepared them for post-White House lives in Los Angeles. “They had to learn how to balance the unwanted attention, but do it politely. To build their own lives in the spotlight and not be eaten up by it,” their mom, Michelle Obama, said on Melissa French Gates’ podcast, “Moments That Make Us,” in July 2024.
Michelle explained that she and Barack raised their daughters to be independent. Despite growing up with a team of servants in the White House, the Obama girls were responsible for keeping their rooms tidy. As Michelle explained to Gates: “I was raising them thinking, ‘You’re not going to live here, and with me, forever. So I’ve got to hand you your life soon and let you manage it.'”
Now, several years after leaving the White House, the Obama sisters are thriving. They’re both college grads — Malia graduated from Harvard in 2021 and Sasha from the University of Southern California in 2023 — and have traded the East Coast for California dreaming. In 2022, Michelle confirmed that the Obama sisters’ relationship is as close as ever and that they had moved in together in Los Angeles. “It feels good to know that the two girls you raised find solace at a kitchen table with one another,” she told People. “It’s like the one thing you want for them.” The sisters clearly value their independence, just like their parents intended, and have largely avoided the public eye. What we do know about their lives in LA, though, is a testament to their upbringing.
Malia and Sasha Obama are living their best lives in Los Angeles
Malia Obama is an up-and-coming filmmaker and her decision to go by a different name professionally proves that she’s one of the most normal celeb kids. She’s credited as a writer for the 2023 TV series “Swarm” and the 2023 short “The Heart” under her first and middle names, Malia Ann. “The Heart” also marked her debut as a director, and she made a rare public appearance on the red carpet when promoting her film at the Deauville American Film Festival in September 2024. Malia, clearly unused to the spotlight, admitted in a TikTok from Paris Match that she was “a little bit terrified.” She’ll likely have cause to acclimate to the limelight, though, as her career is on the rise. At the festival, she was awarded the Young Spirit award which, per the festival’s website, is intended to “celebrate the new figures of tomorrow’s cinema.”
Sasha Obama also seems to be living her best life from the glimpses we’ve gotten of her out and about Los Angeles. In July 2024, she was seen at a public gym and her toned physique suggests that she’s been on a fitness journey. Despite Malia’s burgeoning Hollywood career, both sisters seem to be going for a more natural lifestyle than a glitz and glamour one as they’ve been seen around their new home city without makeup on more than one occasion. Sasha also seems to be following in her sister’s show business footsteps. Season 4 of reality show “Couples Therapy” has a “Natasha Obama” credited as a casting interviewer — Natasha happens to be Sasha’s legal first name.
Sasha and Malia Obama seem to be happy with their LA lifestyles, but some people may still wonder if they will ever embark on a political career. According to Barack, we’ll never see either of them in the White House. “Michelle drilled into them so early that you would be crazy to go into politics,” he said at a June 2024 fundraiser for President Joe Biden (via ABC News). “It will never happen.”
