Michelle Obama has weighed in on her eldest daughter Malia’s decision to drop her last name in professional projects.
The former First Lady said the 26-year-old is “trying to make her way” in the film industry after it emerged that she now uses the name Malia Ann in a professional setting.
“I mean, it is very important for my kids to feel like they’ve earned what they are getting in the world, and they don’t want people to assume that they don’t work hard, that they’re just naturally, just handed things,” Michelle said on Kate and Oliver Hudson’s “Sibling Revelry” podcast Monday.
“They’re very sensitive to that — they want to be their own people.”
The “Becoming” author, 61, added that both Malia and her younger sister, Sasha, 23, have wanted to to forge their own paths in life from an early age.
“They are young adult women, but they definitely went through a period in their teen years where it was the push away … [where] you’re trying to distinguish yourself,” she said of her and former President Barack Obama’s daughters.
Malia revealed that she was ditching “Obama” from her professional name at the premiere of her short film “The Heart” at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
The name is a sweet nod to her late grandmother Ann Dunham, who died in 1995.
“We were like, they’re still going to know it’s you, Malia,” Michelle said of the name change. “But we respected the fact that she’s trying to make her way.”
“As they’re older, I think they are embracing our parenting principles. They have a clearer understanding of why we did a lot of what we did,” she went on.
“They understand us as full human beings now, in the same way that I think I discovered that about my parents when I went away to college.”
Barack, for his part, spoke about his daughter’s decision to drop her last name during an appearance on “The Pivot Podcast” in October 2024.
“I was all like, ‘You do know they’ll know who you are,’” the former president, 63, said on the podcast.
He explained that Malia wanted audiences to watch her film without thinking of her family ties.
“And she’s all like, ‘You know what? I want them to watch it that first time and not in any way have that association.’ So I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that.”
The father of two admitted that neither of his daughters are interested in using their family name to get ahead.
“I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that,” he said.
“The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all,” Barack reiterated. “I mean they’re very sensitive about this stuff. They’re very stubborn about it.”
