The Evolution of Malia and Sasha Obama

Barack Obama announced he was running for president on February 10, 2007. While their father was campaigning for his election, the girls still held busy schedules, “soccer, dance and drama for Malia, gymnastics and tap for Sasha, piano and tennis for both”. The Obamas strived to make their daughter’s lives as normal as possible, with little publicity.

Malia was ten years old, and Sasha was seven when their father was nominated the 44th President of the United States.

The Obama sisters both attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a private school where close to half of the student population has family employed by the school. They switched their education to the Sidwell Friends School, a Quaker school in Washington, DC (5-12), and Bethesda, Maryland (PK-4)when they moved to the White House in 2009.

The Secret Service took on a role that was likely not in their job description, they taught Malia how to drive. Michelle Obama explained that Malia drove in public from time to time as well, believing that it helped give her daughter a sense of normalcy.

While on spring break in 2016 with her parents to Cuba for a historic trip, Malia helped her father to communicate by translating in Spanish. The former president says that his vocabulary is limited, “equivalent of a two year old’s” and he hopes that Malia, “has the chance to get entirely fluent”.

While at Sidwell, Malia was on the soccer, tennis, and swim team and sang in the school choir. She graduated in 2016. The class size was relatively small, with her being only one of 127 graduates in the ceremony.

Malia took a gap year before attending Harvard University in 2017, the same school her parents attended. She traveled to Bolivia, Peru, and Indonesia during her gap year. She studied Visual and Environmental Studies while at Harvard and graduated in 2021. Malia received a Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize in 2021 for her undergraduate ventures and teaching.

While in school, Malia had several internships. In 2014, she worked on the set of a sci-fi drama called “Extant” as a production assistant. In 2015, she worked for the show Girls on HBO and the Weinstein Company in 2017. It was announced in 2021 that Malia landed a job as a writer for an Amazon series created by Donald Glover. In 2023, it was revealed that she was a writer on the hit Amazon show, Swarm.

Malia has been and still is in a relationship with Rory Farquharson since 2017, whom she met at Harvard. The former president publicly said that Farquharson stayed with the Obama family during the Covid-19 lockdown due to his inability to travel back home to London because of travel restrictions.

Sasha worked at a seafood restaurant Nancy’s Restaurant in Martha’s Vineyard for a summer job in 2016. She was working the takeout line with 6 Secret Service agents at the restaurant at all times. She went by her full name, Natasha, while at the job, and many people did not recognize her as the First daughter until they saw the group of Secret Service following her.

Few pictures can be found of the night in 2019, but the internet rarely fails. A couple of photos have been snagged of Sasha on her prom night rocking a black gown, a smoky eye, and silver hoop earrings. Her date for the evening was Chris Milton, who also attended Sidwell. In an interview with Ellen Degeneres, former First Lady Michelle Obama explained that with some convincing to the Secret Service, Sasha was allowed to ride in Milton’s car to prom with two black armed vehicles tailing them.

Sasha is rumored to be dating Clifton Powell Jr., a former basketball player and now a director and content creator. He is the son of actor Clifton Powell.

People may wonder if the two will follow in their parent’s footsteps and become lawyers, activists, or run for office, but their father has doubts. They have been involved with protests and rallies, but their father does not think they’ll go into politics due to growing up in the difficult eye of the public and always having to be with the Secret Service.

Sasha Obama is officially a college graduate! In May 2023, Sasha was awarded her degree in Sociology. The Obama family was present at the ceremony.