When most people see Malia Obama, they see a young woman who has lived a life of privilege. After all, her father was President of the United States, and both her parents became that much richer after leaving the White House. Malia basically never has to worry about money, and that’s the kind of lifestyle we all wish we could have.
However, all of that privilege doesn’t mean that Malia Obama has always had it easy. Fame is a double-edged sword, and her father being one of the most famous people in the world effectively put a target on Malia’s back. Because of that, she has led a surprisingly tragic life, one whose dramas still continue to this day.
Just what makes her life so tragic? Keep reading to find out!
An early target of rightwing criticism
Barack Obama was a very popular president, one who made younger voters feel energized and motivated to change America for the better. One major group didn’t like this new president, though, and that was Republicans. Rightwing outlets like Fox News constantly attacked Obama for things as silly as wearing a tan suit. Unfortunately, young Malia Obama sometimes got caught in the crossfire of these political attacks.
The best example of this is when Glenn Beck decided to get creepy and make fun of Malia, who was only 11 at the time. Previously, Barack Obama had described Malia asking about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in a cute and childish way: “Did you plug the hole yet, daddy?” Beck responded on the air by initiating Malia and then mocking her and her sister in front of the whole world. “That’s the level of their education, that they’re coming to ‘Daddy’ and saying, ‘Daddy, did you plug the hole yet?”
He later apologized, and this wouldn’t be the worst media attack on Malia. But this incident goes to show she was a target of vicious rightwing attacks before she was even out of middle school!
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Malia Obama’s college tour was completely ruined
As the incident above proves, Barack and Michelle Obama couldn’t always protect their daughters from shady journalists. Still, Malia tried to live a relatively normal life away from the limelight, like when she began touring colleges. Her search took her to Brown University, but the way this visit went down likely left a bad taste in the young woman’s mouth, and all because of a picture posted online.
The picture in question featured Malia Obama close to a beer pong table. Making matters worse is that some of Brown’s students took to X (then Twitter) to claim that the president’s daughter had recently been playing beer pong. This gave rightwing critics ammo to claim that Malia was a party girl, ultimately causing the school newspaper to apologize for her bad experience. She ultimately chose Harvard, an institution that seemingly respected her privacy more than Brown.
Shocking accusations of drug use
Part of what made that beer pong photo so infamous was that it implied that Malia Obama was a party girl. Fortunately for her, that photo from Brown only made a small blip on the pop culture radar. But nobody could really ignore the incident where she was smoking what appeared to be marijuana at Lollapalooza.
It was never confirmed whether or not this was marijuana, outside of one nearby person claiming that what she was smoking smelled like the drug. A few months later, though, a photo surfaced showing Malia in the same room as a bong. Once again, there were countless headlines trying to paint her as a drug-loving party girl. And once again, Malia got a painful reminder that she would always be tabloid headline fodder thanks to her famous last name.
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Dodging accusations of being a nepo baby
Being the daughter of wealthy parents makes life easy in many ways. However, Malia discovered one of the things that having a famous family makes very difficult: establishing your own career. If you didn’t already know, she is becoming a mover and shaker in Hollywood, having worked on HBO’s Girls before joining Donald Glover’s production team and helping to write his TV series Swarm. Most recently, she made her directorial debut with the short film The Heart.
Despite all of this success, Malia has constantly faced accusations that she is a “nepo baby.” According to the haters, she wouldn’t enjoy all of this Hollywood success if not for her dad being Barack Obama. There may even be some truth to this, as Malia wouldn’t have worked on Girls (getting her Hollywood start) if show creator Lena Dunham had not attended a White House event. In order to quiet these criticisms, though, Malia took the impressive step of changing her last name…sort of.
When you look at the shows and films Malia worked on, you will not find the name “Obama.” That’s because she goes by Malia Ann when working on these entertainment projects. This is obviously a bold way of distinguishing her own accomplishments from her famous last name. However, it’s also a sad reminder that Malia may never be able to truly thrive as her own person because she will always be thought of, first and foremost, as Barack Obama’s daughter.