What The Obama Sisters' Lives Are Like After The White House

Malia and Sasha Obama pretty much grew up in the White House. Sasha was 7 years old and Malia was 10 when their father took office. They spent the majority of their teen years wandering around the White House hallways and getting into a surprisingly minimal amount of trouble. The girls are pretty well behaved minus the odd Cannabis rumor — but that was then and this is now.

In January 2017, Malia and Sasha commemorated their final night in the White House with a sleepover party. According to Michelle Obama, they invited over eight girls and requested pizza and chicken nuggets. Though the party went off without a hitch, leaving was a difficult transition considering they lived there for eight years. Since the move, the Obamas have decided to stick around Washington, and the girls have done their best to adjust to normal life (suffering from only a few minor hiccups and non-scandals). They're shockingly normal and well adjusted — who would have thought?

From Harvard to the unglamorous world of food service, Malia and Sasha are working hard and playing even harder since leaving the White House.

Sasha achieved every kids' ultimate dream when the Obamas moved out of the White House in early 2017 — she scored the best room in the whole building. In an interview on Ellen (via Harper's Bazaar), former First Lady Michelle Obama dished on her daughter's new digs, which has the former president pretty darn jealous.

Sasha doesn't just have a bedroom — she basically has her own one-bedroom apartment. There's a separate living room area attached to her bedroom that Michelle describes as "all decked out." Mom and Dad even let her have a hand in designing. She picked all the decor (and here we had to share a tiny room with our sisters until we lived on our own). 

To be totally fair, there was less competition with Malia off at college. The eldest Obama sister got relegated to a room "in the attic somewhere" (much like our old Christmas decorations and winter sweaters). She's living at school anyway, so why waste the space? Barack, on the other hand, is trying to squeeze into his tiny office, the smallest room in the house. According to Michelle, he doesn't have enough closet space and is really "hating on" Sasha because of her sweet suite. If even your parents are jealous, you know you've got it good.

Shortly after Barack Obama left office, Malia landed a coveted film production internship. It's just a little unfortunate that it was with The Weinstein Company, though Malia ended her internship months before The New York Times' bombshell report and more than a year before the disgraced producer was indicted.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Malia took a gap year after high school and decided to head back into the workforce with another internship before starting at Harvard. She previously had an internship with HBO's Girls and spent time on the set of Extant, Halle Berry's CBS drama.

Malia's duties at The Weinstein Co. were pretty standard. According to TMZ, she worked in the production/development department and read through scripts to decide which would move up the chain (and she likely fetched a few cups of coffee). Unlike most internships in creative fields, Malia was rumored to be getting a paycheck of about $9 per hour, though if she was working in their New York offices, it was probably around $11 per hour (the minimum wage in 2017).

Before the news of Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault scandal broke, the film producer was a huge donor to Barack's 2012 campaign. The Obamas publicly condemned Weinstein shortly after.

No big deal, but Sasha Obama is kind of the coolest kid in her high school. When she moved out of the White House, she made sure to take her VIP status with her, which totally came in handy when she wanted to party backstage at Washington D.C.'s Broccoli City Fest.

On the surface, Sasha was like any other 16-year-old hanging out at a music festival with her friends. She debuted a brand new, extremely enviable blue dye job and was possibly sneaking sips of alcohol — scandalous! What would Michelle say? According to The Daily Mail, Sasha and her friends were passing around a plastic bottle filled with a drink that made one of them wince. Was it vodka or really, really warm water? It's best to stay hydrated in these types of situations, and Barack's offspring seem uniquely responsible for teen girls.

Things only got better from there for the teen queen. After hanging around outside with her teenage pals, Sasha headed backstage where she kicked it with a very pregnant Cardi B and her husband Offset (yes, husband because the pair were secretly married this whole time). Do you think rap royalty has secret service, too?

Malia Obama is coming out of her cage and she's been doing just fine — and she doesn't care who's there to witness it. Like most teen girls, Malia and Sasha love hanging out at music festivals, and a year before Sasha basically became rap royalty by proxy at Broccoli City Fest, Malia caused quite the stir at Lollapalooza.

The eldest Obama daughter was totally feeling the vibes during the Killers' massive headlining set. By the grace of the rock gods, the band's single "Mr. Brightside" hasn't left the UK charts since 2004. Needles to say, the performance was somewhat of a religious experience. According to TMZ, Malia danced her little heart out, headbanged and writhed around on the ground slamming the grass with her fists. She just couldn't contain her excitement. Later on, she appeared dazed and confused and was carted off the premises by security. We're going to guess Michelle had a word with her after this one, but Malia was finally back in her hometown with her friends, seeing the Killers. Isn't it worth the worried lecture?

Barack Obama and Joe Biden's friendship is so adorably heartfelt that it's launched memes across the nations. The former VP even shared some friendship bracelets in honor of the former president's 55th birthday. As it turns out, younger generations of Obamas and Bidens have equally as adorable friendships.

Sasha formed a very close bond with Biden's granddaughter Misty when she was living at the White House. They played on the same basketball team (one that Obama briefly coached) and attended the same school. The friendship has endured the years, and has since moved from the hallways surrounding the Oval Office to posh, beachside hotels. Around the time the Obamas moved out of their presidential home, Maisy and Sasha went on a girl's trip to Miami. The pair reportedly stayed at the upscale Setai Hotel and enjoyed some seaside relaxation. Here's to many more years of friendship.

Malia may not be running for office just yet, but she isn't afraid to get political. In early 2017, the former president's daughter attended Sundance Film Festival and managed to work some activism into her trip to Park City, Utah. She was spotted at an event supporting the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline, one of the hotly debated topics during her father's presidency.

In 2016, Barack's administration blocked the pipeline, which was thought to potentially contaminate the Standing Rock water supply. He had previously vetoed a Republican bill that would have allowed the similar Keystone XL pipeline to be built. When President Trump took office, he worked to undo Obama's decisions. In 2017, he signed an executive order to allow the construction of both the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines. The latter ended up leaking over 329,000 gallons of oil into the surrounding area.

Malia was in good company at the event and protested alongside actress and anti-DAP activist Shailene Woodley, who commended the teen for being "someone who's willing to participate in democracy because she chooses to, because she recognizes, regardless of her last name, that if she doesn't participate in democracy, there will be no world for her future children."

Though Malia planned to attend Harvard just like her parents, she decided to take a year off after high school during her family's transition from the White House. Obama's eldest daughter participated in the age old tradition of the gap year — and she totally lived her best life in the process.

Malia focused her efforts on travel and activism during her year away, though she wasn't staying in hostels like most of us gearing up for a future of unending student loan payments. In January 2017, the eldest Obama daughter embarked on a secret, educational trip to South America with her bodyguards in tow. According to The New York Times, the program aimed to teach gap year students about the politics, social movements and environmental conservation efforts in Bolivia and Peru's mountains and jungles. Malia reportedly lived with a family in Tiquipaya, a small town in Bolivia, and went on a hiking excursion through the Cordillera Real mountain region.

Though the trip to South America may have been about as stereotypically gap year as Malia got, she also enlisted her friends for a fancy ski trip to Aspen and jetset to Bali, Indonesia with her family. There, the Obamas embarked on an exciting white water rafting trip and enjoyed the warm weather.

Moving away from home for the first time is never easy, especially if the home you've known for the last eight years is no longer your home. We're not sure who had a tougher time adjusting to Malia's move to Harvard, but we do know that both Barack and Malia shared at least one emotional moment along the way.

Barack described dropping his eldest daughter off at school as "a little bit like open-heart surgery." It was so emotional that he cried on the way home.

"I was proud that I did not cry in front of her," Mr Obama said during an event for the Beau Biden Foundation, "But on the way back, the Secret Service was off, looking straight ahead, pretending they weren't hearing me as I sniffled and blew my nose."

Malia, on the other hand, had some issues blending in with her fellow students (you know, the ones whose dads weren't President of the United States). According to TMZ, she lashed out at a grandmother trying to take her photo in Harvard Square. The woman allegedly stalked the cafe where Malia was grabbing a bite before pulling out her camera and taking a snap. Malia reportedly screamed "Are you gonna take it in my face like an animal in a cage?"

Fame isn't easy, especially when you've got an Ivy League workload to focus on.

Malia has been focusing on a bit more than her studies at Harvard University — she's been kissing cute British boys. The news first broke about Malia's potential new beau when she was spotted smooching a mystery man during her first Harvard-Yale football game. According to TMZ, the former president's daughter even lit up a cigarette during the tailgate party (Malia, smoking kills!). By sophomore year, the pair were officially an item. So, who is he?

Malia Obama's boyfriend Rory Farquharson is certainly someone to take home to mom and dad. He attended Rugby School, one of the top boarding schools in the United Kingdom, where he served as head boy. The tuition puts some American University to shame at around $42,000 a year. 

Of course, dating someone as famous as an Obama isn't easy, but Barack and Michelle are apparently very sympathetic. According to The Daily Mail, they penned a letter to Malia's new boyfriend apologizing for being in the spotlight. Farquharson has already deleted his social media to maintain some sense of privacy as he adjust to the droves of paparazzi that follow Malia around Cambridge.

Malia is learning a whole lot at Harvard, including the very difficult art of blowing smoke rings. The eldest Obama daughter caused quite a ruckus online when a Snapchat video of her blowing near-perfect smoke rings in a bathroom surfaced during her freshman year. According to some media sources, the clip was original posted by Barstool Sports and subsequently used by conservatives to scrutinize Barack (but seriously, if it wasn't that, it was going to be something else). The rest of the internet praised Malia for her skills and defended her decision to throw caution to the wind and behave like a normal teen girl. Can you blow smoke rings like that? We didn't think so. Shame on the friend who leaked the Snapchat in the first place.

There's no word on whether Malia was dabbling in the dark arts (i.e. smoking weed) or just enjoying an illicit dorm room cigarette, but she was allegedly caught with the funky lettuce at Lollapalooza two years prior. Pretty much no one cared even though her dad was still in office, and she was actually applauded by Chris Rock. Let Malia be a normal college kid, okay? You do you, girl!

Sasha Obama is just like us at age 16, only about a thousand times cooler. Where is Sasha's acne? What about the ill-advised baby blue eye shadow and frosty lip gloss? It's hardly fair. Since leaving the White House, Sasha has grown up almost overnight — and to think she started as the youngest child to live in the White House since John Kennedy Jr.

In May 2017, Sasha celebrated her Sweet 16 with her parents, even though her birthday was in June. There's no word on what actually went down at the fancy affair, but a picture from the party leaked, and Sasha looked like the elegant style queen she is. Gone are the days of braces (though honestly, those didn't last too long). The youngest Obama daughter donned a red, satin slip dress by Jill Stuart, delicate gold layered necklaces and enviably straight hair. Her parents looked pretty dolled up, too.