How Tall Is Sasha Obama? The Former First Daughter Almost Towers Over Mom Michelle Now
To celebrate Sasha Obama turning 23, Michelle Obama shared an adorable photo of the two of them on Instagram. In the snap, Michelle had a giant smile on her face as she embraced Sasha. Instagram users enjoyed seeing the youngest Obama daughter all grown up. "No, not 23 yrs. old already! Where has the time gone," one wrote. Others could not stop staring at Sasha's height transformation and commented how she appeared taller than her mother. Sasha wore heels, but she was crouched down and was basically the same height as Michelle, who is 5 feet, 11 inches tall.
More clues about Sasha's height were dropped when Barack Obama posted to Instagram. The former POTUS celebrated her birthday with a throwback shot of him holding Sasha when she was a child and then uploaded a family photo the next week for Father's Day 2024. The Obama family posed in front of a waterfall. "The most fulfilling job I've ever had is being Sasha and Malia's dad," he wrote in the caption. Barack stood between his wife and Sasha, and the youngest Obama daughter appeared at least an inch taller than her mother.
Signs that she had grown significantly taller were evident when photos of Sasha and her boyfriend surfaced a couple of years earlier, in April 2022. Sasha was dating Clifton Powell Jr., who stood 6 feet, 5 inches tall, and she stacked up when standing next to the college basketball player. That was not the first hint that Sasha was growing to her mother's height.
Michelle Obama struggled with being tall as a teen
In May 2019, when Sasha Obama was 17, she attended prom with a young man as her date. Photos of Sasha wearing a black dress and heels while posing with her date and family were posted to X, formerly Twitter. "Somebody tell Sasha Obama to STOP GROWING!" one person jokingly tweeted. It appeared the former first daughter was a tall teenager, just like Michelle Obama had been, but that was a mixed blessing.
In an essay for British Vogue in November 2022, Michelle revealed that she reached her height of 5 feet, 11 inches when she was 16 years old, and her stature became a hindrance in her youth. "Tall became something to contend with. Tall stood out. 'Tall' became the label that got attached to me first," the former FLOTUS wrote. She concluded her essay by saying she had later come to terms with her height, writing, "I'm tall and that's a good thing."
The following year, Michelle once again discussed how difficult it had been navigating her teen years. "I was the tall girl ... That whole thing, you grow up, nothing fits you. Clothes weren't made for you," she said on "The Light Podcast" with Conan O'Brien in March 2023. "I just desperately wanted to be like the girls I saw, the peppy cheerleaders," she added as the two discussed the difficulty of blending in. As her daughters grew up to be women, Michelle encouraged them to stay out of the public eye.
When the daughters hosted their parents
Even though both Sasha Obama and Malia Obama grew up with famous parents, the pair opted to stay out of the limelight. Updates about the sisters mainly came from Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, who spoke about visiting the apartment the sisters shared when they moved out on their own. "They survived eight years growing up in one of the harshest spotlights there is," Michelle said in a joint interview on "Good Morning America" with Barack in November 2022. The parents mentioned visiting Sasha and Malia's apartment. "They had prepared a charcuterie tray and tried to make two very weak martinis," Michelle said about her grown daughters. Barack joked that his daughters never cared about coasters while living with him at the White House but suddenly were worried about "water marks on [their own] table."
Sasha graduated from the University of Southern California the following year, and Michelle was eager for her youngest daughter to join the workforce. "She's telling Sasha she needs to get out there and start interviewing for positions," a source told OK! in June 2023. "She's heard a lot of her friends' kids had jobs in line even before they graduated," the insider added.
Michelle believed it was time for Sasha to start her career, but she did not want either of her daughters to follow in their dad's footsteps. "Michelle drilled into them so early that you would be crazy to go into politics," Barack said at a fundraiser, according to ABC News.