The One Career Barack And Michelle Obama Never Want Sasha & Malia To Consider

Sasha and Malia Obama grew up in the public eye, and many wondered how the future would look for the former first daughters. In June 2024, Michelle Obama wished Sasha a happy birthday by posting a sweet photo of the two together on Instagram. In the snap, Sasha towered over her mom and looked every bit a grown woman. Some wondered if she would follow in Barack Obama's footsteps and enter the world of politics, but the former POTUS addressed that possibility only days after Sasha's birthday. "That is a question I do not need to answer because Michelle drilled into them so early that you would be crazy to go into politics," Barack said during a Q&A at a fundraiser for Joe Biden, according to ABC News. "It will never happen," he added definitively. 

Previously, Barack had said that his daughters showed no interest in political careers because of how they were affected by growing up with their father in office. He joked on "The Late Late Show with James Corden" in May 2021 that Sasha and Malia were traumatized by "Secret Service guys" ruining their dates as teenagers, and that had turned them off of pursuing lives "in public service." 

Malia and Sasha had bonded over shared lives with famous parents and eventually got their own place together. That was when Sasha was finishing up college, and the pair wound up creating their own career paths. From a young age, Michelle and Barack always made sure that their daughters worked.

When Sasha Obama was 15 years old, she got a job working at a seafood restaurant in Martha's Vineyard called Nancy's. She worked the register, waited tables, and did the menial tasks assigned to the role, but there was one major difference: Sasha was escorted by a team of people in the Secret Service. "She's been working downstairs at takeout. We were wondering why there were six people helping this girl, but then we found out who it was," a co-worker told The Boston Herald in August 2016.

Years later, the youngest Obama daughter graduated from college at the University of Southern California. At the time, Michelle Obama was worried that Sasha was not making the best use of her opportunities. "She's telling Sasha she needs to get out there and start interviewing for positions," a source told OK! in June 2023. Reportedly, Sasha was looking forward to time off after graduation. "But Michelle suspects what she wants to do is hang out with her friends and party," the insider added.

By the following year, Sasha had found a job. She was working on the show "Couples Therapy" as a casting interviewer. Similar to Malia Obama, who went by a different name in show business, Sasha decided to switch up her moniker. In the credits of the show, she was listed by her full name, Natasha Obama. Info on Sasha's pursuit in film and television was limited, but more was known about Malia, who had been in the industry for years.

Malia Obama's job as a teenager was decidedly more glamorous than Sasha Obama's gig in a seafood restaurant. In 2015, Malia interned on the hit HBO show "Girls." Lena Dunham was both the star and creator of the series and spoke about having the then-first daughter on set. "Obviously, we weren't making her go get our coffee ... but she wanted to do all the jobs, that was the cool thing," Dunham said during an appearance on "The Howard Stern Show" in February 2017. That was not Malia's only experience as an intern, as she was also hired on Halle Berry's "Extant" series. "Yeah, she was down to do whatever a PA is asked to do," Berry said on "Watch What Happens Live" in August 2017.

After attending college, Malia was able to use her on-set experience to land a writing job on the show "Swarm," which was co-created by Donald Glover. Malia brought a wealth of creativity to the show's writer's room. "Some of her pitches were wild as hell, and they were just so good and so funny," showrunner Janine Nabers told ET in March 2023.

Malia impressed Glover so much that his production company helped get her short film "The Heart" made. "You're Obama's daughter. So if you make a bad film, it will follow you around," Glover recalled telling Malia in an April 2023 interview with GQ. Her film premiered at Sundance in January 2024, where she went by the name "Malia Ann."