Seeing two young women enter a stage while the majority of the world last saw them together as children waving from a White House balcony has a genuinely touching quality. Malia and Sasha Obama stood with their parents in front of tens of thousands of people on June 18 at the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago’s Jackson Park, making a rare joint public appearance. It was the kind of thing that stops you in the middle of scrolling.
Malia, who is currently 27 years old, had her hair down in soft waves and braids and wore a light gray blazer coat with a matching skirt and pointed-toe pumps. Sasha, 25, took a completely different approach. She wore an asymmetrical white off-the-shoulder outfit with a big brown leather belt, heeled sandals with beads, and her hair pulled back in a tidy ponytail. They appeared to be who they were. That’s the problem. Not like daughters who are on camera. Not like props used in politics. Like two women who have secretly discovered their true selves.
After years of development, the 19-acre campus in Jackson Park was dedicated to Joe and Jill Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, and Laura Bush. Stevie Wonder gave a performance. Bono and Bruce Springsteen also did. Jennifer Hudson performed. Nevertheless, the image that persisted was of these two sisters entering the stage, giving a quick wave, and then retreating into the background that they have always seemed to favor.
In a nation that has always been strangely fascinated by presidential families, Malia and Sasha may have been the most watched kids in America. When they moved into the White House in January 2009, Sasha was only seven years old, making her the youngest child to reside there since John F. Kennedy Jr. was a baby. In an open letter to them that was published in Parade magazine, their father expressed his desire for them to grow up in a world where their dreams are unrestricted. Now that I know how they really turned out, it reads differently.
In 2021, Malia received her Harvard degree. After writing for the Amazon Prime Video series Swarm, she discreetly directed a short film that debuted at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival under the simple title “Malia Ann”. She seems to be purposefully constructing something serious away from the commotion. In the meantime, Sasha transferred from the University of Michigan to the University of Southern California, where she earned her degree in 2023. If it’s possible, she has been more private than her sister.
What stands out about both of them is what they decided not to do. At 22, they didn’t write memoirs. The family name was not used to create a lifestyle brand. They didn’t pursue fame in the traditional sense. Given the platform at their disposal from birth, that kind of restraint is practically countercultural for their generation. It’s difficult to ignore the fact that, by subtly creating their own identities, they have become more fascinating than the majority of those who made a valiant effort to be.
In its opening remarks, the Obama Presidential Center described it as “a vibrant, living celebration of community.” Thursday felt more intimate to the Obama family than that; it was a reunion, a turning point, and the first time the burden of a presidency had a physical home. Sasha and Malia showed up for their dad. They then gave him his day, as they always do.
It’s genuinely unclear if they’ll resume public life more frequently after this. However, it felt more like a brief, polite reminder than a comeback to watch them stand there together on that stage, unhurried, unconcerned, and dressed in diametrically opposed styles like only siblings can. They never left. They simply needed to do something else.
