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.

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.

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?

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."

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 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!