Malia Obama (1998- ), born on the day that America turned 222 years old, is the older daughter of Barack Obama. She is now ten. If her father serves two full terms, she will be 18 when he leaves office. She will grow up from girl to woman before our eyes.
She and her sister Sasha, three years younger, will be the youngest children in the White House since Amy Carter, who was nine when her father became president in 1977.
The Obamas have been careful to keep their girls out of the public eye, therefore little is known about Malia. As of November 2008 she does not even have a Wikipedia article.
We know that she is looking forward to decorating her new room at the White House and getting her first dog, something her father promised, win or lose, once the campaign was over.
She is a fifth grader at the University of Chicago Lab School. She is like any other fifth grader – who has bodyguards. She is learning piano, dance and plays soccer.
Her bedtime is 8:30 pm. She gets $1 allowance a week for doing her chores. For birthdays, her parents do not give her gifts but instead throw a sleepover birthday party for her and her friends. She says she knows there is a Santa Claus because there is no way her parents would buy her all that stuff.
She likes the Jonas Brothers, a boy band that her father had no idea of until he saw posters of them on her wall. He wondered why she needed so many. She also likes Beyonce and watching “Hannah Montana” on the Disney Channel.
She thinks it is strange how her father shakes her friends’ hands – instead of just waving and saying “hi”. She gives him advice on how to be cool.
Her mother has been very careful to keep her life as ordinary as possible during Barack’s rise to power. Till now Malia has lived in the South Side of Chicago all her life. Instead of moving to Washington, DC when her father became a senator, the family stayed in Chicago with Barack flying back and forth.
Even during most of the 2008 campaign her life did not change much: she stayed at home in Chicago and went to school. The main change was that her grandmother was taking care of her. In the summer she was out on the campaign with her parents.
Because her father is so famous, she got to meet the Jonas Brothers. And see her own mother in People magazine, as if she was important like Angelina Jolie or something.
Malia’s life is about to become very different. A new school, new friends, a new house – and life in a fishbowl.
The White House is a palace. It has its own cinema (complete with popcorn), bowling alley, grand piano, tennis courts, pastry shop, swimming pool, cooks, butlers and servants. She will not have to make her own bed, clear the table, set her alarm clock – or even walk the new dog.
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Here’s wishing both as normal an abnormal life as they can have.
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I say good for Malia and Sasha. I know Michelle will not let those girls grow up to be primadonnas. Neither Amy Carter nor Chelsea Clinton appears to have any pathologies as a result of a White House childhood. Nor did John Kennedy. The Bush girls are rounders like their father, but that has nothing to do with the White House. As they say, the apple don’t fall too far from the tree.
As I understand it, by the way, per Michelle’s rules, the girls will be required to make their own beds in the White House.
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My wishes to Barack Obama’s beautiful daughters, Malia and Sasha are: keep your cool and stay close to God always.
La Reyna
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I hope the girls can still have a relatively normal childhood inspite of their Pops being POTUS.
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Me too. With a mother like Michelle Obama they should be in good shape.
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Born 1998… god, I feel old LOL
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right, because now there are people born after you who are famous!
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Lol. I’m 6 years older than her, but I feel old too. Lol.
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OMG!!! I’m one year older than her i think we will make good friends just playing i dont know some of my friends are mad jelous of her me too.
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sasha and malia i just want to wish you luck in your life, i’m black and u knw how blacks are tought manners when they are older people u just have 2 respect elders like how we blacks are taught and u will also have to have manners i’m not sayin u don’t hve but since life has just changed while you are young just also do that. i wish ur father more happy days on earth. GOOD LUCKY BYE
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It’s going to be wonderful to watch her grow into a beautiful young woman in the coming years.
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I can tell his daughters are just going to get prettier and prettier as they get older.
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Malia!
I didn’t know there was a post on her.
Now we need a post on my mini-me, Natasha “Sasha” Obama.
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