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Barack and Michelle Obama share two daughters: Malia and Sasha
Malia was born in 1998, while Sasha was born in 2001
After growing up in the White House, Malia and Sasha have gone on to attend college and pursue careers
When former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were still in office, their daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama, were also growing up in the White House.
Malia and Sasha were 10 and 8 at the time, respectively, when their dad was elected as the 44th president. They lived in the White House throughout Barack's two terms, from 2009 to 2017.
Before moving to Washington, D.C., the Obamas spent their early years in Chicago, where Barack served as a state senator after marrying Michelle on Oct. 3, 1992. The pair welcomed their first child, daughter Malia, on July 4, 1998, while their second daughter, Sasha, was born on June 10, 2001.
Malia and Sasha adjusted well to life at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Michelle told PEOPLE in December 2011, and have maintained a close sisterhood in their adult years.
??"Now they're both old enough, where they just enjoy each other's company," Barack said of his daughters in November 2020. "To be together as a family and see how they've become these marvelous young women — there's been no greater joy than that."
Both college grads, Malia and Sasha are focused on carving their own paths, and Barack, who appeared on The Pivot Podcast in October 2024, said they "go out of their way to not try to leverage" the Obama name. This was in response to Malia's decision to drop her last name professionally, opting to go by Malia Ann.
Barack and Michelle's daughters are also often spotted spending time with their parents. Most recently, Sasha joined them at the 2026 NBA All-Star Game.
From how they navigated their father's presidency to their activism, here's everything to know about Barack and Michelle Obama's daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama.
Born on July 4, 1998, in Chicago, Malia is the older child of Barack and Michelle Obama.
Growing up, Malia's parents described her as "wise and thoughtful." She collected keychains and took drama classes, the Obamas told PEOPLE in 2008; by first grade, she was setting her own alarm and making her bed every morning.
"My 9-year-old is always coming up with remarkable things," Barack said after noting that his girls "always make me cry" with "how good-hearted they are."
He offered an example, telling PEOPLE, "When [Malia] was 6 years old ... we were walking along the lake, holding hands, and she turned to me and said, 'Daddy, are we rich?' I said, 'We're very well off compared to a lot of people, but we're not really rich, as some people might define really rich.' "
"And she said, 'Well, that's good because I don't want to be really rich. I think I want to live a simple life.' And I looked at her and wondered, 'Where did she come up with that?' " he mused.
After graduating high school in 2016, Malia took a year off before enrolling at Harvard University, where she graduated in 2021. ?
"They're ready to get out, just out from their parents' house," Barack told PEOPLE of his daughters. "The fact that their parents' house is the White House may add to it. But Malia's going off to college. She's a grown woman."
During her gap year and throughout university, she showed an interest in the TV industry, landing internships on Lena Dunham's Girls and at the Weinstein Company before working as a production assistant on Halle Berry's CBS sci-fi drama series Extant. She also worked as a writer on Donald Glover's Amazon series, Swarm, and directed two social media vignettes for A’ja Wilson’s Nike shoe.
In 2024, Malia debuted a short film that she wrote and directed at the Sundance Film Festival under the name Malia Ann. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the short film is called The Heart and is about a grieving son who finds something unusual in his late mother's will.
“The film is about lost objects and lonely people and forgiveness and regret, but I also think it works hard to uncover where tenderness and closeness can exist in those things," Malia said during an interview segment called "Meet the Artist," adding, "We hope you enjoy the film and it makes you feel a bit less lonely, or at least reminds you not to forget about the people who are."
In October 2024, Barack shared his reaction to Malia dropping "Obama" from her professional name.
"I was all like, ‘You do know they'll know who you are,' " he said on The Pivot Podcast. "And she's all like, ‘You know what? I want them to watch [my film] that first time and not in any way have that association.' "
Michelle also respected Malia's attempt to break free from the family's shadow.
"It is very important for my kids to feel like they've earned what they are getting in the world, and they don't want people to assume that they don't work hard, that they're just handed things," she said on the Sibling Revelry podcast in June 2025. "They're very sensitive to that — they want to be their own people."
In addition to her creative endeavors, Malia has demonstrated an interest in activism, marching in Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020 alongside her younger sister.
Michelle has said that the sisterhood between Malia and Sasha is something that she and Barack treasure most.
"I think that they realize that they have a unique bond because they're the only two who know what they just went through — growing up in the White House with the brightest spotlight in the world on you as you were going through adolescence and puberty. They uniquely know what that means for them," she told PEOPLE in an interview previewing her book, The Light We Carry.
Though the proud mom is thrilled to see her girls "thriving on their own as individual young women," she's also still fiercely protective of her daughters. During an interview with People en Español, Michelle explained that the hardest truth to share in her book was anything having to do with Malia and Sasha.
"It is hard for me to delve too deeply, for example, into the lessons I've learned as a parent because I'm trying to protect the privacy of my girls," she explained. "You have to pull back on how much you share about their lives and how much you put them back out in the public eye because they're not looking for the attention."
Born on June 10, 2001, in Chicago, Sasha is the younger child of Barack and Michelle Obama.
She grew up playing basketball, taking tap dance lessons and doing gymnastics. Along with her older sister, she also played tennis and took piano lessons. The rules in their household were straightforward: "No whining," the Obamas said.
"Sasha is more like Michelle," Michelle's mother, Marian Robinson, who lived with the family in the White House, told PEOPLE in 2007. "She's more determined. She's got her own mind made up."
Malia, meanwhile, reminded her more of her son, Michelle's brother Craig. "She goes along just to keep peace and she's a worrier."
"Sasha is, as Malia describes it, completely confident about her own take on the world and is not cowed or intimidated — and never has been — by anybody's titles, anybody's credentials. If she thinks something's wrong or right, she will say so," the former president told InStyle in January 2020.
The Obamas have praised their daughters to PEOPLE from a young age, remarking on how "funny" and "smart and kind and decent" they are.
"My younger one, Sasha, is just full of energy and the comedian in the family," Barack told PEOPLE in 2008.
After Sasha graduated from D.C.'s Sidwell Friends School in 2019, she enrolled at the University of Michigan, where she began taking classes online amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking to PEOPLE about having both of his daughters home again during that time, Barack admitted that "there are times where it's felt claustrophobic, I'm sure, for them."
"But for Michelle and me as parents, to have this bonus time where your kids are having dinner with you every night and we're playing games and watching movies together — there's been a lot of joy to that," he added.
Despite being her "littlest pea," Sasha is growing up, the Becoming author remarked during an April 2022 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, revealing that both of her daughters have boyfriends now.
"They loved the Jonas Brothers. Now they are bringing grown men home," she joked. "Before it was just, like, pop bands. Now they have boyfriends and real lives."
Previously, Barack had commented on their love lives during a May 2021 appearance on The Late Late Show, joking that his daughters still remember Secret Service agents trailing them on their dates.
"They still have PTSD from guys talking into their wrist microphones and glasses as they're trying to go to a music concert," he shared.
Both Sasha and Malia have since moved out of their parents' home and are living together in Los Angeles.
Michelle discussed the moment her girls announced they were moving in together while speaking with PEOPLE in November 2022.
"You try not to react too much because it's like, you don't want to go, 'Oh my gosh, I'm so happy for you!' because then they think, 'Well, maybe this is not a good thing if my mom likes it,' " she said while previewing her book.
"So I just said, 'Okay, well that's interesting that you guys are going to try living together. We'll see how it goes.' But yeah, it feels good to know that the two girls you raised find solace at a kitchen table with one another. It's like the one thing you want for them."
Michelle also revealed in The Light We Carry that Sasha and Malia have made their shared apartment their own, "having poked around yard sales and shopped at a nearby IKEA, watching their budget." The girls have even hosted their parents for pre-dinner drinks, though Michelle admits their cocktail game could use a little work.
"The martinis were a little weak. I don't think they really knew what it was," the proud mom joked while recalling the evening during an appearance on the Today show.
In May 2023, Sasha proved once again that she's all grown up by graduating from the University of Southern California with an undergraduate degree in sociology. The former first couple and Malia were present to support the graduate.
Today, Sasha can be spotted hanging out with her dad and mom at public events, including at the 2026 NBA All-Stars Game.
