Michelle Obama says keeping ‘regular teenagers’ Malia and Sasha’s smoking out of tabloids was ‘nightmare’
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Michelle Obama recently opened up about what it really took to raise daughters Malia and Sasha Obama during their father, Barack Obama's presidency, and it wasn’t just curfews and college applications she had to worry about.
In a Tuesday, April 29, interview on SiriusXM's 'Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa,' the former first lady didn’t hold back. She revealed that keeping her daughters out of the tabloids during Barack's presidency became challenging when they entered their teenage years.
Michelle Obama reveals challenges of letting her daughters live like 'regular teenagers'
Navigating the teen years for Malia Obama, now 26, and Sasha Obama, 23, came with intense scrutiny and the fear of seeing their names in the tabloids, per Ok Magazine.
"That was a lot of work," Michelle told Kelly Ripa, adding "and it got harder as they got older."
Malia and Sasha were just 10 and 7 respectively when Barack was elected president in 2008, meaning they essentially grew up in front of the world.
But Michelle was determined to let them grow up like any other children—just with a bit more planning and a lot more Secret Service coordination.
"They had to drive and they had to go to prom and they were on teams and they traveled to other schools and they had to do college searches, and they went to parties and they had drinks, and they tried out smoking and they did all the things," Michelle recalled.
She added, “And every weekend was a nightmare, because we had to work to make sure that them being regular teenagers didn’t wind up on Page Six.”
Michelle Obama on how her daughters deal with ‘Obama tax’
Michelle Obama emphasized that the effort required to do so was nothing short of strategic parenting.
"It was a lot of intentionality," she said.
“When your kids are under the security of the Secret Service, you almost have to work twice as hard to make their life normal,” Michelle explained.
“Imagine setting up the first play date or the first time the kids get invited to a play date. The process of having my children at your house meant that an advanced team had to come and question and search your house and ask if you had drugs and guns," the former first lady explained.
But now that her daughters are grown and out in the world, Michelle has shifted her focus, from protecting them from press scrutiny to preparing them for the lifelong reality of being “Obama daughters".
“We call that the Obama tax for them,” she quipped. “You’ll have it the rest of your life, but you also have a lot of benefits," she added.
She’s clear about wanting them to stay grounded. “I’m trying to make this feel normal to them, because you don’t want them to start thinking, number one, they’re full of themselves, that any of this is about them and that their job is to go about their lives," she said.
And in true Michelle fashion, she delivered a grounded mantra she wants her girls to live by: "This world is not about you. This is just your dad’s job."
But Michelle’s wisdom doesn’t end with motherhood.
Michelle Obama’s advice to young women
Over the years, Michelle Obama shared advice that has resonated with young people, especially women, everywhere.
On failure, she urged girls to embrace it. “Do not be afraid to fail because that often times is the thing that keeps us as women and girls back,” she said during a 2016 International Day of the Girl event.
“Because we think we have to be right. We think we have to be perfect. We think that we can’t stumble. And the only way you succeed in life, the only way you learn, is by failing. It’s not the failure; it’s what you do after you fail," she said.
On new experiences, she told British Vogue in a conversation with Meghan Markle, “Don’t just check the boxes you think you’re supposed to check... I tell them that I hope they’ll keep trying on new experiences until they find what feels right.”
“And what felt right yesterday might not necessarily feel right today,” she added. “That’s OK—it’s good, even. When I was in college, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer because it sounded like a job for good, respectable people. It took me a few years to listen to my intuition and find a path that fit better for who I was, inside and out.”
On finding purpose, she is just as candid. "What I learned was none of that has to do necessarily with who I am," she said in a 2018 panel with Penguin Books UK. "Not what I want to be," Michelle added.
She challenged people to dig deeper: "What do you care about, how do you want to invest your time, what brings your joy and what makes you sad?”
"We don't teach that in school," she continued, adding, "But I learned to try and find that for me and turn that passion into my career."
“If you’re starting to think, what kind of work will bring you joy? Because if you find that, you’re going to do well at it and everything else will fall into place. And it did for me," said Michelle.
