Inside Sasha Obama's Private World

“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," Michelle explained to Kelly Ripa, "and they went to parties and they had drinks, and they tried out smoking and they did all the things."

So, she continued, “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.”

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"I'm excited for her to be proud of what she's done, 'cause I think that's the most important thing for a human to do, is to be proud of themselves," Sasha said in the Netflix documentary Becoming about her mom, a rarer-than-royalty comment from the former first daughter about their post-presidency life.

As Malia noted, "No longer facing that same scrutiny, being able to let all of that leave your mind, creates so much more space."

And that could easily be said about the whole family.

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But for the most part, anyone hoping for a Sasha or Malia scandal has been sorely disappointed. After all, it wasn't just the Secret Service keeping a close watch on them during those eight formative years.

"Every weekend was hard following these little girls around," Michelle told Oprah in February 2020. "We had to worry about what parties they were going to, whether there was alcohol, I had to know who the parents were, so every weekend for me was hard."

And Sasha could be more "difficult" than her sister at times, at least according to her father, as relayed by her mother on an August 2025 episode of Michelle and brother Craig Robinson’s IMO podcast.

“Sasha is like a cat,” Michelle explained. “She’s like, ‘Don’t touch me, don’t pet me. I’m not pleasing you. You come to me.'”

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Sasha graduated from Sidwell Friends in 2019 and, after a summer that included a family vacation to the South of France, she enrolled at the University of Michigan.

"I think it's cool that even though her family went to Ivy League schools, she decided that UM was the caliber high enough to match that of an Ivy League school," Jessica Brinser, then a Michigan sophomore, told the Detroit News in August 2019 about her notable new fellow Wolverine after move-in day. She added, "We hope she finds her fit here just like we all have. We all love it here. We hope she does, too."

Sasha's parents moved her into her dorm, just as they hauled crates and bedding for Malia when they dropped her off at Harvard in 2017.

And, once again, there were some tears.

"When we got into a car, me, Barack and Malia, who was there with us, and then Sasha drove off on her own and said that last goodbye," Michelle said in December 2019, recalling that emotional day to Jenna Bush Hager on Today. "That's when we were like [sobbing noises]."

Jenna and her fraternal twin sister, Barbara Bush, wrote a letter of congratulations and encouragement to Malia and Sasha in 2017 about joining the club of "former First Children."

"Enjoy college," the twins advised. "As most of the world knows, we did. And you won't have the weight of the world on your young shoulders anymore. Explore your passions. Learn who you are. Make mistakes—you are allowed to. Continue to surround yourself with loyal friends who know you, adore you and will fiercely protect you. Those who judge you don't love you, and their voices shouldn't hold weight. Rather, it's your own hearts that matter."

Ahead of her senior year, Sasha ended up following her heart to L.A.—where Malia had gone to pursue her writing and directing aspirations—and graduated from the University of Southern California in 2023 with a degree in sociology.

It was a quiet enough move that some of the ceremony attendees did a double-take when they saw "Natasha Obama" in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences graduation program and they found themselves seated near the former president and first lady.

"They have to take the time to get to know themselves—give themselves a moment to figure out who they want to be in the world, not who they think I want them to be, not what the rest of the world says about them, but to really think about how they want to shape their lives and how they want to move in this world," Michelle mused to Oprah in 2020 about the road Malia and Sasha were traveling. "So, I don't want them measuring themselves by external influences, and for young girls, that is hard to do." 

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