Malia Obama has long been known for being the former president's daughter. But now that she has a professional life of her own, she'd like to be known as something else: Malia Ann.
Barack and Michelle Obama's eldest daughter has dropped her surname in her professional work as a budding filmmaker, going just by her first and middle name in order to separate herself from her parents' legacy.
The credits of her first film, The Heart, bear her name in this format, and in an appearance on the The Pivot Podcast, Barack Obama explained why.
In short, Malia Ann doesn't want to be regarded as just another "nepo baby." But her dad isn't so sure it'll work.
He told the podcast hosts:
"I was all like, ‘You do know they'll know who you are.'"
"And she's all like, ‘You know what? I want them to watch it that first time and not in any way have that association.' So I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that."
Obama explained that his youngest daughter Sasha is equally adamant that she succeed on her own merits.
"The challenge for [Michelle and me] is letting us give them any help at all. I mean they're very sensitive about this stuff. They're very stubborn about it."
And as far as the fame they have because of who their parents are, they simply are not interested.
"Their attitude is, ‘We're not looking for all that.' So they're grounded."
On social media, people are loving seeing Malia step into her own spotlight.
However she may have gotten there, Malia is already showing great promise as a filmmaker. She recently won the Young Spirit award at the prestigious Deauville Film Festival, where she presented The Heart, which she also wrote and produced with actor and writer Donald Glover.
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