Adolescence is hard regardless of circumstance, but going through it with Secret Service agents and paparazzi shadowing you poses different challenges. Malia and Sasha Obama transformed from cute little girls into adult women in a spotlight they didn’t seek. The Obama sisters’ lives growing up with famous parents were no walk in the park, as they had little control over their own narratives. But the journey was hard for Michelle and Barack Obama, too.

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Malia and Sasha’s smoking in public drew a lot of negative attention to the then-president and first lady. In 2017, Malia made headlines for *gasp* kissing a boy and smoking a cigarette during a Harvard-Yale football game. That wasn’t the only time. In 2023, she was also in the news for having a smoke during an outing in Los Angeles. Sasha also picked up the habit along the way, being caught smoking on several occasions. Just weeks before Malia’s so-called scandal, her younger sister was also photographed puffing on a cig after leaving an L.A. spa.

The situation was particularly tricky for Barack to handle, considering Malia and Sasha likely picked up the bad habit from their dad. He finally quit cigarettes a year into his first term. “He’s always wanted to stop,” Michelle told reporters at a White House event, explaining that he wanted to set a good example for their daughters (via The Guardian). It might not have worked, but Michelle and Barack still tried hard to protect their girls’ rights to make mistakes without being vilified in the media.

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Michelle and Barack Obama’s daughters became adults during or shortly after their time in the White House. Navigating those changes as public figures put their parenting skills to the test. “That was a lot of work, and it got harder as they got older,” she said on “Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa” in April (via E! News). As parents, the Obamas understood that experimenting and making questionable decisions come with the territory.

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But they worried that Malia and Sasha’s normal behavior would be made into a huge deal. That concerned them more than whatever their daughters were doing. “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 said. 

Michelle and Barack braced themselves every time. “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,” she told Ripa. Michelle seemingly confirmed that at which insiders had previously hinted. In 2016, a source described Barack’s worries using the same word Michelle later used. “This is the president’s worst nightmare!” they told Radar following one of Malia’s controversial moments. “The end of his term is in sight — and the carefully crafted image of a world-beating family is unraveling right before his eyes!”

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Michelle Obama was clear that the issue was Malia and Sasha Obama’s mistakes winding up in the news, and not the mistakes themselves. Expert Amy Prenner, communications executive and founder of The Prenner Group, agrees. “As a parent, you just want your kids to be able to make mistakes, grow, and learn without it becoming a headline,” she told us. But she acknowledged that public figures can’t keep their children’s private, so they have to be proactive. “Set boundaries early, be selective about what you share publicly, and try to keep your family life as grounded and private as possible,” she shared.

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Prenner suggested that public figures put together a team to help them come up with a plan to prevent the media from exploiting kids. “At the end of the day, children deserve to grow up without being treated like public property,” she said. But the public also has to do its part, she noted. “Before judging, it’s worth asking: if it were your child, would you want that moment blown up for the world to see?” she said. Some public figures have tried to remind us of that.

Plenty of celebs have boldly defended Sasha and Malia’s right to be normal teenagers, including some on the opposite side of the political spectrum as the Obamas. “Malia Obama should be allowed the same privacy as her school aged peers. She is a young adult and private citizen, and should be OFF limits,” Ivanka Trump tweeted after the Harvard-Yale game debacle. 

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