An Innate Move or An Ambitious—Externally Motivated Choice?
Tayyaba Zahid & Iona Yû
Natural or Not Malia Obama stuns all at Sundance Film Festival having adopted Malia Ann as her official signature.
In America, a name can be both crown and cage. It can open doors gilded with opportunity—or lock an individual into expectations not their own. Few names in recent history have carried as much moral weight as Obama. And yet, Malia Obama, the 26-year-old eldest daughter of the former President and First Lady, has chosen to set that name aside.
As henceforth she will, for her creative endeavours and beyond, go by Malia Ann.
The revelation, delivered by Michelle Obama in a candid moment on the Sibling Revelry podcast, was striking for its intimacy.
“It is very important for my kids to feel like they’ve earned what they are getting in the world,” Michelle explained. “They don’t want people to assume that they don’t work hard, that they’re just naturally just handed things. They’re very sensitive to that.”
The move forces us to ask: Is this an innate act of self-definition—an artist carving her own path from within? Or an ambitious act shaped by the relentless gaze of the world outside, where whispers of nepotism can be an unbearable thought for certain children of privilege?
Her self remodelling became particularly newsworthy after Malia Ann, debuted her short film, “The Heart,” at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The 18-minute film, which she wrote and directed, tells the story of a grieving son dealing with an unusual request from his deceased mother. It previously screened at Telluride and the Chicago International Film Festival, where it received recognition.
Glimpsing the spirit of Malia Ann, with her muse-like poise at The Sundance Film Festival, one almost imagines that had the devilish Maria Orsic and her once upon a time Vril visionaries beheld such a woman, they might have turned their gaze from darkness toward the good and history itself might have tilted toward the good. We don’t know where her will will take her, but it will fill a space somewhere. The only question is how many studios, how many screens how many minds?