• Malia Obama spent a gap year traveling and interning in New York after committing to Harvard
• Despite living in the White House from age 10 to 18, Malia had a relatively normal college experience
• Malia graduated from Harvard with a degree in Visual and Environmental Studies in 2021 and has remained tight-lipped since, avoiding interviews and public scandals
Here is what happened:
Malia Obama was ready to strike out on her own after high school, let alone once she finished college. After committing to Harvard, the first daughter spent a gap year traveling and interning in New York, almost like a normal kid. Not counting the bodyguards and private jets. She started off with a trip to Liberia and Morocco in July 2016 with sister Sasha Obama, mom Michelle Obama and grandmother Marian Robinson to promote the Let Girls Learn Initiative. The Obama family went on their usual summer getaway to Martha’s Vineyard.
And toward the end of the year, Malia spent 83 days in Peru and Bolivia, where she lived with a family in the town of Tiquipaya, a trip so unpublicized that no one knew she was gone until after she got back to the U.S. “She was very humble, chatty, spoke Spanish very well,” Gregorio Mamani, one of the guides on a five-day hike Malia took through the Cordillera Real mountain range, told The New York Times. “She was mesmerized by the Bolivian landscape.” Minus the added security, all of those on the excursion were expected to look after themselves and Malia reportedly acquitted herself admirably, doing her share of the cooking and other chores.
She spent a few months as an intern at The Weinstein Company in early 2017 (after reports detailing years of sexual assault and harassment allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein came out later that year, the Obamas said they were “disgusted”), her second entertainment gig after a stint on the set of Girls in 2015. The Obamas’ hands-on-but-not-with-kid-gloves approach seems to have served both of their relatively drama-free daughters well. Malia even joined the writers’ room for the Prime Video series Swarm. “I think she’s so intelligent,” star Dominique Fishback said of Malia, telling E! News in April, “She’s so cool. I just want to know what she wants to do next. Maybe we can do something together.”
Malia didn’t hide from the spotlight—she could be seen tailgating at football games and hanging out with friends, and even going on the occasional date—but she didn’t run toward it, either. And her fellow Crimson let her be, though her off-campus excursions were often snapped by long-lens-toting paparazzi. Nor does she seem like the “do you know who I am?” type. Since graduating from Harvard with a degree in Visual and Environmental Studies in 2021, Malia has remained more tight-lipped than a member of the royal family. Like, queen-level tight-lipped. She avoids interviews, stays out of the kind of trouble that ends up in public records, and, if she has a social media presence, reserves it for a closely vetted inner circle. Thanks to Malia’s discrete ways, her real life is all her own.