Malia Obama faces criticism on social media from people who take issue with her going by “Malia Ann” in her film career.
The eldest daughter of Barack and Michelle Obama became a topic of discussion on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday, Feb. 19, after one user noted her Sundance Film Festival short that credited her as “Malia Ann” and not her first and last name.
“Obama’s daughter trying to sneak past Nepo baby discourse by not using her last name. Bro, you are Obama’s Daughter (sic
),” they wrote.
Malia shared her inspiration for the Sundance-submitted short “The Heart” in a “Meet the Artist” segment she filmed for the festival.
“The film is about lost objects and lonely people and forgiveness and regret. But I also think it works hard to uncover where tenderness and closeness can exist in these things,” she explained.
The Sundance submission follows Malia’s writing credit on Janine Nabers and Donald Glover’s Swarm series, where she also went by her first and middle name, Yahoo reports.
It’s clear that the Harvard grad is taking her film career seriously and likely doesn’t want her parents’ political careers to overshadow her hard work. However, social media took issue with Malia trying to avoid the nepotism tied to her name.
“Like if you wanna be a filmmaker that’s cool but we all know who you are, you’re Obama’s daughter. You can’t hide that,” one person wrote.
“Her ‘entertainment career’ is so funny. She interned on
Girls at 15, interned with Weinstein at 18 (just months before the sh*t went down), and then writes for a Donald Glover show at like 24 without a single writing credit, and now immediately gets her first short in Sundance,” added someone else.Many defended Malia and understood why she might choose to separate her film career from her famous last name. The View host Whoopi Goldberg is among her supporters and spoke up on her talk show to tell the critics to “leave her alone.”
“Leave this child alone — leave her alone!” she later added.
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