Who were those willowy young women with Barack and Michelle Obama — and where’d they hide little Sasha and Malia?
Four years is a long time when it’s a half or a third of your life, and so TV viewers who hadn’t seen the Obama girls much since 2008 might have been truly startled at just how much they’d grown when they appeared onstage with their father Thursday night.
After all, Malia Obama, now 14, who started (gasp!) high school this week, was just about as tall as her already tall parents.
Relaxed and composed, in a French blue sleeveless dress, Malia laughed with her father onstage after his remarks, and earlier sat and applauded with her mom and her sister, Sasha, dressed in a black-and-white checked frock. (Now 11, Sasha hardly fits in her parents’ laps anymore, and even resists a cuddle, the couple ruefully told People in an interview last month.)
There was one sign, though, that the girls were still kids: “Yes, you do have to go to school in the morning,” their dad warned them at the beginning of his speech.
What struck one former White House aide was the ease and comfort with which the girls were inhabiting their public roles.
“Their smiles were genuine and huge tonight,” said Anita McBride, a former chief of staff to Laura Bush, as well as an assistant to her husband. “There was no awkwardness. They clearly have adjusted to their life in the public eye.” McBride said she was also stunned by how poised and grownup the girls looked.
One reason Thursday’s scene was so striking is that the American public doesn’t see the daughters regularly, especially on TV. “There hasn’t been a steady stream of images to relate to,” says Sandra Sobieraj, a correspondent for People who covers the first family.
So for many, the most familiar images are from four years ago. At the 2008 convention in Denver, Sasha, then 7, fidgeted in her purple children’s dress, little white barrettes on either side of her head.
“Daddy, what city are you in?” she called out in a high-pitched voice as her dad appeared on a huge video screen the night of Michelle Obama’s speech. “I love you, Daddy!” called out Malia, 10, looking a bit older in a two-toned dress with straps.
Then came election night in Chicago. There was Sasha in a black party dress, bounding gleefully up into her father’s arms, planting a big kiss on his cheek — a reminder that young children were about to live in the White House for the first time since Chelsea Clinton, Amy Carter, and before them, the younger Kennedy kids, Caroline and John.
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article courtesy of TheGrio.com
