Why Celebs Are Coming To Sasha Obama's Defense For This Photo

Malia and Sasha Obama were kept relatively out of the spotlight when they were the country's first daughters. For the eight years that their dad, Barack, was president, the only tidbits of information the public knew about the girls were where they went to school, how they appeared at public events, and whatever anecdotes their parents chose to tell about them. Now, however, with both Malia and Sasha out of the White House, some aspects of the sisters' personal lives are becoming a little more public — and that's not necessarily a good thing, especially when they're not the ones sharing this information. Neither Malia or Sasha have any public social media account, and their high profiles as the daughters of a prominent politician has left the rare social media sighting of them open for some serious public scrutiny. First there were the headlines when Malia was Snapchatted at a party in the vicinity of a bong. Then, more recently, Sasha got some heat for lip-synching a track by Moneybagg Yo with some not-safe-for-work words in it. This time, people are coming for Sasha after a purported photo of the University of Michigan student started circulating on Twitter, being liked, retweeted, and quote-tweeted well over a hundred thousand times. The image featured her wearing a white crop top emblazoned with colorful, airbrushed writing, which she paired with hot pink bikini bottoms and a white sarong. She wore glittering gold belly jewelry, and her long nails were painted cobalt blue. And Twitter immediately went about reacting to the pic. One Twitter user was complimentary in their assessment of the photo, writing, "see what you can look like if you grow veggies in the White House garden? #Letsmove" Others weren't so kind in their writeups, which ranged from critical to creepy. One user referred to her as a "strumpet" -- which is way more offensive than it sounds -- while another said it was, quote, "sad how young ladies feel the need to always show their bodies off." Fortunately, many also came to her defense, including several celebs. The Good Place star Jameela Jamil wrote, "Oh shut up about Sasha Obama, she's young, free and harming nobody. Stop acting like it's the President of The United States doing this. Which even if they did would still hurt nobody. She looks happy and she deserves to grow up expressing herself and having fun." It's not just a photo of Sasha Obama that went viral. A TikTok video of the former first daughter also went viral after it was shared in early December 2020. The video, which shows Sasha dancing with some friends, had the comments rolling in. Some were upset about the lack of social distancing. Others decided to provide their unsolicited comments for the strangest reason: The fact that many of Sasha's friends in the video were white. In light of Sasha Obama's viral moments in December 2020, comparisons between the Obama children and the Trump family cropped up on social media. Columnist Tim O'Brien made a joke about the conversation circulating that Donald Trump is going to pardon his children, writing, "Sasha Obama is trending because her father didn't try to get her a preemptive pardon." Sasha did not immediately respond to the photo's circulation, or the unexpected backlash, but hopefully she's able to brush it off and continue living her best life. #SashaObama #TheObamas