Malia Obama Makes a Statement Wearing a ‘Smoking Kills’ T-shirt
First daughter Malia Obama knows how to make a fashion statement — literally.
Just weeks after a video surfaced on Radar.com of the 18-year-old appearing to smoke a joint at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, Malia rocked a T-shirt bearing the phrase “Smoking kills” at another music event, this time the Budweiser Made in America Festival in Philadelphia.
The older daughter of President Barack and Michelle Obama is enjoying a gap year before entering Harvard University in 2017. The teen has kept a low profile during her father’s eight-year tenure, but as his presidency comes to a close, she has been engaging in more public activities with friends.
But the usually poised first daughter — who suffered from asthma when she was little, the president revealed in a Good Morning America interview — wore a T-shirt over Labor Day weekend to watch Chance the Rapper, Rihanna, Coldplay, and others at Jay Z’s Budweiser-sponsored event that Malia seems to have crafted herself. The teen apparently scrawled “Smoking kills” across a white tee in black marker, and paired it with casual denim shorts. The topper? A Harvard cap as a nod to her future alma mater.
And the Internet was totally “here for Malia.”
This sartorial move comes after a video, published originally by Radar, purportedly showed Malia smoking pot, hanging out with a group of friends, and, in other photos shot at the concert, dancing in a belly-baring top. At one point, she’s even photographed “twerking” in black Daisy Dukes and matching tank top.
Though the media pounced on the first daughter at the time, many social media users were more forgiving and dismissed Malia’s behavior as that of a regular teen.
Additionally, even if there was marijuana in the cigarette Malia was caught puffing (and that’s a big if), she wouldn’t be the first Obama to smoke weed. The president himself admitted in his biography Dreams From My Father to smoking marijuana and even using “a little blow” when he was younger, according to the New York Times.
It should be noted that President Obama agrees with his daughter. A former smoker himself, he signed a law in 2009 that gave the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco like it does cereal, monitoring how it’s promoted to kids and advertised. “Each day, 1,000 young people under the age of 18 become new, regular, daily smokers, and almost 90 percent of all smokers began at or before their 18th birthday,” Obama said at the time of the legislation’s passing. “I know. I was one of these teenagers. And so I know how difficult it can be to break this habit when it’s been with you for a long time.”
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