Former first lady Michelle Obama said she and her husband, Barack, respect their daughter Malia dropping her last name "Obama" in professional projects -- and praised how both of their daughters more generally "want to be their own people."

Malia Obama used her middle name, Ann, as her last name for the credits of a short film she wrote and directed, "The Heart," which aired at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024.

"Our daughters [Malia and Sasha] are 25 and 23. They are young adult women, but they definitely went through a period in their teen years where it was the push away ... [where] you're trying to distinguish yourself," Michelle Obama told actors Kate and Oliver Hudson in an episode of their podcast "Sibling Revelry" published on Monday.

"I mean, it is very important for my kids to feel like they've earned what they are getting in the world, and they don't want people to assume that they don't work hard, that they're just naturally, just handed things," she said. "They're very sensitive to that -- they want to be their own people.

"Malia, who started in film, I mean, her first project -- she took off her last name, and we were like, they're still going to know it's you, Malia," Michelle Obama added. "But we respected the fact that she's trying to make her way."