Malia Obama has made a move to establish herself in Hollywood

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s daughter has a made a big move that is going viral online and people aren’t impressed.

Barack and Michelle Obama’s eldest daughter, Malia, has dropped her last name professionally as she pursues a career in Hollywood.

Being the daughter of the former President of the United States certainly has some perks, but Malia, 25, made a small move to disassociate herself from her famous parents.

Malia, who interned at Vogue as a teenager, graduated from Harvard University and has already worked with creator Donald Glover … all before she turned 26, and has now directed her first film.

She has just debuted her short film The Heart at the Sundance Film Festival and she’s credited in the film as Malia Ann.

It’s a big move, considering when you’re walking around with the last name Obama, it does carry some weight.

She’s just debuted her first film. Picture: BackGrid

She grew up famous. Picture: Jacopo Raule/Getty Images)

Online people aren’t convinced, though, that dropping her famous last name is going to do much to dissociate the Harvard graduate from her parents or stop her from experiencing nepotism.

Someone joked that it didn’t “work” because people were still only talking about her because she was an Obama in the first place.

One remarked that it was just a “typical nepotism baby” move, and someone wrote that she was turning down a “label” but still benefiting from having famous parents.

Another said that she’d “failed” to dissociate herself from her parents, and online people were overwhelmingly unimpressed with the move.

“She got the job because she is nepo and is now pretending not to be nepo,” one argued.

“She defines Nepo baby, zero talent living off her father’s name and his power,” another claimed.

“That doesn’t work when you look like an exact combination of your famous parents,” someone pointed out.

She’s grown up in the public eye. Picture: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Whoopi has defended her. Picture: ANGELA WEISS / AFP

The conversations online made it back to Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg because, at the end of the day, Malia is from one of the most famous families in the world, and therefore, no matter what name she uses, she’ll be a hot topic.

Goldberg discussed the backlash that Malia was getting on the popular US talk show The View and said that people’s reaction was cruel.

“If she knows she’s an Obama, why do you care? Why do you care what she calls herself? If she wanted to call herself Jeanette MacDonald, she has the right to! If I can be Whoopi Goldberg, she can be whoever the hell she wants to be!” she claimed.

Goldberg pointed out that Malia had every right to pursue her passions and shouldn’t be punished for having famous parents.

“I don’t understand why people need to crush other people’s dreams. You know, when people do that to you, it crushes you. Can you stop?!” she demanded.