Barack Obama wasn’t surprised when his daughter changed her name.

Malia, the former president’s 26-year-old daughter, dropped her last name in her directorial debut. HeartIt played at the Sundance Film Festival in February. She instead went by her middle name, Malia Ann.

Obama shared Pivot Podcast Both daughters Malia and Sasha, 23, don’t want to use their parents’ influence to help their careers, they said Tuesday.

“The challenge for us is to allow us to provide them with any assistance,” Obama said. “So they are very sensitive about these issues. “They are very stubborn about this.”

Even though Malia wanted to move away from her famous last name, Obama reminded her ahead of the movie premiere that people would still recognize her.

“I said, ‘You know they’re going to know who you are,'” Obama said. “And he said, ‘You know what? I want them to watch it for the first time and not have that association at all.’ So I think our girls are doing their best not to take advantage of that.

Obama also described how his daughters tried to attract press attention during their childhood in the White House. Both daughters were in grade school when Obama won the presidency in 2008, and Obama cited the disruption in his daughters’ lives as the reason he almost failed to run for office.

“I basically made a deal with the press pool,” he said. ‘You can follow me,’ I said. You can talk about me. You do what you have to do. Leave my children alone because they have the right to grow up too. They didn’t choose this. Let them grow.’ And to the discretion of the press, they left them alone.”

Now that the girls are adults, they face more media scrutiny, but they don’t let it get to them.

“As they got older, some paparazzi stuff started happening and it drives them crazy,” the former president said. “Their attitude is: ‘We’re not looking for all this.’ So they are punished.”