Teenage & Parenting..Obama's example

How Malia Obama has blossomed from an awkward teen to America's next style icon as she follows in the First Lady's footsteps:

Story courtesy - Daily Mail Reporter

Looking every bit as poised and elegant as her mother, the long-limbed first daughter has taken the awkward out of adolescence with ease.

In the weeks since election night, the emerging styles of the Obama daughters, and especially Malia, has taken center stage - the 14-year-old blossoming from the President's wide-eyed 'baby' into a self-assured young woman who has inherited her mother's confidence, bold fashion sense and looks.

Wearing a shiny blue full skirt from ASOS with a neon pink Zara belt, and J. Crew flats, Malia proved she has inherited her mother's classic but bold sensibility on election night - seamlessly following in her well-heeled footsteps.

Malia, standing nearly as tall as her 5-foot-11 mother, now carries herself with confidence, striding alongside her mother like two-peas-in-a-poised-pod.

Unlike many teens unused to their new height, she shows no trace of awkwardness or embarrassment, instead, she embraces her lean figure with smart, yet bang-on-trend, wardrobe choices.

Since turning 14 on Independence Day, she has slowly started to tick off some age-appropriate milestones - like her first mobile phone.

Mrs Obama admitted in June that she ‘scared the heck’ out of Malia with ‘days of lectures’ on the dangers of talking to strangers before handing the device over.

He admitted in an interview last year, before her two-inch growth spurt: 'Even though she's 5ft 9in, she's still my baby. And she just got braces, which is good, because she looks like a kid and she was getting ... she's starting to look too old for me.

One occasion in particular came as a shock, as Mrs Obama revealed on The View.

She said: 'He says he's cool, but you know... The first time Malia went out for a party and she was dressed, she had her hair done and she's tall, she had on a pretty dress, you could see him, he was sort of like... gulp. And I was like, "Easy dad."'

President Obama often talks highly of his two children, saying they are kind, respectful, responsible and well-behaved girls.

‘I could not ask for better kids,’ he told ABC News in June. ‘I'm not anticipating complete mayhem for the next four, five years. But I understand teenage-hood is complicated. I should also point out that I have men with guns that surround them often.’