Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani writer, memoirist, and education activist. She writes non-fiction focused on girls’ education, displacement, and human rights. She is best known for I Am Malala (2013) and We Are Displaced (2018). She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 and the Sakharov Prize in 2013.

Yousafzai was born on 12 July 1997 in Mingora, Swat, Pakistan. She grew up in a Pashtun family led by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, an education activist. From an early age, she was exposed to books, debate, and public speaking. Her father encouraged her education at a time when girls’ schooling faced severe restrictions in Swat.

In early 2009, at the age of eleven, she began her literary career. She wrote an anonymous blog for BBC Urdu under the name Gul Makai. The blog described daily life under Taliban rule and the closure of girls’ schools. She later explained her aim as simply to testify. She wrote about fear, exams, and the loss of everyday life. These posts marked her first published writing.

In 2011, her public profile grew through interviews and short written statements. In 2012, she was shot by a Taliban gunman while returning from school. After treatment in Pakistan, she was transferred to Birmingham, United Kingdom. During recovery, her writing gained global attention and new readers.

In 2013, Malala Yousafzai co-authored I Am Malala (2013) with journalist Christina Lamb. The memoir recounts her childhood, the attack, and her views on education. Reviewing the book, Malala stated that telling her story meant telling “the story of many girls”. The book became an international bestseller. A children’s edition followed in 2014. By 2017, the memoir had sold nearly two million copies.

Also in 2013, she received the Sakharov Prize. In 2014, at the age of 17, she became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The award increased global readership of her books and essays.

In 2017, Yousafzai published the picture book Malala’s Magic Pencil (2017), which uses fantasy to present her childhood wish to change the world. She said the pencil symbolised hope and voice. In 2018, she published We Are Displaced (2018), her own story with testimonies from young refugees. She wrote that “people become refugees when they have no other option”.

In 2020, Malala Yousafzai completed a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. In 2021, she entered a long-term partnership with Apple for screen storytelling. She published her second memoir, Finding My Way, in 2025.

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