On a warm July day in 1997
a baby girl Malala Yousafzai was born in
beautiful Mingora,
Pakistan named after the "Pashtun Joan of Arc"
this little girl would go on to be a
power to be reckoned with.
She grew up like most little girls in
her village spending time with family
playing with her friends, but Malala had a
dream.
"I want all girls to be able to go to
school and get an education in
my village and throughout the world! Malala. Malala went
to school every day
learning and growing into an independent
thinker and soon she was asked to give a
speech
titled "How dare the Taliban take away
my basic right to education".
She was nervous but spoke from the heart.
A few months later she was blogging for
the BBC.
Her activism spread throughout the world and the Taliban grew
angry. She was considered a threat to
all that they believed in.
During dinner one night, Malala told her
family,
"I will not stop going to school despite
the threats. That will give the Taliban
what they want,
and other girls are counting on me to be
strong. So she went to school the next day
and the day after that, but on October
9th 2012
a Taliban extremist boarded her school
bus and shot her.
It was a very sad day for Mingora and
the rest of the world.
She was in critical condition and flown
to the UK for surgeries and treatments.
The doctors worked tirelessly to save
this bright young girl,
and luckily no brain damage had occurred.
 Soon she was enrolled in school in
England.
After recovering, she got right back to
actively fighting for education rights
for girls. She made appearances on talk
shows,
wrote an autobiography, founded the Malala Fund,
and spoke to the UN all before her 17th
birthday.
While talking to a news anchor she explained,
"I will never give up, despite the
threats. My dream is too important to do
that."
After being nominated the year before,
Malala was nominated again for the Nobel
Peace Prize in 2014, and at 
the age of seventeen she became
the youngest and only Pakistani
to win the honorable award. Malala was invited to the United Nations
to give her acceptance speech. She looked out over the crowd
and saw hundreds smiling, supportive faces of
men, women, and children all who believed in her
and her dream.  She told the audience,
"As far as I know I'm just a committed
and even stubborn person who wants to see every child getting
quality education, who wants to see women having equal rights and who wants
peace in every corner of the world". With
that
the crowd erupted in applause and Malala realized her dream was coming true.
As she stood there looking out over
the crowd,
she thought to herself,
"Anything is possible as long as you
fight for what you know is right".
 
