I’m a big fan of “women crush Wednesday” (WCW) on Instagram. Once a week, it gives us all a chance to shamelessly display our adoration for a celebrity. While I usually use this day to think about my everlasting love for Blake Lively, this week I think everyone’s real WCW should be Malala Yousafzai.
Most people know a little bit about this amazing Pakistani teenager. She rose to international fame when Taliban gunmen targeted her on her school bus in northwest Pakistan. Despite the Taliban’s intent to kill her, Malala continued to promote female education and women’s rights both in Pakistan and around the world.
Since her attack over two years ago, Malala has become an international symbol for women’s and children’s right to education. She has met both the Queen of England and President Obama, has been pictured on the cover of Time magazine, and published a memoir. Earlier this month, she became the first Pakistani to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the youngest person to win any Nobel Prize. Here are a few of my favorite Malala facts:
- Staring when she was 11, she wrote a blog describing her life under Taliban occupation first-hand for the BBC using a synonym
- She is the first winner of Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize, now called the Malala Prize
- She inspired a United Nations petition demanding that all children worldwide be in school by 2015
- She holds honorary Canadian citizenship
- She addressed the UN on her 16th birthday, an event titled “Malala Day”
- And, most importantly:SHE’S STILL ONLY 17!!!!
I hope you’ll all join in with me in adding Malala to the top of your list of women crushes, not just on Wednesday, but everyday.