Teenager Extraordinaire

Teenagers making waves all over is something we could have been used to already. Well, we are told that the future belongs to the youths – teenagers are early youths too – and some of us have taken it too seriously now that the future is here.

 I don’t quite remember doing something productive with myself during my teenage years, which I should have, my excuse being a small town has zilch to offer. What are the current 17 year olds doing? The ones you know. Your brother/sister, cousin, niece, nephew, friends? However it is not about me or them or Kylie Jenner today. Ladies and Gentlemen introducing *drumrolls please* Malala Yousafzai!!! I’m just excited; my shadiness can take a seat now.

Of course I didn’t grow up in the same neighborhood as Malala, neither am I friends with her older sibling or something, I certainly googled her. I wasn’t the least bit stunned to see a “why do most people hate Malala?” title on the search. Whether you do bad or good, there will always be a hater somewhere either talking smack about you or planning to do not so good things to you.

Malala is a teenager of Pakistani origin born in 1997. She is an activist for female Education whose backing has gone global and even won her a Nobel-Prize on 10^th October this year: exactly two years after she was shot in the head. She started out by writing an anonymous blog for BBC, giving conditions under the local Taliban rule which had also banned girls from attending school. This landed her in a New York Times Documentary which in return got her interviews on print and Television. Later that year South African Activist Desmond Tutu nominated her for the International Children’s Peace Prize.

Miss Yousafzai has co-written a book “I am Malala: The girl who stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban.”  A not so average life will earn you not so average hater’s girl. Good choice though.  Her bravery has seen her bag accolades from every front. Malala was the winner of Pakistani’s first ever National Youth Peace Prize, was featured (and listed) on Time magazine in May 2013 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, among others. She was to receive an honorary citizenship in Canada but was cancelled due to the emergency situation in Ottawa where shootings took place near Parliament Hill.

She has also been listed in the Time Magazine again as the Top 100 most influential teenagers alongside  First children Sasha and Malia Obama, models and reality show stars Kendall and Kylie Jenner, and artiste Lorde. A Malala Fund set up by Vital voices to benefit the girl child education has attracted hefty donations, such as Jolie, who reportedly pledged a donation of  200,000 USD.