The beauty of having to pump the brakes on the young adult genre and delving into biographies and autobiographies, a much needed reality check is received.
So without further adieu my #WomanCrushWednesday goes to a seventeen-year-old who is right up there with Nobel Laureates and nominees. I'm talking Wangari Maathai (I jut had to start with her cause well...Kenyan!) Nelson Mandela, Barrack Obama, Desmond Tutu among others. She's had a sit down with the Obama's at the White House, rubbed shoulders with Queen Elizabeth, has been nominated and won countless awards; the Nobel Peace Prize, U.S. Glamour Award for Woman of the Year. The list goes on and on and on and on and...you get the idea.
She's even got her own day, dubbed, "Malala Day".
If you have not caught on by now even with the obvious "Malala Day" hint and the title of this article, I am talking about none other than Malala Yousafzai.
Until I began getting to know Malala through her book of course, Mondays were associated with school and work, code name for doom and gloom. But it never really dawned on me that women somewhere were and in some places are still being robbed of both an education and a career. In Malala's case it is/was the Taliban.
As a mere teenager Malala chose to stand up to one of the most wanted terrorism groups in the world. Spreading awareness on women's rights defiantly was her weapon of choice, tenacity and endearment her fuel. The Taliban would not take this lightly, being challenged by a fifteen year old girl who did not budge even when they sent her and her family death threats.
On the ninth of October 2012, the Taliban had had enough and retaliated by attacking her school bus, shooting her, injuring her friends in the process and leaving her for dead. Many thought it was the end for Malala and that she had finally lived up to her name that means "grief stricken" but if anything, thanks to the Taliban, what did not kill Ms. Yousafzai definitely made her stronger.
Though the climate in Malala's life is far from the land of milk and honey and what not , she does manage to give you insight to her typical life. For instance her choice of wardrobe, jewelery, BFFs and her love for the Twilight saga (I wonder, was she Team Jacob or Team Edward?).
She simply does not stop this girl even influencing her once illiterate mother to learn English. Doesn't she just want to make you start singing Beyonce's Run the World?
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