Claim: Malala Yousafzai had a role model.

Malala Yousafzai -LRB- Malālah Yūsafzay : -LSB- ; ملاله یوسفزۍ -LSB- məˈlaːlə jusəf ˈzəj -RSB- born 12 July 1997 -RRB- is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate . She is known for human rights advocacy , especially education of women in her native Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , northwest Pakistan , where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school . Her advocacy has since grown into an international movement .   Yousafzai was born in Mingora , Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Pakistan . Her family came to run a chain of schools in the region . Considering Jinnah and Benazir Bhutto as her role-models , she was particularly inspired by her father 's thoughts and humanitarian work . In early 2009 , when she was 11 -- 12 , she wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC Urdu detailing her life during the Taliban occupation of Swat . The following summer , journalist Adam B. Ellick made a New York Times documentary about her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region . She rose in prominence , giving interviews in print and on television , and she was nominated for the International Children 's Peace Prize by activist Desmond Tutu .   On the afternoon of 9 October 2012 , Yousafzai was injured after a Taliban gunman attempted to murder her . Yousafzai remained unconscious , in critical condition at the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology , but later her condition improved enough for her to be sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham , UK . The murder attempt sparked a national and international outpouring of support for Yousafzai . Deutsche Welle wrote in January 2013 that she may have become `` the most famous teenager in the world . '' Weeks after her murder attempt , a group of fifty leading Muslim clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwā against those who tried to kill her .   Since recovering , Yousafzai became a prominent education activist . Based out of Birmingham , she founded the Malala Fund , a non-profit , and in 2013 co-authored I am Malala , an international bestseller . In 2015 , Yousafzai was a subject of the Oscar-shortlisted documentary He Named Me Malala . The 2013 , 2014 and 2015 issues of Time magazine featured her as one of the most Influential people globally . In 2012 , she was the recipient of Pakistan 's first National Youth Peace Prize and the 2013 Sakharov Prize . In 2014 , she was announced as the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize , along with Kailash Satyarthi , for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education . Aged 17 at the time , she became the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate . Since March 2013 , she has been a pupil at the all-girls ' Edgbaston High School in Birmingham . In 2017 , she was awarded honorary Canadian citizenship and became the youngest person to address the House of Commons of Canada .