"WHEN THE WHOLE WORLD IS SILENT, EVEN ONE VOICE BECOMES POWERFUL."

Malala Yousafzai was in chemistry class when a teacher came into the room with exciting news. “Malala! You’ve won the Nobel Peace Prize!” At 17, Malala was the youngest person—and the first Pakistani—to win the prestigious award. Her classmates cheered, and Malala hugged her teacher. Then she went back to her studies and finished the school day.

Just three years earlier, Malala had lain in a hospital bed in Pakistan, fighting for her life. The 14-year-old had been shot in the head, and no one expected her to survive. If she did make it, her doctors said, she almost certainly wouldn’t be able to walk, read, or speak.

The men who shot Malala were part of a terrorist group called the Taliban, who believe women and girls should not have rights. They controlled her town in northwest Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border. They banned television, destroyed schools, and attacked girls who tried to learn.

When Malala was 11, a British news organization called the BBC had wanted to find a local schoolgirl to write about what it was like to live under extremist rule. They reached out to Malala’s father, a teacher, and asked if his daughter would like to do it. He knew it would be dangerous, but Malala overheard his conversation and insisted that she do it. “Why not me?” she asked. She wanted to speak up for herself, and for the girls in her community.

Malala’s diary was published on the BBC’s website for 10 weeks, and people all over the world read her story. The first entry described a bad dream she’d had: “I had a terrible dream yesterday with military helicopters and the Taliban. I have had such dreams since the launch of the military operation in Swat. My mother made me breakfast and I went off to school. I was afraid…

This brought Malala respect and admiration, but it also made her a target. Even though the diary was published under a pretend name (“Gul Makai,” the heroine of a Pashtun folktale), Malala’s identity was eventually discovered. Here was a 14-year-old girl who would not be silenced, and this made grown men terrified. The Taliban sent an assassin to find and kill her. A gunman found her on a schoolbus. He did manage to shoot her, but he didn’t manage to take her life or her spirit. In fact, it only made her stronger.

Malala’s recovery was miraculous and fast. The world was outraged by the attack, and the publicity Malala received gave her a platform to speak about what is most important to her: peace and education. She wrote a best-selling book, I Am Malala, and has traveled around the world, meeting everyone from Queen Elizabeth to Madonna.

Some call her “The Bravest Girl in the World,” and not just because she survived the attack. When she met President Obama, she directly challenged America’s use of drone strikes that kill innocent people in Pakistan. She urges world leaders to invest in “books, not bombs,” and her organization, the Malala Fund, is opening schools around the world. In her Nobel Prize acceptance speech, she dedicated the award to all the girls who cannot attend school. She’s also committed to her own education: she passed her final exams with all As, and plans to attend university.

Like many children around the world, Malala was born into a place of great turmoil. But her region of the world is also rich with history, traditions, and strong female leaders. In fact, Malala is named after Malalai of Maiwand, a famous Afghan heroine. During a war in 1880, a female teenager named Malalai shouted words of inspiration to the Afghan soldiers who were losing to the British. Malalai was shot down by the enemy, but her actions motivated the soldiers, and they won the battle. Malalai became a national hero, and now Malala is fulfilling the destiny of her namesake. Unlike Malalai, Malala survived the bullet, and has gone on to inspire others. A survivor of violence and hatred, Malala fights with a truly powerful weapon: her voice.