Like many teenagers, she spends her days on Facebook and Twitter in between her classes at school. She pokes fun at her younger brother. She laughs at The Minions. She thinks Brad Pitt is handsome.

She considers herself to be an ordinary girl. An ordinary girl who fights the Taliban. Even when they tried to kill her.

Born in 1997, Malala Yousafazai, spent most of her childhood in Swat Valley, Pakistan. He father operated a school not far from the family’s home, and strongly believed in the power of all children earning a good education. Malala inherited her father’s passion for learning, and as a young teenager, she wrote for a blog anonymously about the importance of education for girls everywhere.

The Taliban is a group of fundamentalist Sunni Muslim militants live near the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.  This group has killed, terrorized, and tortured those who do not subscribe to their beliefs. The Taliban is strongly antagonistic toward American and NATO forces in Afghanistan and has killed and threaten to kill those who support the work of the United States.

One day in 2012 as Malala was on her way home from school, she was shot defending the rights of girls everywhere. She simply wanted an education and she wanted the same for others.  Continue reading →