Malala Yousafzai’s 3 Tips for Taking Stellar Selfies

2 minute read

Sure, Malala Yousafzai just became a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, but she’s also a 17-year-old. And that means the Pakistani education activist knows a thing or two about selfies, and — believe it or not — takes selfies, too.

Here are three of Malala’s best practices for taking great selfies:

1. Use selfies for good.

In an interview with the New York Times, Malala explained her approach to taking selfies. And it has nothing to do with angles or lighting:

I think it’s important that we use social media, but for a good purpose. For instance, it’s good to take a selfie to say ‘hey what’s up’ and those things, but I think it’s also important that we use it for the good purpose of highlighting the issues that children all over the world are facing.

One of those selfies-for-good was one GMA anchor Amy Robach snapped this summer of Malala, Ban Ki-moon and herself for the #showyourselfie campaign. The campaign, launched by the United Nations Population Fund, brought awareness to the importance of including young people in decision-making processes:

2. Learn from selfies.

Malala doesn’t think that selfies and hashtag activism should be dismissed as useless forms of advocacy. In fact, she credits the #BringBackOurGirls photo campaign for bringing awareness to the public — and to herself — of the Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram earlier this year. “I came to know about Bring Back Our Girls because it was on Twitter, you could see it,” Malala told the Times. “I think this is the way we can highlight what’s happening and we can speak for our rights.”

She even was inspired to take her own “selfie:”

3. Don’t be above taking selfies.

While Malala champions selfies-for-good, that doesn’t mean she won’t take one just to take one. But make sure to bring your own cellphone — Malala still doesn’t have one.

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