--- title: Malala Yousafzai: The World's 100 Most Influential People | TIME.com description: A symbol of courage and conviction canonical: https://time.com/collections/the-2013-time-100/7374742/malala-yousafzai-2/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-04-18T04:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T22:58:13.390Z og:title: Malala Yousafzai: The World's 100 Most Influential People | TIME.com og:description: A symbol of courage and conviction og:url: https://time.com/collections/the-2013-time-100/7374742/malala-yousafzai-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a82e0c71fd48db5/6998cea393610ccc77c3081f/2013_time100_yousafzai.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Malala Yousafzai: The World's 100 Most Influential People | TIME.com og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Malala Yousafzai: The World's 100 Most Influential People | TIME.com twitter:description: A symbol of courage and conviction twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a82e0c71fd48db5/6998cea393610ccc77c3081f/2013_time100_yousafzai.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 18, 2013 # Malala Yousafzai Activist, 15 by [Chelsea Clinton](/author/chelsea-clinton/) ## Chelsea Clinton  Mark Seliger for TIME People whose courage has been met by violence populate history. Few, though, are as young as Malala was when, at 15, a Taliban gunman boarded her school bus in northwestern Pakistan and shot her and two other girls, attempting to both kill Malala and, as the Taliban later said, teach a “lesson” to anyone who had the courage to stand up for education, freedom and self-determination, particularly for girls and women. Or as young as 11, when Malala began blogging for the BBC’s Urdu site, writing about her ambition to become a doctor, her fears of the Taliban and her determination to not allow the Taliban — or her fear — to prevent her from getting the education she needed to realize her dreams. Malala is now where she wants to be: back in school. The Taliban almost made Malala a martyr; they succeeded in making her a symbol. The memoir she is writing to raise awareness about the 61 million children around the world who are not in school indicates she accepts that unasked-for responsibility as a synonym for courage and a champion for girls everywhere. However Malala concludes her book, her story so far is only just beginning. _Clinton is a special correspondent for NBC_ (**Interactive Timeline**: [Malala Yousafzai’s Extraordinary Journey](http://poy.time.com/2012/12/19/interactive-timeline-malala-yousafzai/ "undefined")) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-2013-time-100/7374742/malala-yousafzai-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-2013-time-100/7374742/malala-yousafzai-2/"},"headline":"Malala Yousafzai: The World's 100 Most Influential People | TIME.com","datePublished":"2013-04-18T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T22:58:13.390Z","description":"A symbol of courage and conviction","url":"https://time.com/collections/the-2013-time-100/7374742/malala-yousafzai-2/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a82e0c71fd48db5/6998cea393610ccc77c3081f/2013_time100_yousafzai.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chelsea Clinton","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/chelsea-clinton/"}],"creator":"Chelsea Clinton","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6a82e0c71fd48db5/6998cea393610ccc77c3081f/2013_time100_yousafzai.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-2013-time-100/7374742/malala-yousafzai-2/","name":"Malala Yousafzai: The World's 100 Most Influential People | TIME.com"}}]}] ```