Finding My Way by Malala Yousafzai review - growing up in public

[cbabe]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/14/finding-my-way-by-malala-yousafzai-review-growing-up-in-public

Finding My Way by Malala Yousafzai review – growing up in public

Clambering up bell towers, dancing the night away and falling in love – how ‘saint’ Malala forged a new identity

Mythili Rao
Tue 14 Oct 2025 04.00 EDT

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Malala kept a notebook by her bed, filled with rhetorical strategies and talking points – the names of journalists who might be able to broker a meeting with the Taliban, the Qur’an verses she could cite to show that girls do have a right to education in Islam, the things she could say to establish her own credentials as a God-fearing Muslim. Of course, that conversation never happened. Much later, after the fall of Afghanistan in 2021, it made her wince to recall her naive belief that the Taliban would ever listen to her.

What did happen is that, little by little, Malala grew up. She’s told her story before, most notably in I Am Malala, co-written with Christina Lamb and published in 2013, the year before she won a Nobel peace prize. Finding My Way picks up the story of her life as she navigates young adulthood.

In Birmingham, her secondary school classmates largely ignore her, but Malala studies hard and wins a place at Oxford – a dream come true. She joins the rowing team, signs up for a plethora of clubs, and stays out late dancing with her roommates, all while keeping up with the international speaking engagements that pay her parents’ mortgage. She has little time to do any reading, let alone turn in assignments on time. Her tutors send her increasingly stern letters.

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