Malala Yousafzai has become the youngest person to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize.
The announcement, made this morning, came nearly two years to the day since Yousafzai was shot in the head by a masked gunman who targeted her on a school bus in Pakistan.
Yousafzai had penned an anonymous diary for BBC Urdu in 2009, detailing the conditions under Taliban rule in northwest Pakistan. A year later, she was the subject of a New York Times documentary, placing her in the spotlight and, tragically, putting her on the Taliban hit list.
Physicians removed a bullet from Yousafzai's head before she was flown the U.K. for more surgery. The 17-year now lives in Birmingham in the U.K.
Ever since the shooting, Yousafzai has been a brave and tireless activist for education.
She addressed the United Nations on her 16th birthday and also co-authored a book, titled "I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban."
Said Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, via statement today:
"Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education and has shown by example that children and young people too can contribute to improving their own situations.
"This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances. Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls' rights to education."
As Nobel Peace Prize winner, Yousafzai is jointly honored this year along with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian child rights campaigner.
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