Malala was born on July 12, 1997, in a town called Mingora, located in the Swat region of northwestern Pakistan. His father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, named him after Malalai, a Pashtun hero. 

Malala started blogging under a pseudonym for the Urdu service of the BBC after her school was attacked.

Malala and her father were receiving death threats. However, Malala defended her right to education to the end. Meanwhile, Malala was featured in a documentary for The New York Times and was revealed as the author of the BBC blog.

In 2011, South African pastor Desmond Tutu nominated him for the Children's Rights Foundation's International Children's Peace Prize. Thus, Malala became well known. After this award, she later received Pakistan's National Youth Peace Prize.

On October 9, 2012, Malala was returning home from school on the bus when she was shot. Two of his girlfriends were also injured in the incident.

It was understood that Malala, who came out of a coma on October 17, could overcome the condition without any damage to her brain. 

Making a speech at the United Nations in June 2013, Malala met Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace. She gave a speech at Harvard University in September of that year and met with Barack Obama in October.

The day Malala gave her speech at the United Nations was her birthday, July 12. Shee gave a speech that day for the first time after the attack, and the United Nations declared that day as Malala Day.

Malala received the Nobel Peace Prize on October 10, 2014 for her advocacy for children's rights. Thus, she became the youngest person to receive this award. She became the second Pakistani to receive a Nobel Prize after Abdus Salam.

Malala published a book called Ben Malala in 2013. She described her struggle at that time in her book.

She was included in the "100 Most Influential People in the World" list prepared by TIME Magazine in 2013.