On August 10th, Kylie Jenner turned 18 years old. Her 18th birthday party, held at suburban Québec's Beachclub, was covered by such notable magazines as Vanity Fair and Cosmopolitan. People all over the country were flooded with "news" headlines such as "Inside Kylie Jenner's 18th Birthday" and "Kylie Jenner Had a Much Bigger 18th-Birthday Party Than You Did." Why does Kylie Jenner deserve all of this attention? In actuality, she doesn't. And there are other 18-year-old women who are a lot more deserving of this attention.
Malala Yousafzai turned 18 years old on July 12th, and the sad thing is that the majority of you are probably wondering who she is. Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan was the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Malala's childhood was spent in a popular tourist town in Pakistan, however, as the Taliban moved into power, her peaceful town transformed. When the Taliban began to attack girls' schools in Swat, Malala spoke out. In 2008, she gave a speech in Peshawar, Pakistan titled, "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?"
In 2009, Malala began to blog for the BBC about the Taliban's threat to deny girls an education. Although her identity was supposed to be protected by BBC, it was revealed by December of 2009.
This, however, did not discourage Malala, and she continued to speak up for women's right to an education. In 2011, she was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize as a direct result of her activism.
At 14, Malala's family became aware of the fact that the Taliban had issued a death threat against her.
On October 9, 2012, Malala boarded her school bus in the northwest Pakistani district of Swat, headed home. As she boarded the bus, she was confronted by a gunman, demanding to know which girl was Malala. Ultimately, when her identity was given away, she was shot in the head.
Malala was in critical condition after being shot and was flown to a military hospital in Peshawar. After having a portion of her skull removed to treat her swelling brain, she was transferred to a hospital in Birmingham, England.
After several surgeries and a period of time spent in a medically induced coma, Malala recovered, having no permanent brain damage. In March 2013, Malala was able to return to school, this time in Birmingham.
On her 16th birthday, Malala gave a speech at the United Nations. Along with her impressive accomplishments, Malala wrote an autobiography that was released in October 2013 titled, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban.
Since being shot by the Taliban, Malala has continued to speak up about the power of education and women's right to education and has become a symbol of hope for all. To this day, she remains a target of the Taliban.
In October 2014, at the age of 17, Malala received the Nobel Peace Prize along with children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi of India. To this day, Malala is the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
On July 12, 2015, Malala celebrated her 18th birthday. Did this accomplished and heroic woman celebrate in Kylie Jenner fashion? No. Instead, she spent her 18th birthday opening a school for Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon.
In her own words: "Today on my first day as an adult, on behalf of the world's children, I demand of leaders we must invest in books instead of bullets."
So instead of adoring Kylie Jenner for celebrating her 18th birthday with thousands of her "closest" fans, we should be talking about a girl who changed the world before she even turned 18.
Malala Yousafzai spent her 18th birthday doing something that matters, and for all of her accomplishments she deserves to become more of a household name than Kylie Jenner.
