Finding My Way

by Malala Yousafzai

How do you rebuild yourself when your whole world changes overnight?

Thrust onto the public stage at fifteen years old after the Taliban’s brutal attack on her life, Malala Yousafzai quickly became an international icon known for bravery and resilience. But away from the cameras and crowds, she spent years struggling to find her place in an unfamiliar world. Now, for the first time ever, Malala takes us beyond the headlines in Finding My Way—a vulnerable, surprising memoir that buzzes with authenticity, sharp humor, and tenderness.

Finding My Way is a story of friendship and first love, of anxiety and self-discovery, of trying to stay true to yourself when everyone wants to tell you who you are. In it, Malala traces her path from high school loner to reckless college student to a young woman at peace with her past. Through candid, often messy moments like nearly failing exams, getting ghosted and meeting the love of her life, Malala reminds us that real role models aren’t perfect—they’re human.

In this astonishing memoir, Malala reintroduces herself to the world, sharing how she navigated life as someone whose darkest moments threatened to define her—while seeking the freedom to find out who she truly is. Finding My Way is an intimate look at the life of a young woman taking charge of her destiny—and a deeply personal testament to the strength it takes to be unapologetically yourself.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir, Audiobook, Feminism, Autobiography

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 2025

About the author

Girls education activist and youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate.

New memoir, FINDING MY WAY, and book tour tickets available for pre-order today!

Reviews

[SH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Malala!!! The woman you are!!!! I could not love a memoir more. It was full of honesty and vulnerability. I may not have won a Nobel peace prize, but Malala was beyond relatable. Like sitting down for a cup of tea with your friend who unapologetically gets it and gets you. Cup is overflowing

[theliterateleprechaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful memoir, an honest look at Malala Yousafzai's life. You may remember her as the 15 year old girl who suffered as the result of a Taliban attack. She's taken charge of her destiny since becoming the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and has stepped out of the spotlight to navigate life on her terms.

I think the most impactful thing about this story is that this 28 year old reveals that it is ok to make mistakes along the way and that the journey to finding oneself isn't always paved in perfection.

I was happy to find this book as I had followed Malala's story and was curious about what happened in the years following her escape. I hope she continues to share with those of us who wish her well.

I was gifted this copy and was under no obligation to provide a review.

[Clare Mulroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible memoir with so much heart, humor and wisdom. I’m going to beg everyone in my life to read this.

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can* · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful , genuine, and impressive human.

[Ashley 💙]

Pre-reading: I read Malala’s first memoir and was immersed. Looking forward to this one!

[Gina Dronamraju · Rating 5 out of 5]

STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND READ THIS BOOK!!

I am honestly speechless. I devoured this book because I could not put it down. Malala’s writing style is so warm and personal it felt like I was reading a letter from a friend. This book is beautiful, emotional, and full of honesty. It made me cry on more than one occasion and it made me reflect on my own life and feel deeply grateful for the freedoms and opportunities I have as a woman.
Malala shares her story with such strength and grace, and it reminded me how powerful it is when someone speaks their truth. It is easily my favorite read of 2025 so far. Everyone, not just women, should read this book. It is inspiring, moving, and one of those stories that stays with you long after you finish the last page.

[Komal · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐
I started Finding My Way a bit skeptical but ended up deeply moved. The parts about her time at Oxford and her evolving relationship with her parents are the most engaging, funny, grounded, and full of warmth. I loved the glimpses into the messy realities of her activism and what it took to build a network of schools in remote parts of Pakistan and beyond while proving herself academically and adjusting to living in a new country. I also connected with her reflections on marriage and mental health—the exhaustion, the pressure, and the slow work of finding peace with both. Malala writes with striking clarity about hypocrisy, describing how first world male leaders who once championed her ignored her pleas to help evacuate Malala Fund teachers after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. She captures the tension of being both a product of global institutions and a critic of them, caught between gratitude and disillusionment. If there’s one thing I missed, it was a deeper engagement with the broader ideological criticism around her activism. She acknowledges the noise, but doesn’t really unpack it, and I wondered what her private reckoning with that might look like. Still, this is a thoughtful, layered, and often disarmingly funny portrait of a young woman defining herself under global scrutiny.

[Samantha Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Malala is the coolest. I really enjoyed hearing her speak so honestly about the pressures of being in the spotlight (while trying to perform well academically at Oxford), managing anxiety and PTSD, and how awful (and exhilarating) dating can be. I’m so glad she used this book as an opportunity to remind us that she’s just another human, experiencing the ups and downs like we all do. PS - She’s funny as hell.

[Emily Katy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A memoir filled with honesty, authenticity and vulnerability. It’s such an engaging read - like having a chat with a friend, despite everything Malala has been through and accomplished. She writes about her university experience and mental health challenges openly and candidly, in a way that is deeply relatable to so many people. Malala’s wisdom and humour shines through on every page, balanced beautifully with her passion for girls’ education and her reflections and contemplations about life, marriage, trauma, friendship, love and growth. This is an inspiring and heart-felt read.

[Hilary Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️📖 i loved learning more about Malala! Her growth and development was really interesting to read about. It was so fun to read about her experiencing the girlhood we are so incredibly lucky to have in our part of the world. She is an incredible activist and woman.

[Liv Horton · Rating 4 out of 5]

MALALA YOU ARE EVERYTHING TO ME everyone needs to read this women are amazing

[Laura]

I love the way Malala wrote her life story. From a lonely girl, to a student struggling her way through college, to a young woman figuring out who she is and making peace with her past.

Listened to the audiobook while also reading the physical, but I always recommend the audiobook when the author is the narrator. This way I feel like the author connects you to their story and you can just feel the emotions.

Absolutely loved this!

[Anika (Encyclopedia BritAnika) · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you (or at least when I) think of Malala, you think of her heroism and bravery. You never stop to think how she was such a young girl. Just a teenager. Thrust into the global spotlight. Burdened with the weight of saving girls from going without an education. Moved to a country she didn't know. Still being governed by her small village illiterate mother. Malala is so forthcoming in this story and I was really grateful for it. She, like many immigrants, finds herself not only funding her own family with her speaking engagements, but also family back home, buying homes for them, paying college tuition, whatever her father offers their relatives. He offers her income, as he believes in our culture is his right and his duty. She is 16. She is a child trying to get by in school but knows she cannot turn down a single speaking engagement because that is money that pays her cousin's college tuition. Add in the constant refrain of "what will people say" from her parents every time she wants to do anything a little bit to assimilate to her new home in the UK. The weight of this is unimaginable. I was drowning just reading it. I was not surprised by her panic attacks as she navigated all of this at Oxford. I was also not surprised, sadly, how ill equipped she was for a support base to deal with these very real and scary mental health challenges because South Asians don't believe in mental health care. She just needed to suck it up and not complain. Every piece of me wanted to reach in that book and hug her. And walk her to therapy. She does go and I'm so happy for her. I was especially happy for her when she meets and eventually marries Asser, her very handsome, very supportive partner. The struggle she has getting to marriage and not wanting to give up her independence was very real and I appreciated her honesty. Also, I appreciated her humor. Malala is funny, y'all! Malala really gave us more than I ever expected in this memoir, on top of all she has given the world already.

[Jadyn Right · Rating 5 out of 5]

i can't wait to hear her talk about this book on friday 🥹🥹

———————————————

220

After sharing the good news with everyone I knew, I collapsed backward on my bed, still buzzing with happiness. That’s when I realized: I won. From the time I was a girl, I had carried this dream of graduating from university, even when I didn’t know a single woman who had done it. I won’t be a teenage bride and spend my life wondering what I could have contributed to the world, I had told myself. I will go to college. The Taliban had forced me out of school when I was eleven years old and tried to kill me when I was fifteen. With bombs and guns, they’d fought against little girls who only wanted to learn, to understand the world around them. There were long periods of my childhood and teen years when even finishing high school seemed impossible.

I am not someone who believes everyone should go to college; I know plenty of brilliant people who don’t have a degree. But, for me, education was my guiding light, the only way I could save myself from a life I didn’t want.

Now, no matter where my life went next, I was a college graduate, and I always would be. It didn’t mean the end of misogyny or an enduring triumph for the right to education, of course. This was a personal victory. Between me and the men who’d tried to stop me, the fight was over. I had won.

———————————————

[Mollie McEvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Malala and I were both university students playing Among Us in the pandemic and I think that’s beautiful… This was a very beautiful memoir I would recommend

[Beatrice Breckheimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

6/5 ⭐️ One of my favorite books I’ve read this year, by far! I couldn’t put it down & read it in one sitting (sorry Sunday evening plans). I love Malala and find her work in women’s education so inspirational, so it’s no surprise I loved this (I’ve been waiting for months for the release date). This book far exceeded any expectations I had, though — it almost reads like a novel, with the stories & experiences she tells, woven in with past recounts and insightful reflections, advice, and learnings. I loved the sections she wrote about her mother because you can see the changes in both her reflection and relationship from her first book. I also loved hearing her convictions about gender equity, independence, marriage, and love — this is one of the first books I’ve related almost completely to someone on these topics, which was so affirming to read.

Malala, your stories & insights brought me to tears throughout this read (I probably spent half the book crying) and I’m so grateful you put this story into words!

[Callie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a well-deserved follow-up to I AM MALALA. It was beautiful to see her growth and how she was still dealing with the intense PTSD in conjunction with getting shot. Malala is a wonderful inspiration, and I found her quite relatable, despite coming from very different cultures. If you read her first book, I highly recommend reading the follow-up. It’s a well-deserved part 2 to a very beautiful story.

[Brielle Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will always read anything she writes

[sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

soooooo fucking good love you mals you’re amazing in every way

[Adithi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first audiobook ever and it ate. Very interesting perspective + so refreshingly real. Free w Spotify premium

[Malia Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

100% recommend the audio version of this book - it was very engaging

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books that I’ve read in a very long time. Relatable and full of hope.

[Bella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. There wasn’t a single thing I didn’t like about this book. The way she struggled to make friends in high school and felt the pressure of being perfect in school — it somehow even took the pressure off my own life in some magical, weird way. I mean, if a girl like Malala, who’s so amazing, can be concerned about school stress, anxiety, and how she looks, it reminded me that we’re all experiencing life for the first time and we’re all doing the best we can.

It reminded me to be brave (I know she found it strange to be called brave so often when she didn’t think she was). But I don’t mean brave as in being an activist — though of course she is that too — I mean brave in how she signed up for so many clubs, met so many people, and wanted to have a full college experience. She put herself out there to make it happen, and that might not be the first thing you think of when you hear her name, but to me, as a college girl in her twenties, that means everything.

Her view on marriage was so well written and so valid, especially considering her background and references to marriage. She talked about being young and wondering why things can’t just be — not knowing if marriage was something she even wanted — and that was so relatable. It’s nice to know others think that way too.

I won’t go much into the political parts, except to say they were heartbreaking to read. I felt ashamed that I was so uneducated about it, and honestly, I still can’t fully comprehend the tragedy and trauma that so many girls and women experience. I even felt almost guilty about my privilege. Malala’s work is so important, but it’s heartbreaking that it’s even necessary.
I also loved her thoughts on her relationship with her mother — how relatable she made those feelings, even though her situation is so much more complex and different from what people in other cultures might be used to. Wow, again — what a voice she has. It shines through in this book, and the pressure she feels to represent all these women made me just want to give her a hug.

I’ve read her book: I am Malala, but I found it harder to connect with — and, to my great shame, I felt like it didn’t matter as much to me because it seemed like it was happening on a completely different planet. This book felt so different in that aspect. I didn’t feel like I was reading a celebrity memoir about someone’s struggles; I was with Malala on her journey as an ordinary girl who just wanted to be treated as a person — someone who believes everyone should be able to follow their dreams.

I loved reading about her journey, and I didn’t expect to laugh, cry, and feel so many emotions while reading it. What a beautifully written book — it made me feel more confident in where I am in my own life, and reminded me to trust the river, and that I’ll be able to float.

[Alicia P · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew, as most did, that Malala has been an advocate and voice for girls' right to an education since she was shot by the Taliban years ago. I read her first book, I am Malala, even teaching it to groups of my students. So, when I learned she had written a new book, I eagerly purchased the audiobook, read by Malala herself.

It was amazing. I knew Malala as a brave teen girl who stood up to evil forces. But this book shows the "after." It shows a Malala who goes to college at Oxford and struggles to stay on top of her grades and assignments. A young woman who wants to wear the cute jeans everyone else does, but has to hide it from her conservative parents. It shows a young woman in college not as a Nobel Peace prize winner, but someone struggling to find out who they are and what they want to do with their life.
Among other things, it shows a Malala who:
*loves to play poker
*tried pot in college
*went clubbing
*struggled with panic attacks and with discovering mental health treatment while facing the cultural stigmas against it
*was a leading advocate for education while also struggling struggling maintain her grades
*didn't believe in the institution of marriage as a whole (due to the patriarchy) but who managed to find a partner who loved and supported her dreams and ambitions, and
* is just trying to find her way in the world, like everyone else, and to maintain love for her family while acknowledging their struggles and limitations, to recognize you can be an advocate while also giving yourself time and space to breathe and decompress, and that falling in love and getting married doesn't have to limit your rights and freedoms, but can actually be freeing, in a way.

If you've followed Malala's story, you will love this refreshing snd homest view of the child who has grown into a woman wise, funny, flawed, and human. Such a great book!!

[Umar Tosheeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Malala’s critics forget that she was just a teenager shot by the Talibans and barely survived her life. In Pakistan and many other places, her critics demand that she stand up for this and that cause, and failure to do so proves that she is a stooge of the West. Looking from that lens, this biography is a brave attempt. Malala comes across as an almost typical university student in the West. She is making friends, going to friends, and joining Christian and Hindu clubs at Oxford, because, as she justifies, those two ethnic groups are a minority in Pakistan. Perhaps that justification, and many others like it in the book, are meant to appease those critics.

Malala’s student life at Oxford is the main focus of the book. She continuously struggles with her grades, partly because she is busy with her advocacy life and isn’t able to consistently focus on her studies. Just like any other college student, Malala befriends a group of students who stay her friends throughout her time at Oxford and beyond. Malala has been under a lot of scrutiny from people in Pakistan; therefore, initially, she is reluctant to approach and befriend Pakistani students. She overcomes her reluctance and joins a Pakistani group to reminisce about her past life and share other cultural activities. There is a sense of normalcy to her life at Oxford. Malala is worried about her grades, friendships, parties, looks, and even boys. But there are also pressures and scrutiny that other students don’t have to face: traveling around the world to advocate for girls’ education, the dress she wears, whether she is being appropriate at college parties by not dancing, or whether she should even attend those parties at all. Despite these fears, while at Oxford, amongst many other activities “deemed inappropriate”, she tries smoking weed and develops a crush on a boy.

When Malala has a serious boyfriend, there is a constant juggle to balance her freer and independent life in the UK with her conservative roots. If she is pictured with her boyfriend or found otherwise, there will be a price to pay because many people will disapprove. It could impact her initiatives for girls’ education in areas where people would consider having a boyfriend or being around people of her age as inappropriate and un-Islamic.. Every time she does anything with her boyfriend, she has to take a calculated risk.

Ultimately, despite what happened to her when she was 15, and being the target of most conservative and even dangerous elements in Pakistan and beyond, Malala chooses to be a free and independent woman. She tries to be a typical university student by not missing out on cultural and fun activities — she actually makes sure she takes part in them, even at the expense of her studies. She courts, dates, and marries a man despite risks and objections from her family. It is nice to see that a girl who suffered so much at the hands of extremists has finally found some joy in her life.

[Shelby Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember being in 5th grade and seeing the headlines about Malala’s attack. Little shelby could not comprehend the concept that girls were experiencing violence for the simple concept of going to school, something I would dread doing. Being able to read Malala’s thoughts and contextualizations of her life and its influences was something much needed.
A common message throughout this book was Malala wishing to escape the fame, photos in public, and to be a ‘normal girl,’ which is exactly what was achieved. This book humanized Malala and her experience for me and I am so glad she dedicated time to writing this. I consistently related to her college life and pressure of family expectations, often succumbing to the intense anxiety that comes with it.
A rare five star read for me that I hope every woman reads.

[Beatrice]

An incredibly genuine memoir that has humor and heart and does not shy away from the "messiness" of self-discovery. As a reader, you might come to the table with preconceived notions of who Malala is. This memoir serves as a reintroduction. Malala explores it all from first crushes to failing exams to seeking friendships to falling in love (all while also navigating the global stage!). I recommend the audiobook since it seems like you are sharing a cup of tea with her.

[loreley god. · Rating 5 out of 5]

i started audiobooking this not soon after it was published. this is a birthday gift, in a way. i remember stealing her first book from my mom’s pile of birthday gifts back in our home in catania, sicily - and gradually making it my own. her story prompting girls’ education meant so much to me as just a fifth grader.

i loved this book. she shares college, which is like what i’m going through now. she shares how she fell in love. i’ll admit that hearing that both my mom AND malala had met their husbands before their 21st birthday before MY 21st birthday was maybe unnecessary - but i’m so happy she’s happy. finally, therapy. i know how big a deal therapy has been for me, so i’m glad malala has found similar solace.

i loved this book. eek!

[Eva Link · Rating 4 out of 5]

enjoyed this more than expected.

[Susy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
Again, a gripping, beautifully told, honest story full of inspiration. I loved listening to the narration by Malala herself though reading it physically would have made it possible to gather some quotes like I did with her first book.

Story 9
Atmosphere 10
Writing Style 9
Pace 9
Setup 8
Enjoyment/Engrossment 9
Narration 9