Malala Yousafzai was an ordinary young woman on her way to school when a masked gunman entered the school bus

Malala Yousafzai was an ordinary young woman on her way to school when a masked gunman entered the school bus, asking for her. He shot her and that’s when her life changed. The Taliban took over her town, resulting in girls not being able to go to school. She spoke behalf of girls, and their right to have an education, which immediately made her a target. In the article “Brainology” by Carol S. Dweck, she gives us an idea about there being two different mindsets. A Growth mindset can improve abilities and help through setbacks. Such as building confidence, being open-minded and learning from mistakes. On the other hand, having a fixed mindset means, not having the willingness to succeed and being ashamed to admit your mistakes. Despite being shot in the head by a member of the Taliban, she never let that stop her from speaking her mind. In this case, Yousafzai has a growth mindset because of her determination and rebelliousness.
Like every other human being, Yousafzai had some personal challenges she had to face. In the book, I am Malala, written by Malala Yousafzai she states, “They don’t think power is in the hands of the women who takes care of everyone all day long, and gives birth to their children”(116). In her hometown men saw women as worthless, and most women truly believed it; however, Yousafzai wasn’t one of those women. She felt insulted because of the way men would view them and had a hard time trying to convince men to see them other than a housewife. She was ambitious to change their perspective on women. Professor of psychology, Carol S. Dweck in the article, “Brainology” she repeatedly says success comes from hard work. Yousafzai displays this by starting to speak up for women, explaining to everyone what women are doing is just as important as men throughout her journey.
Frequently, Yousafzai shows her true compassion in battling for women’s right to have an education by putting in the effort to be heard. In Carol S. Dweck’s article “Brianology”, she summarizes a healthy mindset, focuses on the process and not the outcome. When Yousafzai discovered that the woman in her hometown couldn’t afford to go to school she decided to take the matter into her own hands. In her book, I Am Malala, she begs her father, “Aba, you must them free places at your school”(81). Her father was a teacher but only teaches at a school that required the parents to pay for each child. She’s compassionate, especially towards the less fortunate that she begged her father to squeeze in some girls that couldn’t afford to go to school. She wanted them to have the first hand experience of learning and maturing in school. This shows us she has a growth mindset by seeing a difficult situation and taking time out of her day to find a way around it while planning out the steps to the outcome she wanted.
Frequently, people all around the world are forced out of their own homes whether it’s because they didn’t pay rent on time or the surrounding community is just terrible. It happens every day but most people don’t hear about it because it’s not on top of the news. We only see the most dramatic stories with juicy details but never what the real world experiences everyday. In her book, I Am Malala, Yousafzai claims “We stayed in a guest house and did lots of workshops on how to tell our stories so people outside would know what was going on in our valley and help us”(194). Yousafzai, her family and her friends all had to become IDPs, also known as internally displaced people. They were all forced to move from their home to seek safety from the Taliban. While being stuck in an apartment all together, they worked together to write out their stories to let the whole world hear them. According to Carol S. Dweck in “Brainology” she claims, many brilliant students stop trying after something becomes difficult. However, giving up on the women she had to leave behind was not an option for her. The fact that she had to leave her entire life behind for simply speaking her mind is horrible but she didn’t stop what she was doing. Which was helping every single girl along the way, telling them that their voice matters and their stories must be heard.
Furthermore, Malala Yousafzai’s rebellious nature was unacceptable and caused her to get a lot of criticism from her community back at home. Yousafzai states in her book I Am Malala, “If I am speaking for my rights, for the rights of girls, I am not doing anything wrong”(144). Yousafzai was being criticized by people from her hometown, not only face to face but through social media. This caused her story to spread around which resulted in receiving awards for bravery and leadership. She didn’t care for the awards, what she cared about was doing right by all the intelligent woman. Throughout her journey, she slowly noticed people were praising her and accepting her decisions. This made her feel like all her hard work was worth it. Being able to realize the long way one has gone through, and being proud of every step, proves on has a healthy mindset.
Malala Yousafzai is a very powerful and influential young woman. She loves seeing individuals become fearless and stand up for women’s rights. She didn’t see anyone as a competorar. In her book, I Am Malala, she starts to realize, “the pen and the words that come from it can be so much more powerful than machine guns, tanks or helicopters.”(157). She started grasping at the fact that her words were powerful. She was making a difference in the world, little by little, not a care about who was trying to bring her down. She started taking advantage of that by doing more speeches, getting to know people from the upper class and trying to build schools where women can go for free.
In conclusion, Malala Yousafzai has had a growth mindset since the age of eleven. She had to seek refuge after being kicked out of her hometown, be criticized and shot for wanting women to have an education. Along the way she made some mistakes and was criticized harshly, but proudly moved past it all to get to her goal. Throughout her journey, she kept an open mind on how exactly she was going to help the women, build her confidence by repeatedly telling her story and not ashamed of telling her story.