Malala Yousafzai’s new memoir, “Finding My Way,” reveals hard-hitting details about Yousafzai’s struggles with academics and mental health.
Born in Pakistan and banned from attending school at 11 years old, Yousafzai wrote under a pseudonym about her worries regarding the Taliban military activity and her school’s safety. Her identity was later revealed, and she was shot at 15.
Her first autobiographical book, published in 2014, was co-written with Patricia McCormick and titled “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban.” Her new memoir, “Finding My Way,” was published Oct. 21.
It might have been easy for the youngest Nobel laureate’s story to be unrelatable for the average reader. However, Yousafzai was not afraid to describe her insecurities regarding keeping up with school deadlines and balancing school with socializing. Almost any student can relate to her.
Straying far from a laundry list of her accomplishments, the memoir depicts Yousafzai’s poor academic performance at the University of Oxford — including her debilitating panic attacks during and after her time at the institution.
Considering she is known by many as an education advocate, Yousafzai demonstrates an impressive level of vulnerability when she explains to the reader that she placed in the bottom 5% of her class at the end of her first year at Oxford. When she took exams at the end of her last year, Yousafzai described merely wishing she could pass.
Throughout the book, there are screenshots of text messages from her and her friends. These inclusions are effective in showing Yousafzai’s headspace and closeness to her friends. An attentive reader can pick up on her deteriorating mental state by the lack of punctuation in her text messages.
Yousafzai also excels in including the right amount of dialogue, helping the reader feel like a witness to her personal life. Quick-witted comments between her and her friends might even get a laugh or two out of the reader.
The memoir takes on an increasingly more solemn tone once she starts having panic attacks, including an instance where the sight of a kitchen knife in a sink causes Yousafzai to scream, pull her hair and hit her fists against the floor.
While other authors may be tempted to brush over their mental health struggles, Yousafzai discusses the cultural stigmatization of therapy, her hesitance toward therapy and, eventually, the techniques she learns from her therapist to manage her anxiety — a notable strength of the memoir.
This strength is mirrored in Yousafzai’s reflection of her slow academic ascent. For example, after her ethics professor described her essay on Kant as “not so good, I’m afraid,” she went to a study center to ask for help. She was advised to analyze the essay question, brainstorm and outline before reading. Once she structured her argument before reading the texts, the feedback on her essays improved.
Disclosing less-than-perfect details of her academic and personal life, Yousafzai explores strategies on how she navigated hardships. Her honesty is at times refreshing and other times heavy in the most impactful way.
The memoir ends with Yousafzai directly addressing the reader with, “Do not lose hope.” After learning from her stumbles and successes, readers will have found more ways to maintain that hope.
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