In case you were wondering, Malala Yousafzai has been
plenty
busy since she
graduated from college
this spring. On top of the usual pandemic-era post-grad soul searching, she also just announced that she and a number of other celebs are teaming up with subscription book club
Literati
to launch their own curated book club groups.
Literati is based in Austin and has until now focused on kids’ books. But in branching out into offerings for adults, the startup has enlisted Stephen Curry, Susan Orlean, Richard Branson, the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and of course Yousafzai herself to head up their own curated book clubs. Yousafzai has christened her club Fearless and promises to choose books that amplify voices we don’t hear enough of.
Malala—the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize—has been spending the summer at her home in Birmingham, England, where she
also
spent lockdown completing her degree. In an interview from what we hope was her comfiest reading chair, the former
Glamour
Woman of the Year
honoree shares her take on the great e-reader vs. paper debate, the books she has on her bedside table, and what’s getting her through lockdown.
Glamour
: Are you a book club pro? Have you been in book clubs before?
Malala Yousafzai:
In school, for sure. But that was much smaller. I had a small book club with some of my friends, and we focused on readings in South Asia. Our recent book was
The Dancing Girls of Lahore,
and we were discussing how the cultural shift has occurred since the partition of Pakistan. It’s just amazing, when you have that conversation with people who have done the similar readings and they want to have a discussion.
What’s your preferred reading setup? Paper books? E-reader? Cellphone?
I am more of a traditional reader, so I prefer to read an actual book. I just like a hard copy of the book just to hold in my hands, you know, you want to flip every page so there’s a joy in that. I am not used to reading on a computer or you know, any other device yet, but I want to get used to it because that’s the future. So we might need to update ourselves.
What are you reading right now?
I started the book
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race
by Reni Eddo-Lodge, and I finished
Winners Take All
by Anand Giridharadas.
And you just graduated from college. Congratulations! What was it like to do the last four months of your degree at home?
It was, to be honest, very difficult. I’m sure it was the same for all students who are taking exams at home. I have two younger brothers. They’re quite annoying. While I was taking my four-hour exams, it was hard; it was difficult. It was difficult to have a timetable. I would get really tired listening to a three-hour Zoom lesson—it just makes you really tired even though you’re sitting and you’re not doing that much. But still, it exhausts you. So it was as difficult for me as for anyone else. Finally I’m catching up with friends and I’m seeing some of them after five months, which is quite strange.
How did you relax during lockdown? What got you through it?
COVID has revealed a lot about the world that we exist in. It has told us what is wrong in our systems; it has told us what is wrong in our health system, in our education system. And it is maybe telling us to stop and take a pause and think about the world we’re living in, and how we can fix the system that we are living in. A lot of young people, you know, my age, they’re really passionate about changing the world. They care about the environment, they care about equality and anti-racism, and they talk about the empowerment of women and young girls. And I think, for them it is a reminder that there’s a lot to do. There’s so much to do.
For me, to relax, I just don’t do anything. No alarm in the morning. I can get up at any time that I want. I’ll watch something on Netflix. I watched
Miranda
on the BBC; I was watching
Indian Matchmaking
. Why not? And I’ve been drinking more tea.
Now that you’re finished with school, what’s next?
Well, firstly, it’s this book club with Literati. I’m really excited to be part of it, and I’m exploring other opportunities as well. I am taking a few years off from my formal education. I am excited to work more on the
Malala Fund
and to continue supporting activists who are working for girls’ education. And I’m excited to see more young girls, learn from them, and share their stories.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
