Today I finally am posting my review for Finding My Way by Malala Yousafzai. I read this book in October, but never wrote a review for it. However, I got bored by my good old review format – which isn’t applicable for nonfiction books anyway – and this book is just a good one to test the waters with some new review format that hopefully gets me motivated once again. My old format felt a bit too structured, clinical and stiff. I still need to have some structure nevertheless, but I also need space to yap. So, let’s try out a new format! And no, waiting till January 1, 2026 was not an option LOL. You’ll probably notice something else too, I will quit the star rating! Again, I’m testing things out so who knows how long I will stick to this haha. Moving forward, intros like this won’t happen anymore, part of the new format. Without further ado, let’s dive into the review.
This is not the story you think you know. It’s the one I’ve been waiting to tell. 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 narrative—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.
Published by Atria Books on October 21, 2025
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781668054277
Genres: Adult, Nonfiction
Rating: n/a
Why I picked up this book
It has been more than a decade ago since I picked up I Am Malala. I heard about Malala Yousafzai and the attack on her life before, but never read more into her and her work. However, I stumbled upon that first book and decided to just pick it up. This was followed by We Are Displaced a few years later. I guess it was in summer that I found out about the publication of Finding My Way, Yousafzai’s direct follow-up to I Am Malala as this tells the story about finding her way into life in a new country and ditto culture. I immediately was intrigued and pre-ordered it. So when release day came, it got itself delivered to my Kindle app and I could start reading.
My thoughts
Writing and releasing this book felt like a necessity and I mean this in the most positive way possible. When you get such a lot of fame and media attention overnight like Malala did back in 2012, your world just tips over. Imagine yourself being just a 15-year old school girl who loves learning and whose purpose is to ensure all girls worldwide could pursue their education and their dreams with it. However, you live in a country where girls’ education is not a given because of the patriarch society and culture, as well as the regime governing your region. Because even though the Taliban was expelled from the Swat Valley by Pakistani government in 2009, there still were Taliban fighters active in the city and entire region. At the time, Malala started to draw attention with her activism and on one faithful afternoon when riding the school bus home, she got shot in the head because of it. So yeah, her life pretty much changed. The whole world got to know her in the first place for the attempt on her life, afterwards for her activism. As a young adult Yousafzai was still figuring out what path to follow in life. But now, the whole world was looking over her shoulder.
In this memoir, Malala shows us that she is just a human being like you and I who just happens to be an education activist. In this memoir she talks about her journey after starting her new life in the UK. School, navigating between two cultures and its struggles, and ultimately starting college where nobody knew each other so she could finally figure out who she wants to be and find her true self again. Such a blessing. This past decade was a bumpy ride as navigating between two totally different cultures is hard enough already as it is, but add up being in some kind of pressure cooker as it feels like failing or making any misstep is not an option as it would reflect badly on your life, due to the media and actually the whole internet being able to find out. Before you know it, you’re on social media without your concern and for such the smallest, stupidest things. Yousafzai had to deal with this on a daily basis and it affects you as a person. In this memoir, she’s brutally honest and vulnerable with the reader when sharing these things, as well as the effect it has on her mental health. Because this is one of the most important topics, mental health. It was just the journey and I’m just glad Malala truly found her way after all. This novel might have been so therapeutic to write.
Usually I struggle with nonfiction and it’s not really my go-to genre. In fact, I avoid it, probably due to English not being my native language and books on the more complicated topics with facts and figures involved are therefore a bit too much work to understand. Memoirs are often the easier type of nonfiction and therefore pretty easy to digest when you’re reading in your second language. Although this book has its Dutch translation, I preferred to read it in English. It still feels a bit weird to me – and yeah that’s just a strange pet peeve of mine – to read someone else’s (who I follow on the socials) words in Dutch. I don’t have this problem when reading fiction though, that’s why I’m saying that it’s just a weird me thing LOL. Anyway, the writing is smooth and the language is pretty straight forward and easy to follow. It was mostly for that reason I was able to finish this book quickly. It neither is the size of a brick, which definitely helps as this has gotten to my phone amidst a bad reading slump.
Did this book meet my expectations?
I think so. I don’t want to set too high expectations for nonfiction, but if I say I wasn’t anticipating this novel I would have been lying. Because yes, I was anticipating it. However, October is notorious for me and my annual autumnal slumpiness, so I wasn’t expecting to finish a book at all, let alone in one day. Looking back, I only finished 4 books that month and hardly enjoyed any, except for this one. That’s how bad my slump gets. I expected the writing to be smooth and easy to follow, which happens to be the truth. However, this book got lots of buzz from Malala’s own social media accounts and several podcasts, so the anticipation was triggered in some way. This memoir is indeed worth all the buzz. Overall, I enjoyed reading Finding My Way and it definitely is a good follow-up to her 2013 memoir I Am Malala. However, that one needed to be written as the world wanted to know who she was, this one needed to be written by choice. Okay do I still make sense? Anyway, if you’re looking for a memoir to read for your 2026 reading challenge, this one is strongly recommended. No rating here, as rating a memoir feels a bit unfair, you can’t give a score to someone else’s literal story.