AS MALALA YOUSAFZAI discusses college applications and her final high school exams, her normally self-confident way of speaking begins to waver. The word like enters her speech, and she starts to laugh nervously. At the age of 19, Yousafzai has survived an assassination attempt, won the Nobel Peace Prize and addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations. She is one of the most famous teenagers in the world, but right now she’s as anxious about her future as any college applicant.
In December, she had an interview with professors at Lady Margaret Hall, the first Oxford University college to educate women. It was, Yousafzai says, “the hardest interview of my life. I just get scared when I think of the interview. I don’t want to think back.” Yousafzai is hoping to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford—the degree and university of choice for many of Britain’s leading politicians. Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan who was assassinated in 2007, also studied PPE at Lady Margaret Hall. (Bhutto is one of Yousafzai’s heroes; when she spoke at the U.N. in 2013, she wore one of the late prime minister’s shawls.)