Malala, the youngest ever Nobel Prize winner

The 17-year-old was pulled out of her Chemistry class to be told “you've won the Nobel Peace Prize!”

She was jointly awarded with Indian children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi. She thought she hadn't won until her chemistry teacher broke the news. Malala, who had survived being shot by the Taliban who were determined to stop girls from going to school, waited until after school to speak of her delight at the honour and addressed a press conference at the Birmingham Library.

Children's rights activist Malala Yousafzai, 17, spoke of her joy at winning the Nobel Peace Prize - a statement she waited to make until she had finished her day at the Edgbaston High School for Girls.

Speaking from her school in Birmingham, Malala thanked her father Ziauddin for “not clipping her wings”.

Yousafzai became a household name after her campaigning for girls' right to education led to an assassination attempt by the Taliban two years ago, and has worked tirelessly as a human rights campaigner following her recovery.

“Normally when I go and speak like this, the only issue I face is that usually the podium is taller than me,” the young winner joked as she took to the stage at Birmingham Library.

“I feel honoured to be chosen as a Nobel laureate and that I have been honoured with this precious award and I am proud to be the first Pakistani, the first young person and young woman to win.”

Malala, who is the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner, spoke of how she found out she was the joint winner, during a chemistry class on Friday morning.

“I was in chemistry class and we were looking at electrolytes, it was about 10.15 am. I was not expecting I would get this award, and by 10.15 am I was sure I had not. Then my teacher took me to one side and told me, I was totally surprised. I decided that I would not leave my school, so I finished my school time and went to physics and English,” she added.

“I want to thank my family, my dear mother, my dear father. My father did not give me something extra, but what he did, he did not clip my wings. I am thankful to him for letting me fly,” Malala said.

Malala spoke of how honoured she was to receive the award and to share it with fellow children's rights campaigner Kaliash Satyarthi.

“This is not just a piece of metal or a medal or an award you keep in your room. This is not the end, this is not the end of my campaign, this is the beginning. (In Pakistan) I had two options, one was not to speak and wait to be killed and the second was to speak up and then be killed, I chose the second.”

The Nobel Peace Prize committee said, “Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has shown by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations. This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances.

Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls' rights to education.”