Activist Malala Yousafzai has thanked people for welcoming her to Twitter, and joked she is glad she waited until after finishing exams to join the social network.
The teenager, who campaigns for the rights of girls around the world, gained half a million followers in one day.
Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome. I'm still reading all your replies and it may take awhile. Glad I joined AFTER exams!
— Malala (@Malala) July 8, 2017
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who moved to Birmingham after being shot in the head by the Taliban in Pakistan, finished school on Friday.
The 19-year-old has vowed to continue her fight for girls across the globe to receive an education.
Graduating from secondary school (high school) is bittersweet for me. I'm excited about my future, but… 2/
— Malala (@Malala) July 7, 2017
….I know that millions of girls around the world are out of school and may never get the opportunity to complete their education. 3/
— Malala (@Malala) July 7, 2017
Next week, I will be back on my #GirlPowerTrip to meet girls in Middle East, Africa & Latin America. 4/
— Malala (@Malala) July 7, 2017
Each girl’s story is unique — and girls' voices are our most powerful weapons in the fight for education and equality. 5/
— Malala (@Malala) July 7, 2017
On and off Twitter, I'm fighting for girls — will you join me?✋???? 6/
— Malala (@Malala) July 7, 2017
Her posts have been retweeted and liked thousands of times, prompting her to write on Saturday: “Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome. I’m still reading all your replies and it may take awhile. Glad I joined AFTER exams!”
Yes, @Malala – Absolutely. Count me in. And welcome to Twitter. https://t.co/P5fHtCpjIh
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) July 7, 2017
Ms Yousafzai narrowly avoided death in 2012 after being shot on a school bus by the terror group for her outspoken campaigning over girls’ rights to an education.
She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize two years later and has continued to campaign for children’s rights to education across the world, addressing the United Nations on the issue.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here