Malala Yousafzai has contracted with Apple TV+. On International Women’s Day on Monday, Apple stated a multi-year programming partnership with the 23-year-old Pakistani women’s rights activist and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate.
As part of the agreement, Malala will help create original programming for Apple TV+ across dramas, comedies, documentaries, animation, and children’s series.
Malala will provide Apple TV+ original content through her new production company Extracurricular. This is the top deal for Extracurricular that was established alongside.
“I believe in the power of stories to appeal families together, forge friendships, build changes, and encourage children to dream,” Yousafzai said in a prepared statement. “And I couldn’t ask for a more reliable partner than Apple to assist bring these stories to life. I’m thankful for the opportunity to support women, young people, writers, and artists in reflecting the world as they see it.
My focus is entertainment, but the idea that I need to cover is connection. I think shows and movies — create that connection between us, as young people, as parents, as friends.
Suppose you’re assembling with your friends and watching one of your favorite TV shows, or you’re watching something in an unusual language and learning about a new culture. In that case, all of this suggests that we’re such a diverse world, but again, there’s so much in common between all of us.
“In my personal life, I’ve noticed Bollywood movies to Cartoon Network, they all have supported us in who we are, helped us learn about each other, different cultures, and so I believe that I can reach a wide range of areas through my creation as well.
It was the influence of Bollywood movies and Indian shows that accommodated my understanding of how society was primarily from a view of women and girls.
And several Indian soap shows are — they consider the traditional role of women. And for me, I’d appreciate it, and it was a source of entertainment, but also, I’d completely disagree with it, and I needed to see it differently.
“There’s a lack of feminist view, there’s a lack of women’s perspective, and I often think, ‘What would it been like if women had directed these shows if women had written these shows?’ I can bring in my perspective, and I can show my side of the story, and I think we need to do a lot.”
With this, Apple makes on a current relationship with Yousafzai. Since 2018, the iPhone company has sponsored analysis at the Malala Fund, a non-profit organization supporting girls’ education.
Apple supported the Malala Fund to expand to India and Latin America in 2018, and the Washington, D.C.-headquartered non-profit also works in Afghanistan, Brazil, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey.
For Yousafzai, this is her initial foray into audio-visual content. She has earlier written best-selling books: “I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Survived Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban” published in 2013, and “We Are Displaced: True Stories of Refugee Lives” released in 2019.
Malala also formulated Assembly, a digital publication for girls and young women. She has also starred in the 2015 documentary He Named Me Malala.
