Yousafzai, who founded Extracurricular Productions last year in a bid to spotlight new voices from around the world, explained that in the process of setting up the company, she “learned a lot” about diversity in Hollywood “and much of it was not surprising”.

“I learned that Asian people like me make up less than 4% of leads in Hollywood films,” she said, adding: “Muslims are 25% of the population, but only 1% of characters in popular TV series. Behind the camera, the statistics for Black or brown creators are even worse.”

“Many of my friends are young women of colour,” she then told the audience. “We are watching Ted Lasso, Succession, The Crown, all of it. So please ask yourselves, if we can love these stories, what makes you think that people won’t be interested in ours?”

Yousafzai’s powerful words are an important reminder of just how much work Hollywood has left to do in order to better represent its audiences. The statistics the activist cited are undoubtedly shocking, and other recent studies have presented a similarly bleak picture too.

Malala calls out Hollywood’s lack of Asian representation – this is why her words are so important