Girl Who Defied Taliban Makes Top 10 Most Admired List Malala Yousafzai. Image credit: Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images The results are in and America has spoken: Malala Yousafzai is among the top 10 most admired women of 2012. The fifteen-year-old Pakistani teenager became an international symbol after she was shot by the Taliban in October for arguing that girls should receive an education. WATCH: Girl Shot by Taliban Becomes Hero in Pakistan Yousafzai ranked number six in the annual survey compiled by USA Today and Gallup, behind Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who's been number one a record 17 times. The most admired man of 2012 was President Barack Obama. USA Today and Gallup posed the open-ended question in a Dec. 19-22 survey, asking 1,038 American adults to say who they'd nominate for most admired man or woman of 2012, living in any part of the world. Clinton has been the most admired woman for the past 11 years. Obama has been named the most admired man five years running now. Following a close second after Obama was Nelson Mandela, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former president of South Africa. Rounding out the top are Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee who lost to Obama in November, the Rev. Billy Graham, former president George W. Bush and Pope Benedict XVI. Although he's never clinched the top spot, Graham has been included in the top 10 most admired men a record 56 times. For the most admired women, the top three choices following Clinton are all African American. At number two is first lady Michelle Obama, followed by talk show host Oprah Winfrey and former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. Other women on the list include Sarah Palin, Queen Elizabeth II, and Margaret Thatcher. Each year the ratings are based on total mentions. Gallup first asked Americans what man they most admired back in 1946. The question was opened up to include women in 1948.