About Nadja

Nadja Halilbegovich has been a writer and speaker since she was 12 years old. She has brought her message of peace and resilience to well over a million people in person across the globe. As a young girl, Nadja endured the war in her native Bosnia and was injured by a bomb at age 13. She shared these experiences in her diary, which was published the following year.

After her escape to the United States at age 16, Nadja’s message of peace made her a popular speaker and put her on the same stage with dignitaries such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu. She was featured in the book Architects of Peace alongside the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. Nadja’s book My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary was published in English, French and Indonesian. 

She received an honorary doctorate for her work for peace and advocacy for children of war from Butler University in Indianapolis. Her essays have appeared in Time, The Atlantic, Newsweek, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, and The Boston Globe, among others.

Nadja’s moving presentation covers an extensive array of topics such as resilience and personal growth, literacy and education, peace and conflict, war remembrance and women’s empowerment.

If you’re interested in booking Nadja for a speaking event, you can email her directly at nhalilbegovich@gmail.com.