Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
A mini mural of Malala Yousafzai, pictured here on Jan. 13, 2025, painted by Jessica Padilla was defaced.
Take a drive down East T.C. Jester Boulevard in Houston’s Shady Acres neighborhood, and you’ll find a quote painted on an electrical box — “A girl’s voice is powerful & it can bring change in the community,” it reads.
Those are the words of Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani women’s rights activist. Her portrait, which was painted on the other side of the box as part of a citywide public art program, now appears to have been defaced.
Yousafzai’s face was covered with white paint during a visit to the “mini mural” on Monday. Only her portrait was vandalized. The other sides of the traffic signal control box, which include quotes from Yousafzai, appeared to be untouched.
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“My Mini Mural of Malala Yousafzai was completed in February of 2019,” Jessica Padilla, the artist who painted the mural, told Houston Public Media. “It was vandalized two months later. It was actually vandalized a second time in May of 2019, which was disheartening. So this is actually the third time it’s been ruined, but I wasn’t angry or anything at this point. Each time the mural was vandalized, my inbox was flooded with messages from people asking if they could help somehow or just writing in to give me words of encouragement. So I think the support from the community eased my mind.”
Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
A quote by Malala Yousafzai. on a mini mural that reads “A girl’s voice is powerful & can bring change in the community” painted by Jessica Padilla.
When an Instagram user noted the vandalism, Houston City Council member Abbie Kamin, whose jurisdiction includes the mural, said her office would commit to funding the restoration of the artwork.
“I think the bottom line is nobody has the right to deface or damage public property,” Kamin said. “I think it is a concern that it has been murals celebrating women that have been defaced — and we’re not just talking simple graffiti, we’re talking about the intentional defacing of specific murals that are celebrating women in history.”
Kamin also noted it is not the only mural to be vandalized in recent months. Most notably, another mural along Heights Boulevard by Padilla, depicting four of the women on the U.S. Supreme Court, was vandalized, Kamin said.
Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
A mini mural painted by Jessica Padilla depicting four of the female U.S. Supreme Court justices. Padilla repainted the mural after it was defaced in 2025.
That mural depicts Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan — women who’ve been nominated by presidents of both political parties to serve on the high court. It was vandalized in 2025 as the faces of each of the four women were blacked out, Kamin said.
Since the Supreme Court justices mural was defaced, Kamin said her office now writes contracts for the mini murals with a commitment to financially cover debasement.
“Within city contracts, we now include in the initial mural agreement three years of future graffiti abatement,” she said, “so that that will be covered should somebody attempt to damage some of these murals.”
Padilla said she chose to paint Yousafzai because of her sacrifice for education advocacy. Yousafzai was shot and nearly killed by Taliban gunmen targeting her. Padilla said her mural “honors her bravery, affirms the power of education, and stands as a reminder to speak out against injustice.”
“They can vandalize it all they want, I’m just going to keep painting & improving it each time,” Padilla wrote in a message to Houston Public Media. “When you choose to keep your peace & accept my perspective, all the vandals are doing is indirectly funding a local artist to improve a painting they actually enjoy painting. It’s kind of silly once you think about it that way.”