Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai and Indian child rights campaigner Kailash Satyarthi have received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
Speaking earlier to the BBC, Yousafzai said she would consider pursuing a career in politics if it was the best way to serve her country.
The Taliban shooting survivor said she might aspire to be prime minister of Pakistan one day.
Satyarthi said receiving the prize was "a great opportunity".
Yousafzai and Satyarthi received their awards from the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee, in the presence of King Harald V of Norway.
As the ceremony got under way, Nobel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland described the laureates as "champions of peace".
He stressed the importance of education, saying: "The road to democracy and freedom is paved with knowledge."
Jagland praised Satyarthi's work campaigning against child labour, often at great risk to himself.
He also lauded Yousafzai's efforts to promote education despite threats from the Taliban, saying: "Her courage is almost indescribable".
Yousafzai, 17, was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in October 2012 for campaigning for girls' education and now lives in the UK.
She is the youngest ever recipient of the prize.
Yousafzai is accompanied in Norway by a delegation of school girls - including the two classmates shot alongside her by the Taliban, the BBC's Orla Guerin in Oslo reports.
Through the efforts of Satyarthi, 60, tens of thousands of children have been rescued from hazardous industries.
He has endured death threats for his work, and two of his colleagues were killed.
Yousafzai and Satyarthi were jointly awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education".
They have split the $1.4m (£860,000) prize money.
The Nobel committee said earlier it was important that a Muslim and a Hindu, a Pakistani and an Indian, had joined in what it called a common struggle for education and against extremism.