An Auckland teenager who defied doctors' fears in surviving her premature birth in India has been given an award for her winning attitude.
Muskan Devta, 15, of Auckland's North Shore, is overseas so beamed into the annual Attitude Awards by satellite on Wednesday, which was World Disability Day.
She won the inaugural junior award of the event, which has grown out of TVOne's Attitude television series.
The Attitude ACC Supreme Award went to champion paralympic swimmer Mary Fisher, 21, of Wellington.
Ms Devta and her family moved to New Zealand in 2004 for better treatment of her partial hemiplegia, which left half her body weaker than the other, but she became shy in trying to adapt to a new country and language so buried herself in books.