Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist. ‘School Strike for the Climate’. Photo: Reuters/TT News Agency
2018 is almost over.
Thank goodness.
Not a great year overall for girls in the news. We see the same themes recur through the years when it comes to girls’ news. They are as devastating as they are inspiring. As is my usual way, I tend to dwell on the negatives, and that would be easy to do. With the recent death of 7 year old Jakelin Caal Maquin, who died in US Customs and Border custody, to countless girls going missing in Myanmar and Indonesia, likely victims of human trafficking, it is pretty easy to go low. However, I will work against type this year and go high, celebrating a girl activist who makes me want to be brave and speak truth to power, just like her.
Greta Thunberg has girl power emanating from her body. This 15year old pulls no punches and knows what she is here for—Saving the Planet. Greta has been taking action and calling out those who only pay lip service and do nothing. She has been on strike from school to protest outside the Swedish parliament building, raising awareness about climate change. She has done a badass talk atTEDxStockholm, and even spoke at the COP24 UN climate conference where not only did she take a meeting with U.N. secretary general António Guterres, she said this:
“Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago. We have to understand what the older generation has dealt to us, what mess they have created that we have to clean up and live with. We have to make our voices heard.”
Watch her Tedx talk. Take her words and eat them one by one until you are so full of rage that you leap up and take action. Make 2019 about taking action.
‘Once we start to act, hope is everywhere.’ Please lead the way, Greta.
-Ashley E. Remer
Editor
Girl News International