“When I am around too many people, I just shut off my brain, in a way to not get too tired, because I cannot take everything in,” she told me. When we got to a room apart from the hubbub, I asked her how she was managing the onslaught of attention. Thunberg has Asperger’s, which she calls her “superpower,” and which she says allows her to be more direct and straightforward about climate change. Yet when I saw Thunberg-in jeans, sneakers, and a pink tank top-she seemed small, quiet, and somewhat overwhelmed. Somewhere Maggie Gyllenhaal was in a dressing room. ![]() Interns and assistants buzzed around: anxious, helpful, and attuned to hierarchy. Backstage, grizzled men in their 40s exchanged boisterous handclasps. In the past 17 years, Amnesty has given the award to other icons: Nelson Mandela, Colin Kaepernick, and Ai Weiwei. Thunberg and a handful of other young climate activists were receiving the Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty International in Washington, D.C., last Monday. In fact, I think her extreme teenager-ness may be key to her influence. And she is even more than that: She’s a teenager. Last week I had the chance to meet the girl behind the image. ![]() She has also said that money and eternal economic growth are “fairy tales.” So she has inspired both public adoration and malign theorizing (mostly centered around the power of her parents). “How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood,” she told world leaders at the United Nations today. She looks younger than her years, yet her speeches take a shaming, authoritative tone that is, at the very least, unusual for a child. But Thunberg is an especially flummoxing figure. ![]() It is always at least a little unfortunate to see a young person become an icon-it robs them of the privacy of growing up. A year ago, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist began striking from school each Friday to protest climate inaction last Friday, she gave a speech to hundreds of thousands of people in New York, at the Global Climate Strike, which was inspired by her protest. In a very short time, Greta Thunberg-with her searing stare, Pippi Longstocking braids, and hand-painted sign reading SKOLSTREJK FÖR KLIMATET-has become a global icon.
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