The following essay on role model Greta Thunberg was written by Marlo Spielman, a middle schooler, enrolled in City Congregation’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah program. Students spend a year and a half researching their heritage, values and beliefs, and write on a Jewish subject of their choice, their major project. The process improves both the student’s writing and critical thinking skills, as well as his/her self confidence and overall maturity.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of a hero is “a person who is admired by many people for doing something brave or good.” The definition of a role model is “a person that you admire and try to copy.” Although they are commonly mistaken for one another, heroes and role models are not the same. While a hero is simply admired, people desire to emulate a role model. Climate activist Greta Thunberg is my hero and role model.
I’ve suffered anxiety about climate change since I was very young. I’ve had this voice in the back of my head, constantly reminding me of all the horrible things going on in the world. At one point I found a website that counted down the number of trees, coral reefs, and other natural habitats left on earth. Seeing the numbers plummet in front of me felt like a confirmation that everything I was worrying about was actually happening, in real time. But what Greta Thunberg has taught me is that I shouldn’t just wait around, upset and angry at those who are causing this. I need to stand up to do something about it.
Greta Thunberg is a 19-year-old Swedish climate change activist. At the age of eight, she learned about climate change, and couldn’t wrap her head around why so little was being done about it. At the age of ten, she became vegan, and was later able to convince her parents to become vegan as well. In 2014, at 11 years old, she began spiraling into a depression. Deeply anxious about the effects of climate change, she began crying constantly, consumed by her sadness. Her mother, Malena Ernman, stated in an interview, “She was slowly disappearing into some kind of darkness and little by little, bit by bit, she seemed to stop functioning. She stopped playing the piano. She stopped laughing. She stopped talking. And she stopped eating.” Greta Thunberg had lost 22 pounds in two months, and she was becoming more and more ill. Finally, after meeting with her doctor one day, she said to her parents, “I want to start eating again.” And slowly, she began her recovery.
In 2015, she was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome—a form of Autism Spectrum Disorder—which makes it difficult to be social, to show many facial expressions, and which can cause an obsessive tunnel vision towards specific things. While many consider it to be a weakness, Greta Thunberg stated in 2019, “…given the right circumstances—being different is a superpower.” Her autism can make her hyper-focused, ignore insults, and channel passion into energy.
At school one day, they presented to Greta’s class a film about the dangers of ocean pollution. This was when something inside of her just—clicked. She knew she had to make a change. Her newfound desire to do something about the climate fueled her recovery, and helped her get back on her feet.
In 2018, at the age of 15, she decided to hold an independent school strike. At first, her parents were actively against it. Although they had been extremely supportive thus far, they were worried. Her father told her, “If you are going to do it, then you are going to have to do it by yourself. You’re going to have to be incredibly well-prepared and have all the answers to all the questions.” But Thunberg was determined to strike anyway.
She stayed outside of her school to start her first strike for climate change awareness. A week later, she began another strike, and started attracting some attention. Students, parents, teachers and even the media started joining her. Her parents were pleasantly surprised when she calmly answered questions asked by interviewers, since she had previously only spoken to her parents, her sister and one of her teachers. On day three of her strike, someone offered her food and she ate it. This made her parents delighted, for their daughter had not been eating anywhere but her own home. This new motivation was clearing a pathway for Greta’s recovery. As her strikes continued every Friday, more and more people began to join her, and awareness about her climate campaign was spreading. This was the beginning of a weekly protest called “Fridays for Future.”
By December of 2018, over 20,000 students from all over the world began skipping school every Friday in protest. The year after that, Thunberg sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to attend a UN climate conference in New York, where she delivered one of her most famous speeches: “How Dare You”. During the speech, she states, “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!”
According to modern research, we have between five and ten years before the damage we have caused to our planet becomes irreversible. Currently, the speed at which our climate is warming is faster than ever before recorded in history, and over a million species are currently at risk of extinction. By 2050, 30 to 50% of all species on earth will have become extinct. This is no longer a time when we can simply wait for someone to fix things for us. We must take action ourselves.
Over the years, Greta Thunberg has continued to deliver speeches, lead marches, and win awards (including three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize!). To this day, she is still fighting just as hard to save our planet. I love what she has done, and her bravery has made me feel so much more confident in myself and in my power to fight.
Thunberg is not a hero or role model for the awards she has won, or the popularity she has gained. She is a hero and role model because of all the work she has done to fight for climate change, starting at the young age of ten. I never really felt that I could make a true change, because I’m just a kid. Well, Greta Thunberg proved me wrong. To be able to make such a difference starting from a one-person school strike is incredible, and makes me—as well as many other children around the world—feel like we can make a change too. In the wise words of Thunberg herself, “You are never too small to make a difference.”
There are many ways to fight against climate change. Environmental Advocates NY, GrowNYC, and Fridays for Future are all climate organizations you can join in New York which fight for a safer, more environmentally friendly community. You can eat less meat, use more biodegradable products, and write letters to your representatives in Congress. You can also help by traveling by airplane less frequently, taking shorter showers, or just educating a friend or family member on the subject. Every little action counts.
If you ever feel like you can’t make a change, remember Greta Thunberg—the teenage girl with Asperger’s who is changing the world. You can do anything if you truly care.
As Thunberg said in 2018, “So, we can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change and it has to start today.”
