ISLAMABAD: The world’s youngest Nobel Laureate and one of the most recognizable climate change activists met yesterday and shared their meeting with the world. Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai and Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, youth activists who have garnered global acclaim, recognition, and criticism, met at the University of Oxford where Yousafzai studies.
“She’s the only friend I’d skip school for,” Yousafzai captioned her photo with Thunberg in a Twitter post. She shared the same photo on her Instagram where she captioned it “Thank you Greta.”
She’s the only friend I’d skip school for.
— Malala (@Malala)
The posts have collectively surpassed 800,000 likes.
Thunberg, 17, and Yousafzai, 22, have more alike than most two young people on the planet. Both of them were thrust into the public eye due to their activism as young teens. Yousafzai was blogging about Taliban sieged areas in Pakistan as a schoolgirl, resulting in an assassination attempt against her that launched her onto the world stage. Subsequently, she used her fame to fight for the cause of child education across the world.
Thunberg was similarly brought into a global view for her environmental and climate change activism. Like Yousafzai, she began demanding change in her early teens, eventually setting off on a sailing trip, forgoing a carbon footprint from plane travel, to speak about climate change at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit. That speech which began with “How dare you,” and listed that the adults in charge were robbing her and other children of their youth, catapulted the young activist even further into the limelight.
Thunberg also shared photos of her with Yousafzai, captioning them on both Instagram and Twitter with, “So... today I met my role model. What else can I say?”
So... today I met my role model. What else can I say?
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg)
Her post on Instagram has surpassed 1 million likes while the photos of the pairs’ meeting on her Twitter account have surpassed 1.6 million likes.
The pair were both also featured in American Teen Vogue’s January 2020 issue about the power of teen voices and influence. Yousafzai appeared on the cover, while both were honored inside for their relentless work toward a brighter future for the youth and the world.
