Michelle Obama has thrown her support behind Greta Thunberg. The former First Lady posted a supportive Tweet to Thunberg, a 16-year-old climate activist from Sweden, after she received a social media onslaught following her being named as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. Some of that criticism came from President Donald Trump, and though he wasn’t mentioned by name, The Daily Mail noted that her call to “ignore the doubters” was pointed directly at him.
.@GretaThunberg, don’t let anyone dim your light. Like the girls I’ve met in Vietnam and all over the world, you have so much to offer us all. Ignore the doubters and know that millions of people are cheering you on.
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) December 13, 2019
The president’s own criticism Thunberg (which wasn’t the first time that happened), also had several people pointing out the irony that his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, has built an entire ‘Be Best’ initiative to prevent cyber-bullying.
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Thunberg first entered the global stage earlier this year with a scorching takedown of world leaders’ inaction on climate change. She delivered a passionate speech to the United Nations back in September and has used the media spotlight to continue to speak out on the issue.
“I don’t understand why grown-ups would mock children and teenagers for just communicating and acting on the science when they could do something good instead,” the young activist said at an appearance at the Montreal climate strike. “We’ve become too loud for people to handle so they try to silence us. So we should also take that as a compliment.”
The criticism aside, which Thunberg always seems to handle in stride, she has numerous people in her corner. Kim Kardashian called her a “Brave and amazing young woman” while speaking in Armenia back in October. Similarly, when Woody Harrelson hosted Saturday Night Live in September, he was seen sporting her face on his shirt during the closing credits.
“Thanks to Billie Eilish, Alec Baldwin, Liev Schreiber, Larry David, Maya Rudolph, Lorne Michaels and this amazing cast and crew,” Harrelson said from the stage, adding “and, of course, Greta.”
Thunberg never formally responded to the shout-out, but she did retweet a video of Harrelson and Eilish urging fans to get behind her climate-saving initiatives.
