On Monday, 23 September, Swedish climate change youth activist Greta Thunberg addressed world leaders at the UN in a fierce, impassioned condemnation of their inaction.
As it usually goes with young people (and women) speaking truth to power, and as Greta herself has faced before, she was trolled on her appearance, her mental illness, her age, her demeanor and everything outside of the contents of her speech.
From anonymous trolls to even the US’ Fox News, Greta’s Asperger's diagnosis was bandied around like an insult, belling a lack of understanding of mental health.
In a historic move, 16 child activists (aged from eight to 17) from 12 countries around the world launched an official complaint to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (OHCHR) against UN member states’ inaction on the climate crisis.
She had previously responded to some of the vitriol on 2 September, in a series of tweets to critics who commented on her Asperger’s diagnosis.
The 16-year-old, whose Twitter bio reads “climate activist with Asperger’s’, said,
Explaining Greta’s Superpower: What is Asperger’s Syndrome?
In an earlier article, FIT had explained,
Asperger’s is a kind of an autism spectrum disorder accompanied by social awkwardness, rigidity in behaviour, difficulty in interacting, unable to pick social cues and most importantly difficulty in expressing emotions.
Some ways in which it affects a person are:
- Communication becomes a struggle.
- Difficulty in understanding non-verbal communication like body language or voice tone)
- Average or above average intelligence
- Depression
- Social awkwardness
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