Why Global Citizens Should Care
Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg embody everything Global Citizen stands for: young people speaking out against injustice to achieve the Global Goals. Both the climate crisis and girls' education represent difficult challenges in the fight to end extreme poverty, and these two activists have dedicated their youth to making sure those issues get the spotlight. Join the movement to take action on climate and education here.

Sometimes you see a perfect work of art and it’s like sunlight breaking through a storm. You wonder, how can bad art exist when this does? 

Likewise, when Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg — two of the greatest activists of our age — met at Oxford University and took a photograph together, it almost felt like this was the first photo ever taken. 

Greta is in Britain to join a school strike in Bristol on Friday, and joined Malala at Lady Margaret Hall, the college where she studies, to talk about their activism. 

Malala was just 17 when she became the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize — the same age as Greta now, for an award she’s also been nominated for — after she was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating that all girls should be able to go to school. Meanwhile Greta has sparked a global climate movement with her #FridaysForFuture school strikes.

One was named TIME Person of the Year, the other has a literal asteroid named after her. After a while it’s hard to work out which person wrote the bestselling autobiography, and which one featured on a track by the 1975.

Separately, the activists are like lighthouses: beacons that can help guide us towards hope. Together, they represent an alternative future, something so tangible it feels like the world could almost be on the cusp of it. 

And in one frame — two of the planet’s most extraordinary human beings, hanging out on a no doubt soon-to-be placarded bench — it might just showcase the potential of humanity with as much understated awe as the accidental first photograph of an exploding star.

“This photo was just the most joyful thing I've seen on my Twitter feed in a long time,” said Zoe Kelland, Global Citizen’s digital campaigns director — and perhaps Malala’s biggest fan. “In a world that can often feel dark and divided, being reminded that there are young women out there leading such powerful movements for good is just a glorious thing.”

“Can we get weekly updates on this new friendship?” she added.

It wasn’t just Global Citizen that got a bit excitable either. The posts trended on pretty much every platform, and showcased the global adoration held for the two young women.

While one user called them the “epitome of revolutionaries”, another described the photo as a “case for hope.” Even television provocateur Piers Morgan tweeted the photo and hailed the pair as the “two most influential young women of my lifetime.”

Here’s some of our favourite reactions. Love you forever, Greta and Malala.

TopicsEducationActivismUKBritainGirls' EducationMalala YousafzaiActivistsMalalaOxfordOxford UniversityphotoGreta Thunbergclimate strikeSchool Strike for Climate ActionClimate Crisis

Opinion

Demand Equity

Malala and Greta Thunberg Met in Oxford and Took the Greatest Photo in History

By James Hitchings-Hales