to become known more easily in Sweden
After a year in the class that promotes his cause full time, Thunberg is now once a student, enrolled in his second year of high school.
She has moved from her parents’ home to her first apartment, a borrowed one, shared with a labrador named Roxy and a golden retriever named Moses. Her father, Svante, visits often.
“When you stay grounded, it is not so difficult to return to normal life again,” says Thunberg. “And fortunately I am in Sweden, where people do not care so much about famous people. So, I have been left alone.”
The sincerity that attracted her to global attention is still her trademark. Before the interview, she said that her autism – a diagnosis she has previously referred to as “superpower” – made her more comfortable looking directly into the camera than at an interviewer.
Last month, she mocked world leaders in a speech to youth activists in Milan and said: “Build back better, blah blah blah, green economy, blah blah blah, net zero in 2050, blah blah blah, climate neutral, blah blah blah. “
Now she says she is trying to handle her work with Fridays For Future with her usual school load. Due to the pandemic, the movement is mostly met online, which makes it less time consuming.
“I try to be efficient – to do all the homework while I’m in school, so that when I go home I’m free to do other things, to work,” she said.
She has few plans for when she finishes high school in two years, but said she wanted to continue studying, “because I like to do it.”
And after school? “I’m delaying it as well. But I guess we’ll see where I end up.”