Greta Thunberg says being different is a superpower in emotional post online
Greta told her fans that you know youre winning when haters go after your differences (Picture: @gre..
Greta Thunberg has silenced her critics by telling fans that being different is a superpower in an inspirational Instagram post.
The climate change activist, 16, took to social media to share why she rarely opens up publicly about her Asperger syndrome diagnosis.
In a caption alongside a photo taken on her sailing trip to the US, the Swedish student spoke about the dark times she experienced before becoming a campaigner.
When she arrived in New York on Wednesday after sailing for two weeks across the Atlantic, Greta was mocked online for her reaction to cheering crowds.
Its not the first time the teenager has been targeted by trolls for not masking the traits that come with her Asperger syndrome.
At the end of July, Australian News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt wrote a deeply offensive column that named the teenager a deeply disturbed messiah.
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His comments resurfaced on Twitter last week but were widely shot down by Gretas followers.
Today, she had the last word, tweeting: When haters go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go. And then you know youre winning.
She continued: I have Aspergers syndrome and that means Im sometimes a bit different from the norm.
And – given the right circumstances – being different is a superpower.
Im not public about my diagnosis to “hide” behind it, but because I know many ignorant people still see it as an “illness”, or something negative.
And believe me, my diagnosis has limited me before.
Before I started school striking I had no energy, no friends and I didnt speak to anyone. I just sat alone at home, with an eating disorder.
All of that is gone now, since I have found a meaning, in a world that sometimes seems meaningless to so many people.
According to the National Autistic Society, people with Asperger syndrome see, hear and feel the world differently to other people.
They will usually have difficulties with social communication and social interaction and display restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour.
