Wealth and fame don’t always guarantee emotional well-being, but today’s Hollywood kids seem oddly equipped to handle harsh realities.
A prime example is Ramona Sarusgaard, the 18-year-old daughter of actors Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard. Recently, she was arrested for criminal trespassing during a Palestinian protest at Columbia University’s Butler Library.
This isn’t her first dive into activism. Ramona has been vocal about climate issues from a young age.
At just 13, she spoke at the Amnesty International Conscience Awards, honoring Greta Thunberg.
Like Thunberg, Ramona views climate disaster as not just likely but something that’s already in motion.
She participated in New York’s youth climate strike and, per her mother, represents a generation that “can’t fully express the dire circumstances we’re facing.”
She isn’t alone. Many her age feel they’ve grown up in a world on the brink of collapse, and their mental health often reflects this reality.
This week, 19-year-old Violet Affleck, daughter of Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, published an essay in Yale’s Global Health Review about her complicated relationship with her mother.
“I was discussing the January fire in Los Angeles with my mother in my hotel room,” she recounted.
Violet’s identity as a member of Generation Z is intertwined with climate issues. She referred to climate change as an “existential and accelerating crisis.”
Clearly, she not only engaged in meaningful discussions but also advocated for a perspective shaped by her awareness of environmental challenges.
If this sounds extreme, it’s because it’s been intentionally fostered.
Affleck’s viewpoints were influenced by climate activists who have mobilized an entire generation. Institutions like Yale consider climate anxiety a normal part of development.
A few years ago, Yale’s advice column suggested parents guide children through therapeutic exercises to help them cope with climate fears, like imagining how animals might suffer as conditions worsen.
This approach can be rather unsettling for young kids, even suggesting scenarios so distressing that they feel more like trauma than education.
The impact of this perspective is evident.
A global 2021 study indicated that climate anxiety negatively affected mental health in 31 of 32 countries. In another survey, three-quarters of 10,000 young people from ten countries stated the future scares them, and over half felt that “humanity is doomed.”
Yet, the same activists, media, and institutions that highlight climate concerns also play a role in the growing youth mental health crisis.
Two Stanford psychiatrists, discussing anxiety research, described “climate distress” as something normal to feel in light of natural disasters and environmental crises.
This feels a bit disingenuous. These experts seem to thrive on the urgency of the situation they report on.
It appears the urgency fuels their commitment to engage the youth in activism.
Sarsgaard, Thunberg, and Affleck are products of a culture steeped in existential worry, driven by a heightened awareness of crises.
These young women, raised in privilege with access to elite education, feel a sense of destiny.
Both Sarsgaard and Thunberg have begun to build their own criminal records, while Affleck has made a case for her family’s anxieties to be more prominent among their peers.
They’re engaged in what they perceive as crucial battles to save a world they believe is nearing its end.
As Sarsgaard’s example indicates, they are susceptible to the influence of the latest progressive causes.
They embody a generation shaped by a manufactured sense of dread.
We’ve told our children that the world is ending, and they’ve listened.
