Greta Thunberg's sister with racy image who changed name to avoid association
Greta Thunberg's younger sister Beata Ernman is pursuing a career in the arts and, ditching her famous surname, is trying to carve her own path away from her activist sibling
Greta Thunberg and her loved ones are in the spotlight currently thanks to the Swedish activist's recent bid to enter Gaza and provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians. The 22-year-old said on Tuesday that the Israeli regime kidnapped her and others aboard the Gaza-bound Madleen aid ship in international waters.
After being forcibly taken to Israel before being deported, Greta landed in France where she answered a few questions about her detainment to reporters waiting for her at the airport. The award-winning activist described the circumstances of her kidnapping as "quite chaotic and uncertain".
She added: "But the conditions we faced are absolutely nothing compared to what people are going through in Palestine and especially Gaza right now. This is not the real story. The real story is there is a genocide going on in Gaza and systematic starvation."
As Greta tends to international matters, her little sister is living quite a different life. As Greta was discussing her kidnapping on Tuesday, her younger sibling Beata Ernman, 19, shared snaps from a photoshoot on her Instagram Stories and promoted her musical releases.
Beata, who Greta once claimed "is the one who suffers" due to her humanitarian work, is seemingly trying to distance herself from her famous sister and carve her own path. Ditching her well-known surname and taking her opera singer mother Malena Ernman's maiden name instead, Bea is pursuing a career as an actress, singer and model.
But Beata, like her sister, also has a political edge to her work. Discussing her latest single, I Found Your Father's Gun, the teenage singer told her Instagram followers on Tuesday: "When people objectify girls, they reduce us to body parts — They treat us like multiple girls add up to one man. So in this song, I use their own language against them.
"I objectify him by sexualizing his father, to expose the absurdity, the cruelty, and the double standard, associating him with another man, to flip it, as if 10 men were treated like 1 girl. Beneath the metaphor is something real: Men need to stop taking advantage of girls who are too young to fight back. This song is what it sounds like when we do. When the object speaks. Twice as brutal as the offense itself, right? Right."
After her milestone speech at the United Nations climate summit made her a household name, Greta - then 16 - told Dagens Nyheter how her "wonderful and strong" sister's life had been impacted due to her activism.
"The one who suffers is my sister," Greta told the Swedish news outlet. "She is 13 years old and she has been subjected to systematic bullying, threats and harassment. The people who write threats and hate to me do it to the whole family, even to her."
"The difference between me and the people who are left at home is that I am always travelling, inaccessible. People don't know where I am staying, where I sleep at night, where I am. I have no daily life. But for my sister at home, who tries to have a daily life … she is much more reachable."
Beata has been active on her Instagram page over recent days, sharing several racy snaps with her 10,400 followers, but is yet to publicly comment on sister Greta's involvement in The Gaza Freedom Flotilla, a humanitarian maritime mission.
The mission, led by the UK-flagged vessel Madleen, was organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) with the aim of breaking the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza and delivering aid. Setting sail from Catania, Sicily, on June 1, the flotilla's journey was abruptly halted.
In the early hours of Monday morning, Israeli forces intercepted, boarded, and seized the vessel in international waters, preventing its arrival in the Gaza Strip and detaining those onboard.
Among the 12-member crew were European Parliament representative Rima Hassan and environmental activist Greta. According to Hassan, the cargo included baby formula, crutches, nappies, flour, medical kits, and rice.
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