Teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg has been named the 2019 TIME Person of the Year.
The 16-year-old girl is the youngest person to receive the distinction in its 92-year history.
The Person of the Year title goes to the most influential person, group, movement or idea of the previous 12 months as chosen by TIME magazine editors.
Thunberg became the prominent face of climate change activism after she began skipping school in August 2018 to protest the crisis. She spent days camped out in front of the Swedish Parliament, holding a sign that read Skolstrejk för klimatet: “School Strike for Climate.”
She inspired a series of student-led strikes involving more than a million students across the world. The Swedish teen gave a powerful speech to the United Nations demanding action over the environmental crisis. The speech went viral and garnered immense praise from other environmental activists.
Thunberg also made the short-list for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.
TIME editors chose Thunberg over a shortlist of five candidates that included Trump, Nancy Pelosi, the anonymous CIA whistleblower whose complaint played a central role in triggering the impeachment proceedings and the pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
