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EMMA ON FIRE

Teen announces self-immolation intention

Odell, NH

by Rachel Daley, special to the Boston Globe

Yesterday morning, I met the girl whose name is on the lips of concerned parents, climate activists, and teenage influencers alike: Emma Blake.

Unless you live under an actual rock, you know her name too. She’s the seventeen-year- old Ridgemont Academy junior who’s pledged to self-immolate in protest of the state of the world.

I met Emma in her dorm room as campus police searched her drawers for items she might be able to use for self-harm. Her dark eyes had a haunted quality, the unmistakable mark of sleepless nights and a heart burdened by more than it should ever have to bear.

Emma politely but firmly declined to discuss her plans on the record.

A far cry from the impassioned, defiant girl in her videos, in person she was guarded and cautious, her words carefully chosen and few in number.

Her reluctance to speak left me wondering about the girl behind the viral sensation.

Who is she, really, when the camera isn’t rolling?

The Internet is divided about Emma, her self-proclaimed sacrifice sparking both admiration and apprehension. There’s no question her video has shaken up the digital world, but what is it that’s driving her?

Is she a martyr for a generation that has come of age in a world fraught with conflict and dread—a beacon of radical activism willing to sacrifice herself for change?

Or—and this strikes me as more likely—is she a troubled young girl, a teen grappling with deep-seated depression like so many of our young people, her pain hijacked and amplified by the megaphone of social media?

And who are we, as a nation and a world, that our children make declarations such as hers?