Despite Rumors, Greta Thunberg Did Not Drop Out of High School

Climate activism found an unlikely poster child in Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg when in 2018, the high school teen organized a school climate strike movement called Fridays for Future, in the name of environmental reform.

Since then, Greta has risen to international fame and recognition as the face of climate action and environmentalism.

Now, Greta has several admirable honors under her belt: she's won the title of Time’s 100 Most Influential People (the youngest ever), and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

That said, many are wondering if Greta dropped out of school in order to pursue her environmental activism — keep reading to find out.

At 15 years old, Greta started spending her school hours protesting outside of the Swedish Parliament with the support of her like-minded environmentalist parents. She was known for holding a sign that read Skolstrejk för klimatet, which translates to “School strike for climate” in Swedish, according to Business Insider.

Her calls on Swedish Parliament for more aggressive action to address the climate crisis eventually led her to start Fridays for Future and ultimately, resort to remote studies.

In 2019, Greta took a sabbatical year from school so she could (sustainably) travel the world to spread her message (she sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in a yacht outfitted with solar panels and underwater turbines).

Later that year, Greta gave a powerful address at the UN Climate Action Summit, saying, “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!”

Before taking a sabbatical year, during which she completed remote studies, Greta attended a private school called Franska Skolan in Stockholm.

She was a student there from 2010 to 2018 before transferring to Kringlaskolan in Södertälje. In 2019, it was made public that Greta had completed ninth grade.

During the coronavirus global pandemic, Greta paused her travels in favor of virtual activism. This allowed her to end her gap year from school, and in August 2020, Greta announced on X (formerly Twitter) that she was returning to school for the fall semester.

Greta wrote, “My gap year from school is over, and it feels so great to finally be back in school again!” It was reported that her return to school was through online classes, like most other students during the global health crisis.

Despite returning to school in August 2020, Greta continued her virtual activism via Zoom calls and also continued to host Fridays for Future school strikes.

In 2023, Greta officially graduated from high school at the age of 20.

"Today, I graduate from school, which means I'll no longer be able to school strike for the climate," she wrote on X. "We simply have no other option than to do everything we possibly can," she added. "The fight has only just begun."

In 2023, Greta was also awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Helsinki.