Violet Affleck reveals she and her mom, Jennifer Garner, had very different reactions to the Los Angeles wildfires

Violet Affleck, the eldest daughter of Hollywood stars Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, is making headlines for more than just her famous lineage. Now a freshman at Yale University, the 19-year-old recently published a compelling academic essay that highlights her generational perspective on climate change—one that differs notably from her mother’s.

In her article titled “A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles”—featured in Yale’s Global Health Review—Violet opens with a personal and revealing anecdote about how she and her mother experienced the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year. The fires devastated areas such as the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, destroying thousands of homes and displacing many residents.

“I spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room,” she wrote. “She was shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighborhood where she raised myself and my siblings.”

Violet’s reaction, however, was shaped by a different lens—one grounded in climate science and generational awareness. “I was surprised at her surprise,” she continued. “As a lifelong Angelena and climate-literate member of Generation Z, my question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when.”

This stark contrast between her and Garner’s responses to the disaster serves as a metaphor throughout Violet’s essay, reflecting the generational divide in how climate change is perceived and addressed. While older generations often react to environmental crises with shock or disbelief, younger voices like Violet’s see such events as unfortunate but expected outcomes of inaction on global warming.

As she and her mother took refuge from the smoke in a hotel, Violet noticed the conversations among adults focused more on financial loss and inconvenience than the systemic issues behind the fires. “People spoke of how long rebuilding would take, how much it would cost, and how tragically odd the whole situation had been,” she noted. In contrast, Violet viewed the wildfire not as a freak event but as an inevitable consequence of climate change and inadequate environmental policy.

Her younger brother, she wrote, questioned how climate change could affect something as seemingly random as wind speed. Violet’s reflections turned to the eerie similarities between the wildfire crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the use of masks and public anxiety. “Outside, people wandered, faces covered by N95s,” she wrote. “‘This feels like COVID,’ said one wild-eyed woman clutching two leashed Yorkies. ‘We’re all in masks.’”

This isn’t the first time Violet has spoken publicly about public health and environmental concerns. In 2023, at the age of 18, she gave an impassioned speech during the public comment portion of a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting. She revealed that she had contracted a post-viral condition in 2019 and used her experience to advocate for stronger health protections.

“I’m OK now, but I saw first-hand that medicine does not always have answers to the consequences of even minor viruses,” she said. Violet went on to call for mask availability, air filtration systems, far-UVC lighting in public institutions, and mask mandates in county medical facilities.

She also spoke out strongly against mask bans, saying, “They do not keep us safer. They make vulnerable members of our community less safe and make everyone less able to participate in Los Angeles together.”

Violet Affleck’s blend of personal experience, academic insight, and public advocacy offers a powerful glimpse into how Generation Z views the interconnectedness of climate change, public health, and social justice. While her parents may be known for their roles on the silver screen, Violet is carving her own path—one marked by activism, intellect, and a call to action for a more sustainable future.

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