Violet Affleck knows how to capture a reader’s attention.
“I spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mom in a hotel room,” the Yale University freshman wrote in the opening lines of an academic paper published in the Global Health Review.
The essay itself is dense and sophisticated, exploring parallels between public health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and strategies for confronting climate change. But tucked inside all that research is something more personal: a peek into the thoughts of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner’s eldest child.
According to Violet, Garner was “shell-shocked, astonished, at the scale of destruction” wrought by the wildfires in the neighborhood where she is raising her family. Garner, 53, and Affleck, who divorced in 2018, are also parents to Fin, 16, and Samuel, 13.
“I was surprised at her surprise: as a lifelong Angelena and climate-literate member of generation Z, my question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when,” Violet wrote.
The January, 2025 fires in the Los Angeles area killed at least 29 people and destroyed thousands of homes.
Violet, a rising sophomore at Yale, recounted growing increasingly frustrated with other adults who dismissed the crisis as if it were merely a “burst of bad luck.”
“It had come from a combination of high winds and low rains — what, my little brother asked, did global warming have to do with the speed of the wind?” Violet wrote.
“Hopefully, most of us understand the climate crisis better than my little brother,” she later added.
Violet’s commitment to public health hasn’t been confined to the classroom.
In 2024, Violet delivered a passionate speech at a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting, pushing back against proposed mask bans in public spaces and healthcare settings. She spoke from personal experience, having dealt with a post-viral condition herself, and stressed how serious and long-lasting the effects of viral infections can be, especially for vulnerable communities.
Violet also has a knack for language. When dad Ben Affleck appeared on TODAY in April, he described Violet as a “student of Spanish.” He studied the subject at the University of Vermont.
“She will tell me that hers is better than mine,” the actor told Savannah. “And I’m glad that I get the chance to be on national television and just claim victory!”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
Celebrity kids are headed to college for the Fall 2024 semester. Among those who are newly empty nesters are Gwyneth Paltrow, Brooke Shields and Jerry Seinfeld. Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck were seen dropping off daughter Violet at Yale University.
