Violet Affleck, the 19-year-old daughter of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, took the stage at the United Nations this week, calling for urgent action on clean air, pandemic protections, and broader social justice issues.
Speaking at the “Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action” event in New York, the Yale freshman framed her generation as one already living with the failures of global leadership.
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“I represent a generation that in many ways already knows how we’ve been failed,” she said. “We are no strangers to protesting injustice. This summer alone has seen youth uprisings in Nepal, Angola, and Indonesia, to say nothing of ongoing youth mobilization worldwide for a free Palestine. And wherever we live, we’ve grown up in the shadow of the climate crisis with the threats, sacrifices, and scarcities that [it] will entail, looming over us.”
She added: “We know what that means for our lives in no small part, thanks to the people in this room. And we are told by leaders across the board that we are the future. But when it comes to the ongoing pandemic, our present is being stolen right in front of our eyes.”
Affleck, who wore a face mask while delivering her remarks, then shifted her focus to COVID-19 and long-term health concerns.
“Here’s what we know about SARS-CoV-2. It is airborne floating and lingering in the air. One infection can result in disabling damage to almost every cell in the body from the brain and heart to the nerves and blood vessels,” she said. “Every subsequent infection increases the risk of long COVID and places people who already have it in greater danger.”
She described her fears for children facing a lifetime of post-viral illness.
“I am terrified for the children who do not, or soon will not, know a world without debilitating pain and exhaustion,” she said. “And I am furious on their behalf. It is neglect of the highest order to look children in the eyes and say, ‘we knew how to protect you and we didn’t do it.’”
The 19-year-old urged the international community to treat clean indoor air as a basic right, comparing it to the historic fight against indoor smoking.
“We can recognize filtered air as a human right, as intuitively as we do filtered water,” she said. “We can create clean air infrastructure that is so ubiquitous and so obviously necessary, tomorrow’s children don’t even know why we need it.”
Affleck closed by urging older generations to keep their promises made during the height of the pandemic.
“We need the people who remember 2020, who were not like me, 14 in 2020, to be loud about the world that we were promised at the onset of the pandemic … And we need the people who are born now, we owe it to the people who are born now, that they take that world for granted.”
Her remarks quickly drew strong responses online.
“The U.N. is an increasingly unserious place. Why are they just letting rich nepo babies get up there and rant with masks on?” influencer Link Lauren asked.
“What the hell did those two do to their daughter,” Newsmax host Rob Schmitt said on X.
“Ben Affleck’s daughter needs an immediate Psychiatric Evaluation. She has been wearing a mask for 5 YEARS,” another user claimed.
“Can celebrities have normal children?” one commenter asked.
“Why is an Affleck child speaking at the UN? Why would she get to speak anywhere??” Jennifer Sey, former Levi’s executive and gymnast, asked on X.
“Hey @BenAffleck, come get your kid,” another person posted.
“Her speech just gave me the strength to keep the work going,” an X user cheered her on.
This is not Violet Affleck’s first time making headlines with her activism. In 2023, she was spotted wearing a watermelon “freedom” sweatshirt, widely recognized as a pro-Palestinian symbol. Wear The Peace sells the garment, and the proceeds go to Gaza aid efforts.
In 2024, she testified before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, demanding expanded access to masks, ventilation improvements in government buildings, and opposition to mask bans.
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Her mother, actress Jennifer Garner, has also waded into politics and activism. She campaigned for former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential race and supported Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Garner has also publicly celebrated Pride Month, wrapping rainbow-colored decorations around her yard trees, and was photographed in June 2024 drumming alongside activists wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh.
Affleck’s younger sibling, Fin, formerly known as Seraphina, publicly used the memorial service of Garner’s father to share their new name and identity for the first time in April 2024.