For most of her life, Violet Affleck, the eldest daughter of Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, has existed quietly on the periphery of fame. Raised by two of Hollywood’s most recognisable actors, she’s rarely been centre stage, her appearances limited to paparazzi shots and proud-parent red carpet moments.
But now, at 19 and studying at Yale University, Violet is stepping forward with a voice that is unmistakably her own and positions her as a rare talent of her generation.
Her latest essay, published in the Yale Global Health Review, isn’t your standard student submission. Titled “A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles”, it’s part memoir, part manifesto.
And at the heart of it is a striking personal anecdote: an argument with her mother during the LA wildfires earlier this year.
“I Was Surprised at Her Surprise”
The essay opens with Violet recalling a moment of tension in a hotel room where she and her family had taken shelter from the January fires that tore through her hometown of Pacific Palisades.
“I spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother,” she writes. “She was shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighbourhood where she raised myself and my siblings.
“I was surprised at her surprise: as a lifelong Angelena and climate-literate member of Gen Z, my question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when.”
Climate, COVID, and Chronic Illness
What makes Violet’s writing so compelling is the way she draws a line between seemingly separate crises. The climate emergency and the COVID-19 pandemic, she argues, are strongly linked. Both, she writes, expose society’s preference for denial, for “getting back to normal”. And both crises disproportionately impact disabled and chronically ill people.
Violet herself has lived through post-viral illness. In 2019, she contracted a condition that left her with lasting symptoms yet gave her the courage to advocate for stronger protections against COVID-19.
Her argument is quietly revolutionary: what if long-sidelined disabled people hold the key to our survival? She strongly argues that the tools disabled communities have developed to thrive – mutual aid, pacing, and pre-emptive care – are the very strategies we need to adopt in facing climate catastrophe.
From Hollywood Legacy to Public Thinker
That Violet Affleck is writing like this is extraordinary, but it’s no coincidence. She comes from a family of public figures who have not been afraid to raise their voices: Jennifer Garner has long been an advocate for early childhood education, while Ben Affleck has spoken openly about addiction recovery.
It’s tempting to see this moment as a “coming out” of sorts for Violet, but perhaps that’s the wrong frame. She’s not stepping into the spotlight in the traditional celebrity-child way. Like many 19-year-olds, she’s figuring out what she stands for, but she’s doing it in public, and through her in academic writing.
So, yes, she’s Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner’s daughter. But Violet Affleck isn’t just the child of Hollywood royalty. She’s a student, a writer, and an emerging voice in a growing advocacy movement. And if this is her first public offering, we can’t wait to see what she does next.
