“So... today I met my role model. What else can I say?”, Thunberg wrote as the caption for two photos on her Instagram page on 25 February. Yousafzai’s message was a more simple “Thank you, @gretathunberg. ❤️”

The Guardian and The Independent say the two activists pair met at Lady Margaret Hall, Yousafzai’s Oxford college, where Yousafzai is currently studying. The master of the college, former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, also posted on Twitter saying he was grateful to Thunberg for finding time to talk to students “about science, voting, the limits of protest, divestment, real zero v net zero, and much more”. Thunberg, who is 17, was nominated for the Nobel peace prize in 2020 for her campaigning for action on the climate emergency.

Yousafzai, now 22, survived a Taliban shooting for campaigning for girls to be allowed to go to school. She is youngest recipient of the Nobel peace prize, which she won in 2014 for her education advocacy.