I imagine taking a time machine back to just five or six years ago and telling myself a few things about today.
“Labour are back in power, and somehow it’s WORSE. There’s an actual genocide going on, and as a country, we’re pretty much on the wrong side of it. The President of the United States is Trump (again!) and he flits between golf, galas with tech bros and press conferences with war criminals.”
“Okay, that’s all pretty weird… there’s nothing weirder, is there?”
“Actually, yeah. Ms Rachel. You know the one from YouTube with the dungarees, the hairband, sings about colours and kindness? She’s your new personal hero. You LOVE her.”
“Okay yeah, that is weird…”
I didn’t have “unbridled adoration for a children’s TV host” on my 2025 bingo card, but Ms Rachel has shown the world what it looks like when you use your platform for good.
Since Israel’s latest assault on Gaza reached genocidal proportions, and they began indiscriminately targeting children, Ms Rachel has been one of the few public figures in the Western mainstream willing to say the quiet part out loud: killing children is wrong.
She’s used her enormous platform to say what so many adults in politics and the news won’t. She’s spoken directly to her followers about compassion, about empathy, about how Palestinian children deserve life and safety just like anyone else. Somehow, saying these things in her soft “Ms Rachel” way hits incredibly hard.
She even called out Barack Obama for his choc-full-of-double-standards statement on the ceasefire, pointing out his dehumanising language towards Palestinians. Ms Rachel… from YouTube… teaching humanity to Barack freaking Obama. These are crazy times.
More recently she’s connected directly with children in Gaza over video call, sending them messages of love and solidarity, and raising over $50,000 for Save the Children’s emergency fund for kids in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and the DRC. She’s been posting drawings and messages from children, reminding her audience that these are real people with names and dreams, and deserving of futures.
And maybe the weirdest thing about this timeline is that saying “killing kids is wrong” drew a fair amount of backlash.
A pro-Israel group called StopAntisemitism accused her of spreading “Hamas-aligned propaganda” and even called for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate her as a foreign agent. Right-wing media latched on, calling her posts “political” and “divisive.” The comments under her videos turned toxic and she eventually had to turn them off. All because she said children deserve to live. Imagine that?!
There’s been talk of Ms Rachel being nominated for a peace prize, and honestly, it would be fully deserved. She’s been unapologetically human in the face of great indifference, even cruelty. She’s shown courage, empathy and moral clarity at a time when governments and media outlets have inexplicably lost their voice.
So yeah, we love Ms Rachel now. And if that feels surreal, it is. But when the grown-ups have lost their moral compass, it’s nice to know that someone, even someone in dungarees, still knows right from wrong.
Sources
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/09/stop-antisemitism-ms-rachel-doj-investigation
https://www.newarab.com/news/pro-israel-group-attacks-ms-rachel-over-gaza-aid-posts
https://www.glamour.com/story/ms-rachel-controversy-explained
