"This isn’t journalism. This is bullying."
Millie Bobby Brown Claps Back At "Disturbing" Body Shamers
Chloe Williams serves as B+C’s Entertainment Editor and resident Taylor Swift expert. Whether she’s writing a movie review or interviewing the stars of the latest hit show, Chloe loves exploring why stories inspire us. You can see her work published in BuzzFeed, Coastal Review, and North Beach Sun. When she’s not writing, Chloe’s probably watching a Marvel movie with a cherry coke or texting her sister about the latest celebrity news. Say hi at @thechloewilliams on Insta and @popculturechlo on Twitter!
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If you've been on the internet at all since Stranger Things premiered, there's a good chance you've witnessed how Millie Bobby Brown simply cannot catch a break. As a young girl, the actress (who plays Eleven on the hit Netflix series) was criticized for talking too much in interviews (then criticized for being silent the next year), and as she's gotten older, there has been endless conversation about her marriage, her sense of humor, and most recently, her makeup and body during The Electric State's press run. And she just called the press out — by name.
Here's what Millie Bobby Brown had to say to those body shamers after The Electric State premiere.
Haters flooded Netflix's Instagram comments to criticize Millie Bobby Brown's look.
Videos from the February 24 premiere of The Electric State immediately went viral — and not just because everyone asked directors Joe and Anthony Russo about Avengers: Doomsday. Throughout the movie's press run Millie Bobby Brown has been leaning into the Britney Spears 90s glam of it all, but while she's looked amazing the whole time, both press and Instagram users went out of their way to criticize her red carpet photos.
"babe you’re 21 not 41, jeez it’s so sad beautiful girls getting work done to look twice their age and bad," one user commented on Netflix's official Instagram.
"She looks like a mid aged woman with that hair style and dye," said another user, while others called her "tacky" and "old."
Although if you ask me, it's tearing women down that's tacky. And Millie Bobby Brown weighed in on the comments.
And Millie spoke out on the hate.
Millie Bobby Brown posted a reel to Instagram on March 3 to speak out on the criticism. This video breaks my heart, not just because of the content itself, but because you can just see in her eyes how tired she is. If I was constantly receiving hate from millions of people — no matter what I did — I'd be tired too!
"I started in this industry when I was 10 years old. I grew up in front of the world, and for some reason, people can’t seem to grow with me. Instead, they act like I’m supposed to stay frozen in time, like I should still look the way I did on Stranger Things Season 1. And because I don’t, I’m now a target," she says in the video, going on to discuss "the articles, the headlines, the people who are so desperate to tear young women down."
After naming some of the articles' headlines, and their authors, Millie goes on to say that "this isn’t journalism. This is bullying."
"The fact that adult writers are spending their time dissecting my face, my body, my choices, it’s disturbing," she continues. "The fact that some of these articles are written by women? Even worse. We always talk about supporting and uplifting young women, but when the time comes, it seems easier to tear them down for clicks."
Since Stranger Things premiered in 2016, Millie Bobby Brown has proven that she marches to the beat of her own drum. "Disillusioned people can’t handle seeing a girl become a woman on her terms, not theirs. I refuse to apologize for growing up. I refuse to make myself smaller to fit the unrealistic expectations of people who can’t handle seeing a girl become a woman," she says. "I will not be shamed for how I look, how I dress, or how I present myself."
"We have become a society where it’s so much easier to criticize than it is to pay a compliment. Why is the knee-jerk reaction to say something horrible rather than to say something nice?" she continues. "If you have a problem with that, I have to wonder—what is it that actually makes you so uncomfortable? Let’s do better. Not just for me, but for every young girl who deserves to grow up without fear of being torn apart for simply existing."
Check out how Sydney Sweeney Responded To Her Bikini Body Shamers for even more empowerment.
