Millie Bobby Brown Weighs In On Weird Sexualised Comments Since Turning 18
"It's gross."
Stranger Things‘ Millie Bobby Brown has commented on the increase in sexualised comments she’s received since turning 18, during an appearance on the UK podcast The Guilty Feminist.
Brown was only 12 years old when she made her debut as Eleven in the Netflix thriller and had to weather the storm that is growing up in the public eye ever since. Talking with podcast hosts Deborah Frances-White and Susan Wokoma, the Stranger Things actress said she has “definitely been dealing with [being sexualised] more within the last two weeks of turning 18 — definitely seeing a difference between the way that the press and social media have reacted to me coming of age.”
“I believe that shouldn’t change anything, but it’s gross and it’s true,” she said. “It’s a very good representation of what’s going on in the world and how young girls are sexualised. I have been dealing with that — but I have also been dealing with that forever.”
Brown specifically referenced being “crucified” by the press when she wore a low-cut dress to an awards show at the age of 16. “I thought, my, is this really what we’re talking about? We should be talking about the incredible people that were there at the award show.”
Disturbingly, an ‘NSFW’ subreddit was seen to ‘count down’ the days before the actress’ 18th birthday. Similar countdowns took place in the case of former child stars Emma Watson and Natalie Portman.
Buzzfeed News notes that former child star Mara Wilson (Mrs Doubtfire, Matilda) talked about her concern for Millie in a 2017 essay for Elle, who shared her own experience of being a child star in the ’90s. “Because I was a child actor, my body was public domain,” Wilson writes. “Every time I stumbled across an article about myself, every fear I had about my pubescent body was confirmed.”
In the essay, she expressed her shock about Brown being referred to as “all grown up” at the age of 13. “It’s my nature to worry about child actors,” she writes. She added she saw a photo of Brown on Twitter, dressed up for a premiere. “I thought she looked like a teenage girl. The caption, however, read that, at 13, she “just grew up in front of our eyes.” It had been tweeted by a grown man.”
“I felt sick, and then I felt furious. A 13-year-old girl is not all grown up. And even if she had been what we consider grown-up, that is not newsworthy. I thought of the media outlets that posted countdown clocks until Emma Watson or Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were “legal”—that is to say, “safe” fantasy material. These websites also run scare pieces about kidnapped children, teen sex-trafficking, and pedophile predators. Young girls at risk, young girls objectified: It’s all titillation to them. These adults fetishise innocence, and the loss of innocence even more. They know what they’re selling.”
Listen to ‘The Guilty Feminist’ podcast here.
Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/FilmMagic