Millie Bobby Brown became a Netflix star when she was only 12 years old, but her time as a famous actress hasn’t always been easy.
She turned 18 in February this year and has opened up about her experiences now that she’s legally an adult and how she is unsettled to learn how people treat her differently as an adult compared to when she was a kid.
Millie admitted that she still faced backlash and sexualization before she was 18, but it happens more frequently with media interactions now that she’s an adult.
Millie Bobby Brown opens up about facing sexualization as a child star
Millie opened up on The Guilty Feminist podcast and talked about her time as a famous child star and now a young adult.
She revealed that since she turned 18, she has been getting more sexual comments. She said, “I have definitely been dealing with that more in the last couple weeks of turning 18. [I’m definitely seeing a difference between the way people act and the way the press and social media react to me coming of age. It’s gross.”
She added that she has been dealing with it more recently but has really dealt with it “forever.” She also said that her experience in Hollywood is “a good representation of what’s going on in the world and how young girls are sexualized.”
She recalled a time before she was an adult when she received major backlash for wearing a low-cut dress to a red carpet event.
She said that she didn’t understand why it was such a huge topic of debate and that they should have been focused on “the incredible people that were there at the awards show, the talent that was there, the people we are representing.”
She advised that her experiences are similar to what other people her age go through, despite her fame. Millie opened up about how overwhelming it can be to be 18 as well.
Millie Bobby Brown opens up about being 18
During the podcast, Millie talked about dealing “with the same things any 18-year-old is dealing with.” As a young adult, she is still focused on trying to learn how to be an adult and maintain relationships and friendships, “and it’s all of those things.”
She continued, “Being liked and trying to fit in, it’s all a lot, and you’re trying to [know] yourself while doing that. The only difference is obviously I’m doing that in the public eye. It can be really overwhelming.”
Millie advised that she stopped sharing so many personal things on her social media so that the rest of the world can only see what she decides “to put out in the world.”
The Stranger Things star wants to make sure that children online don’t have to see “the horrible world that’s out there” and revealed that she believes “social media is the worst place of all time.”
Millie has been dealing with fame, backlash, and sexualization since she was only 12 years old, so it is not so surprising that she wouldn’t like being on social media. Millie seems hopeful that the way young girls and women are perceived and talked about by the media can be changed by sharing her own experiences.