“Stranger Things” star Millie Bobby Brown is the latest young celebrity to come under tabloid media’s vicious scrutiny—but she refuses to back down. Instead of yielding to relentless attacks on her appearance, Brown is demanding to be allowed to simply grow up.
During the 21-year-old actress’ press tour for her new Netflix film, “The Electric State,” she has faced a flood of articles dissecting her face, hair and body. Several Daily Mail headlines have fixated on her appearance, asking, “Why are Gen Zers like Millie Bobby Brown aging so badly?” “What has Millie Bobby Brown done to her face?”
In response to the endless, targeted commentary on her body, Brown posted a two-minute video on Instagram calling out the “disturbing coverage.” Her experience underscores a troubling pattern in media: the relentless shaming of young women’s bodies as they grow up in the spotlight.
“I started in the industry when I was ten years old. I grew up in front of the world, and for some reason, people can’t seem to grow with me,” Brown stated. “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 one. And because I don’t, I’m now a target . . . “
Brown highlighted that many of these tabloid articles are “written by people who are so desperate to tear young women down,” purposefully identifying several journalists by name.
“This isn’t journalism. This is bullying,” Brown emphasized. The fact that adult writers are spending their time dissecting my face, my body, my choices — it’s disturbing. The fact that some of these articles are written by women? Even worse.”
Brown’s status as a former child star only intensifies the scrutiny and criticism that women already face in their daily lives. However, the relentless attacks on her body are not unique to her experience. Many former child stars have spoken out about the media’s obsession with their bodies as they age.
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Former Disney Channel star, Demi Lovato, has been vocal about the toxicity she suffered as a child star and the media scrutiny of her body, which led to eating disorders and substance abuse during her young adulthood.
For years, Lovato has pushed back on damaging headlines about her body. One particular headline in 2019 highlighted a then-26-year-old Lovato’s “fuller figure.”
“I’m angry that people think it’s okay to write headlines about people’s body shapes,” Lovato explained on Instagram. “Especially a woman who has been so open about being in recovery from an eating disorder. I’m not upset for myself but for anyone easily influenced by the diet culture.”
Before Lovato’s rise to fame, ’00s figureheads like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes were at the center of tabloid fodder — unable to escape the tireless barrage of negative criticisms while they were merely teenagers.
In Spears’ memoir, “The Woman in Me,” she wrote that she noticed a double standard in the media while dating Justin Timberlake at 18.
“I couldn’t help but notice that the questions he got asked by talk show hosts were different from the ones they asked me,” Spears wrote. “Everyone kept making strange comments about my breasts, wanting to know whether or not I’d had plastic surgery.”
In an interview between Spears and Diane Sawyer, the journalist immediately commented on a young Spears’ body. Sawyer declared Spears’ abs as the “most valuable square inch of real estate in the entertainment universe,” and then later criticized the star for her covers of Rolling Stone and Esquire, asking,“What happened to your clothes?”
More than 20 years after the awkward interview between Spears and Sawyer, female celebrities like Brown and Lovato have been empowered to openly address and call out the media for their participation in perpetuating body-shaming coverage. At just 21, Brown’s post has been viewed millions of times across platforms like X and Instagram, with countless people online commending the actress for speaking up.
Heena Khaled, a co-founder of a Muslim women’s organization, stated on X, “So impressed with Millie Bobby Brown for calling out and naming journalists and addressing comments about her, her body and young girls and women in the media. We need to call this out more and the fact 3 out of 4 of those journos were women is even worse.”
On the “Tamron Hall Show” Wednesday, former “Beverly Hills, 90210” actress, Jennie Garth, praised Brown for standing up for herself, having faced similar scrutiny as a young actress.
“I think she’s really strong. That’s what’s so great about this new generation of young women, they know their worth and they’re not going to let anybody put them in a corner,” she said.
British actor Matt Lucas issued an apology to Brown on Instagram Monday for previously commenting about her appearance, writing, “I was mortified when the press wrote that I ‘slammed’ you, firstly because that’s not my style, and secondly because I think you’re brilliant. I would not have posted it if I had thought it would have upset you but I realize it has and for that I apologize.”
As Brown stated in her video, “I refuse to apologize for growing up,” and she never should.
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