Millie Bobby Brown Speaks Out About the Insecurities She Developed as a Child Star
People can be so cruel.
Millie Bobby Brown has been deeply entrenched in the spotlight since she appeared on season 1 of Stranger Things, when she was 12.
Now 19, the British actress sadly still carries many of the insecurities she developed as a child star, as she vulnerably admitted in a new interview with British Glamour.
"I feel like sh*t today" is one of the first things Brown said to the reporter.
"I have a huge pimple on my face," she elaborated. "And I’m going to go on Instagram, and I’m going to see five different girls that look beautiful! Flawless! Stunning! And, OK, slay." This, she said, would very likely leave her "sobbing, because I know, I know I don’t look like that."
These struggles are relatable for many of us, famous or not, but for Brown, it seems like they were painfully exacerbated by how young she was when she first became well known.
When she was just 13, the actress recalls being accused of "trying to steal the thunder" of her Stranger Things costars, and being called things such as "an idiot," "stupid," and "a brat" by adults, who clearly had nothing better to do than to bully a child.
"It’s hard to hear that at 13," Brown said. "You’re like, 'I don't want to ever talk again. I don’t want to be the loud person.'
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"In interviews I couldn’t help but think of all the comments. So I just remembered to stay silent and speak when I was spoken to, even though I was dying to join in. I just felt it wasn’t my turn."
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Because of these difficult experiences, Brown wants to help protect future child actors in any way she can.
"You cannot speak on children that are underage," she said. "I mean, our brains physically have not grown yet. To diminish and practically stunt someone’s growth mentally, strip them down, tell them, 'Hey, listen, you don’t look that great. Why are you wearing that? How dare you think you can wear that? How dare you say that?'"
These days, Brown has learned to protect herself and not let anyone's opinion of her cloud her own concept of herself.
"Nobody’s allowed in," she said. "Nobody can say sh*t." GOOD. FOR. HER.
Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.