Millie Bobby Brown has hit back at journalists and others who have made what she called “disturbing” comments about her appearance.
“I want to take a moment to address something that I think is bigger than just me. Something that affects every young woman who grows up under public scrutiny,” she said in a three-minute long video shared to her Instagram on Monday.
“I started in the 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 up with me,” Brown, 21, said, before calling out several headlines and reporters who she said were “mocking a young girl’s appearance.”
The video is a response to press coverage of her arrival on the red carpet last week at the premiere of Netflix film Electric State, which she is promoting.
“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,“ she said. “And because I don’t, I’m now a target.”
Brown has been acting since she was 9, appearing in ABC drama Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and BBC America show Intruders.
She became more widely known after she was cast as Eleven in Netflix’s Stranger Things in 2016.
In May 2024, she married Jon Bon Jovi’s son Jake Bongiovi.
“The fact that adult writers are spending their time dissecting my face, my body, my choices, is disturbing, and the fact that some of these articles are written by women makes it even worse,” she said.
“Disillusioned people can’t handle seeing a girl become a woman her terms, not their own. I refuse to apologize for growing up,” she continued.
“This isn’t journalism. This is bullying,” she said.
She went on to say that she will not be “shamed” for how she looks, dresses, or presents herself.
“We have become a society where it’s so much easier to criticize than it is to pay a compliment. Why is it the knee jerk reaction to say something horrible rather than just say something nice?” she said.
Fellow actors offered their support to Brown, including Sex and the City’s Sarah Jessica Parker, who wrote that she was “enormously proud” of Brown in the comments underneath the video.
Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton and Brown’s Stranger Things co-star Matthew Modine also offered their support in the comments.
