Millie Bobby Brown Opens Up About The Constant Bullying She Faces Online: "It's Really Hard To Be Hated On"
Millie Bobby Brown was only 12 years old when the first season of "Stranger Things" debuted. She was propelled into a level of fame that she never expected. She has since faced perpetual bullying and harassment online, which prompted her to delete social media from her phone.
Eleven is the hero of Stranger Things, but Millie Bobby Brown identifies with Eleven's struggle with self-identity and loneliness. She opened up in a recent interview with Allure about how she has dealt with the never-ending harassment from trolls online.
Millie Bobby Brown Opens Up About the Constant Bullying She Faces Online
Millie was born in Spain to British parents and she knew from a young age that she wanted to act. Her parents told her she had to really commit to it if she wanted to make it work. She decided to completely devote herself to the job. "Whatever it takes, I want to act," she told herself. But Millie struggled with loneliness from a young age, and that's why she was drawn to characters that also wrestled with feeling misunderstood.
“I enjoyed being different people because I always struggled with self-identity and knowing who I was,” she said. “Even as a young person, I always felt like I didn’t quite belong in every room I was in. I also struggle with loneliness a bit. I always felt quite alone in a crowded room, like I was just one of a kind, like nobody ever really understood me. So I liked [playing] characters that people understood [and] people could relate to because I felt like no one could relate to Millie.”
When Stranger Things aired, she became famous virtually overnight. Now she's so recognizable that she can't even go shopping without security. Unfortunately, this also opened the door for countless people to bully her and harass her online; many also sexualized her at the tender age of 12. There were countdown clocks made online that kept track of how many days were left until she turned 18.
She was also receiving threatening messages and gross notes from adult men from a young age. The bullying just kept getting worse and worse as she grew more and more famous.
Then there was a toxic relationship with TikToker Hunter Ecimovic, who spoke publicly and inappropriately about his interactions with Millie, calling himself a "groomer." She was 16 and he was 20 when they allegedly had a relationship.
“It was a year of healing,” she said. “When you get publicly humiliated this way, I felt so out of control and powerless. Walking away and knowing that I’m worth everything and this person didn’t take anything from me, it felt very empowering. It felt like my life had finally turned a page and that I actually had ended a chapter that felt so fucking long.”
All of this encouraged her to delete social media from her phone. The only profiles she has are on Instagram and Facebook, but someone else manages her accounts and she stays off these popular platforms.
“It’s really hard to be hated on when you don’t know who you are yet,” she said. “So it’s like, ‘What do they hate about me? ’Cause I don’t know who I am.’ It’s almost like, ‘Okay, I’m going to try being this today.’ [And then they say], ‘Oh, no, I hate that.’ ‘Okay. Forget that. I’m going to try being this today.’ ‘Oh, my God! I hate when you do that.’ Then you just start shutting down because you’re like, ‘Who am I meant to be? Who do they need me to be for them?’"
"Then I started to grow more, and my family and friends really helped. It helped to be able to understand that I don’t need to be anything they said that I need to be. I just have to develop within myself. That’s what I did.”
She's currently studying human services at Purdue University and continuing her work as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, focusing on menstrual health and education for women. She knows there are many people who look up to her, so she tries her best to remain responsible with the level of fame she has gained.