Have you seen Millie Bobby Brown lately? Chances are, the answer is yes.
The 21-year-old actor has been hitting the press circuit hard, making stops at morning shows, late-night shows, podcasts, and panels to promote her latest Netflix flick, the 90s-set adventure film The Electric State.
As all celebrity women well know, with a spate of public appearances and photo opps comes unwarranted criticism and tired opinions. Brown, who began her career as a child star on Stranger Things, is no exception, of course. Over the past few weeks she has been picked apart by “fans” and the media alike for “ageing poorly.”
“Disillusioned people can’t handle seeing a girl become a woman on her terms, not theirs,” she wrote of the discourse on Instagram last week. During her March 11 appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, she elaborated, saying: “A thing that I get a lot is like, ‘Oh my God, she looks like 40.’”
She continues: “And I’m like, ‘Well yeah, you did meet me when I was 10’…I’m 21, it’s been 10 years. She grows. My face like, grew. What do you want me to do about that?"
The actor took to Instagram to call out recent comments about her appearance.
It’s not just her looks, however, that people seem to have taken issue with. Her style has also been the subject of relentless chatter online, with haters latching onto the weak suggestion that she should “dress her age” - whatever that means.
In the comments of her Instagram as well as on other fashion accounts, I’ve seen well-meaning critics indirectly come for her taste via attacks on her stylist or her glam team. “Girl needs a new stylist asap” reads one comment under a photo of the star wearing an Annie's Ibiza hooded dress at the 2025 Brit Awards. Another, this one shared under a photo of the actor’s recent Tamara Ralph couture look, said: “She needs to fire her glam team.”
All are missing one important point: Millie Bobby Brown isn’t going to wear anything that Millie Bobby Brown doesn’t want to wear. Blaming her team removes her agency. As she’s said again and again, she’s no longer a child—she is a woman with power, means, and access. Isn’t that every fashion-obsessed person’s dream?
Brown, like any 21-year-old, is experimenting with her style. For evidence, just look at her recent transformation from mousy brunette to bombshell blonde. She seems to be particularly preoccupied with Pamela Anderson's 90s style lately, and even had the privilege of raiding the Baywatch star’s archive for her method-dressing press tour.
“The Electric State is based in the 90s,” she explained to Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper. “So I was like, ‘I want everything I wear on this press tour to be 90s archive. So I was like, ‘Who are the major blondes in the 90s?’”
After the two connected through a mutual friend, Anderson “pulled me a whole rack of clothes that were just unbelievable,” Brown said.
People have a right to their opinions—and to voice them freely. But that doesn’t mean that they should, or that they’re correct, or that they’re helpful by any means. Brown’s current style era might not be your favourite, but clearly she is loving it. How else would you explain her many, many mini photo shoots where she’s done up to the nines?
This is a woman who is having a ball:
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Let’s not fall into the same old trap of boxing Brown into one category simply because we knew the before version of the actor. Child stars, like any adolescents, deserve the right to grow up, to experiment, and to step outside of the pristine little ideals that the adults in their lives may have prescribed for them. There is no right way to dress, not in 2025. If you think she should be wearing less makeup, or wearing trendier clothing, or less sexy clothing, it’s time to examine why you might hold those beliefs.
Millie Bobby Brown might not be growing up exactly the way you thought she would, or the way you thought she should. But frankly, that’s none of your business.
This article originally appeared on GLAMOUR US
