Millie Bobby Brown’s Face Was Never Any of Our Business

At some point, we all became the toxic tabloid culture weâ??ve sworn weâ??d never go back to.

👉 Click Here to read in detail 👈

Millie Bobby Brown just blew out the candles on her 21st birthday cake, and all anyone could talk about was how “old” she looked. She’s only 21? Comments echoed, She looks 30. People’s recent obsession with her face and how it’s maturing has gone so far that it’s become the subject of a significant number of articles written by professional writers and published by real media outlets.

Brown has seen all of it. And she’s had enough, as made evident by the Instagram video she posted on March 3. “I started in this 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 with me,” she says in it. “Instead, they act like ... I should still look the way I did on Stranger Things season one. And because I don’t, I’m now a target.” In the caption, she references several harsh headlines written about her appearance, calling out the stories’ authors by name.

I can’t believe it even warrants saying, but the girl is right. We should all be ashamed of ourselves for the way we’ve all been talking about Millie Bobby Brown lately. And I’m not just talking about media outlets that are all too willing to sacrifice empathy for clicks, but everyday people on the internet who have been tossing around comments about Brown’s face like they’re beer pong balls; joyfully, thoughtlessly, and without much accuracy.

One might think Brown looks “old” for a multitude of reasons. One might think her freshly bleached hair and high-coverage makeup don’t belong on a woman her age. One might make assumptions about what work she might have done to make her look so different than before. One simply might not have paid attention to her all this time and is now shocked to find the 10-year-old they pictured gone. When, how, and why did we decide that any of it was our business?

When we participate in such harsh public discourse about celebrities, we just take the place of toxic tabloid culture—and maybe turn it into something nastier.

Sure, we all have the right to our opinions about famous people’s faces and how they can change, sometimes rather suddenly. We might conjure up plastic surgery theories when our vision of a person suddenly doesn’t align with reality. We might even find it validating to discuss those changes among friends: Am I seeing things, or does so-and-so look very different now? When it comes to the increasingly and impossibly snatched world of Hollywood, those conversations can help us navigate our brutally demanding beauty standards, an inevitability of the front-facing cameras we’ve looked at every day for decades now. Reminding each other (in the privacy of our group chats) that celebrities look so good because they have access to aesthetic treatments and personal stylists and expensive colorists can keep us sane.

But we’ve totally lost the plot when it comes to keeping those opinions offline—or at the very least, expressing them with nuance and sympathy toward celebrities who are, mind you, actual people with feelings that can be hurt. Do people even care whether or not they hurt one another’s feelings anymore? Have we given up control over our reflex to stir the pot without considering the impact of our words? Have we all been taken over by digital brainworms that feed off social media engagement at any cost to humanity? This whole situation makes it feel like we have, and that terrifies me.

People online, especially gen-Xers and millennials such as myself, love to complain about the days of yore when we were all being scarred by toxic tabloid culture, which we like to think is no longer of concern. But when individuals participate in such harsh public discourse about celebrities' faces and bodies, we just take the place of those tabloids—and maybe turn it into something bigger, nastier. Something without limits. Something that can’t be controlled the way a media outlet with teams of writers and editors who gut- and fact-check each other before we publish something inaccurate and hurtful can.

Gen Z has the excuse of not having been cognisant or even alive during that peak tabloid era, but the rest of us already know how this story ends—generational self-image issues—and ought to set a better example if we want anything to change for the better.

"Millie Bobby Brown is at an age where it’s normal to experiment—with clothes, with makeup, with life in general. She's doing exactly what she should be.

If you, like me, are pissed that there’s so much hurtful content about other people’s faces on your feeds, the best thing you can do is absolutely nothing. Many media outlets (especially those of the tabloid and blog variety) see any kind of engagement with it as a sign to produce more—even if you’re commenting about how much you hate said content. I can’t speak for the editorial practices of individual creators on social media, but refusing to engage might at least train your personalized algorithms to stop showing you this crap.

As for Millie Bobby Brown, let’s just cool it yeah? She seems to have already moved on from the matter anyway: She declined to comment when I reached out to her team; the Instagram statement speaks for itself, they told me.

Still, consider these facts: Brown has been working full-time in a hyper-demanding job for more than half of her relatively short life. She is an actor who must constantly evolve her appearance to book jobs and remain relevant, not just to casting directors but to all of us. She is a young woman at an age where it’s normal and even healthy to experiment—with clothes, with makeup, with life in general. She’s doing exactly what she should be doing at her age: having some fun. All the while, she’s maintained her vulnerable and relatable social media presence—she’s still posting makeup-free selfies, being candid about her acne, and now, being upfront about how this whole ordeal has made her feel. Can we not just give a little credit where it’s due?

More from Allure's opinion section:

Now, watch Millie Bobby Brown try nine things she's never done before:

Follow Allure on Instagram and TikTok, or subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on all things beauty.

👉 Click Here to read in detail 👈

Miatamil

Listed here the latest Trending News