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Millie Bobby Brown is continuing to address the ongoing criticism about her looks.
The 21-year-old actor complained about being scrutinized by the tabloids during Tuesday’s episode of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast.
When Cooper asked her what she wished more people knew about her, Brown targeted the way the press has “gone in on” her about specific things.
“I know that obviously people say that I look a lot older. That’s a thing that I get a lot. It’s like ‘Oh my god she looks like 40!’ And I’m like yeah, you did meet when I was 10,” she explained, referring to how she rose to stardom when she was only a young teen on Stranger Things.
She pointed out that everyone tends to age over time, and hit back at the criticism directed at her, continuing: “Now I’m 21, it’s been 10 years. She grows. My face grew. What do you want me to do about that?”
But Brown insisted it doesn’t really get to her, even as people “pick on things” that she says and does, like the changes in her British accent.
“Obviously, I don’t want that for any persona growing up in the industry,” she said, referring to all the criticism she has received. “But it really, actually doesn’t bother me. I wish I could be like, ‘You know what, it does get to me.’ It used to get to me, it did … And I remember trying to change myself to please the masses.”
She added: “Actually now, I’m in a place where, yeah, my accent does change. My face does grow. I do wear a lot of makeup. It’s just the kind of person I am. I like that. It’s fun for me. You’re not going to tell me how to be a girl.”
But earlier this month, Brown attacked the recent “disturbing” press coverage of her physical appearance, slamming tabloids for “bullying” her. In a video on her Instagram, she cited headlines from stories criticizing her face, hair, and body, and called out the writers by name.
“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,” her post began.
She noted she grew up in the “industry … in front of the world, and for some reason, people can’t seem to grow with me. Instead, they act like I’m supposed to stay frozen in time, like I should still look the way I did on Stranger Things Season 1. And because I don’t, I’m now a target,” said Brown.
She accused her attackers in the tabloids of being “so desperate to tear young women down.”
“This isn’t journalism. This is bullying,” the Enola Holmes star continued. “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 … Disillusioned people can’t handle seeing a girl become a woman on her terms, not their own.”
Brown asked: “Why is it the knee-jerk reaction to say something horrible rather than just say something nice?”
She urged: “Let’s do better, not just for me, but for every young girl who deserves to grow up without the fear of being torn apart for simply existing.”
Brown first clapped back two months ago at trolls who claimed she looked like “a 40-year-old Jersey housewife.”
She snapped: “Women grow!! Not sorry about it.”
