It may be 2025 but we are still fixated on aging. When ‘Stranger Things’ star Millie Bobby
Brown became the latest victim to cruel articles tearing down her appearance, women everywhere were all too familiar with the feeling.
As a woman, I sometimes find myself wondering do we really support one another
wholly and fully? We’re surrounded by the familiar concepts ‘girls supporting girls’,
empowerment and self-love, but do we practice what we preach? Or too often do we
label ourselves ‘girls girls’ while simultaneously engaging with content that brings
down a fellow woman?
On the 4 th of March actress Millie Bobby Brown posted a statement to her Instagram
page calling out a sleugh of recent, harmful articles discussing her looks, in particular
how she was aging. One article was titled ‘Why are Gen Zers like Millie Bobby Brown
ageing so badly?’ Another read, ‘What has Millie Bobby Brown done to her face?’
This is an all too familiar story of women being held to impossible standards and
being unfairly shamed the moment they change. Of course, Millie, who has been in
the public eye since the age of 10, has grown and evolved in those pivotal years of
adolescence, yet it is clear that the media’s outlook on women refused to grow and
evolve with her, instead staying stagnant in the archaic viewpoint that a woman’s
worth is tied to her looks.
Millie’s experience highlights a culture obsessed with youth. The Gen Z
experience is infiltrated by a surge of antiaging media; ‘Reasons why you
NEED to start using retinol’, ‘she looks amazing for 29!’ and ‘Oh My GOD I
hope I look as good as her when I’m her age’ (when talking about a 27 year
old) are just a few examples of the the anti-aging discourse that is so
prevalent on social media. Young people are being indoctrinated with the view
that any physical signs of aging should be avoided at all costs. The narrative
is being pushed that the worst thing that can happen to a woman is getting
older.
It’s a cycle we have all become familiar with, women being held to an
impossible standard and criticised the moment they change. It’s refreshing to
see Millie stand up for herself and call out these disgusting articles; in doing
so she shows women everywhere the power in being confident in your own
skin. It’s almost as if we are expected to stay frozen in time, never growing, never
changing, never evolving- God forbid we break the mold that society has put us in.
Yet, our ability to grow is what makes the human experience so beautiful- we are
never cemented in one place, one state of being for too long. So why does it seem
for women our growth is constantly stunted by the world around us?
The sad truth is that we seem to be consistently stuck in the same cycle of shaming
women for simply existing. Men are allowed to age gracefully, yet for women it’s like
we have a ticking bomb inside of us from the moment we reach adulthood.
As Millie stated in her response, it is disheartening to see that some of these
damaging articles tearing her down were written by women, a stark reminder that
despite discourse surrounding female empowerment, we are far from true liberation
from the shackles of the male influence. While these women no doubt deserve to be
called out, it is important to hold the men who engage in this anti-aging phenomenon
to the same standard. After all, these female journalists are just trying to find success
in a workforce that undoubtably still has a glass ceiling.
We live in a time where we are more connected than ever. We comment, we share,
we scroll- it’s easy to forget that words have power. A throw-away remark made
about someone will contribute to the way they see themselves. Although it may
seem arbitrary, the comment you make or the message you send all hold a sinister
power in influencing someone’s self-worth. We must do better, as women and as
people, and start showing up for one another in the way we always say we do.
“I refuse to apologise for growing up. I refuse to make myself smaller to fit the
unrealistic expectations of people who can’t handle seeing a girl become a
woman.”- Millie Bobby Brown