On March 3rd, 2025, Millie Bobby Brown posted an Instagram video publicly shaming journalists who’d been criticizing and mocking her appearance. In the three-minute long video, she expressed the following, heartbreaking phrase: “It’s not journalism, it’s bullying.”
After openly exposing the authors of articles with cruel titles such as “Why are Gen Zers like Millie Bobby Brown aging so badly,” “What has Millie Bobby Brown done to her face,” and “Millie Bobby Brown mistaken for someone’s mom…”, she goes on to voice the struggles she has faced as an actress in Hollywood, especially as one who grew up in the spotlight.
Certainly, her fame skyrocketed when she was barely 12 years old with Netflix’s Stranger Things in 2016. Since then, the public has seen her grow from a little pre-adolescent girl to a now 22-year-old woman. “I refuse to apologize 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,” she mentioned. What follows is an emotional commentary on how the media often amplifies hate just for clicks, perpetuating a toxic, damaging cycle that constantly attacks women simply for existing.
This scrutiny isn’t new to Millie. She’s been criticized for getting married at a young age and for her outgoing personality — especially in press conferences and interviews. Similarly, at the premiere of Netflix’s The Electric State early last year, videos of her walking the red carpet were flooded with negative comments accusing her of looking several “decades older” than she actually is, while at the same time, also criticizing the actress for being “too young” when she announced she’d adopted a baby girl with her husband, Jake Bongiovi, just last summer.
Well, it’s been one year since the actress took to social media and directly confronted a narrative that had followed her for years. And yet, the problem still persists, because the tragic thing is that Millie’s story is not the only one, she’s just one of the most recent spokespersons of an ongoing issue that’s been prevalent in Hollywood for ages.
Take Beyoncé’s daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, for example. She has faced constant online criticism about her appearance as well. No matter how she dresses, fans online always find a reason to hate on her looks; with many often criticizing how she doesn’t look 12 years old and that her clothing is too mature for someone her age — which isn’t entirely true. Both in the 2025 Grammys, where she accompanied her nominated mother to the awards, and for the premiere of Mufasa: The Lion King, where she voiced Simba’s daughter, Kiara, she wore an elegant strapless gown that fell from her bodice to the floor. Still, instead of celebrating her accomplishments, critics chose to scrutinize and hyperfixate on her clothing.
Girls don’t mature at the same rate, some transition to adolescence quicker than others. And while I can’t deny that some young girls are succumbing to certain trends, such as heavy makeup, skincare, and dressing up in styles usually intended for grown ups, the fact that journalists and adults online are tearing down a teenager is disheartening — for her and for the community of young people who read and internalize these things.
I speak from experience. Puberty hit me hard as a kid, and while I don’t remember anyone saying anything specific, I can still recall the weird looks folks would give me whenever I wanted to do something meant for children. Their stares alone would remind me that I towered over the other kids, that I was simply too big, and that I should behave with more maturity than the rest. So I can’t imagine how it must feel to have people actually expressing those thoughts out loud, publishing them online for the world to dissect, like how they do with Blue Ivy.
Many people expect girls to mature faster. However, they aren’t allowed to grow physically without fear of being wrongly perceived, judged, and torn apart by the media as a whole. It’s even more distressing when the hate and disrespect is coming from women as well. I mean, more than half of the journalists that Millie mentioned in her video were women! Proving how sometimes, despite preaching that we’re “on the same team,” women can’t even find safety from scrutiny in their peers.
Men are not held to these standards as often or as strictly. The belief that girls mature faster than boys is often weaponized; it’s been happening for decades, both inside and outside of Hollywood. It’s a cycle. And every few years there’s a new unlucky girl that becomes prey to journalists like the ones Millie mentioned. They circle like vultures, waiting for their opportunity.
Billie Eilish has endured similar backlash for her style, which is a little tomboyish and different from how other female artists dress to red carpet events and award ceremonies. Emma Watson, Britney Spears, and even Brooke Shields — who was heavily sexualized from a young age — have all faced similar treatment. Shields, now 60 years old, has spoken about the blessings of aging and why she’s proud she looks her age despite her haters.
We often forget that these celebrities are human beings with feelings. It’s both unrealistic and extremely unfair of us to hold them to godlike standards. Journalism is more than clicks on a website; it’s about informing the public and ensuring transparency across different subjects — even within Hollywood. Commenting on girls’ and women’s appearances does nothing but create a scapegoat, a human sacrifice for netizens to devour as they doom scroll through social media, without ever questioning why this cycle persists in the first place.
Over half of the journalists Millie called out have apologized, with Lydia Hawken, author of “Why are Gen Zers like Millie Bobby Brown aging so badly,” even going as far as quitting from the Daily Mail. I hope public callouts like Millie’s keep happening. Perhaps over time they’ll be enough to inspire change. However, it’s up to us, the audience, as well. It’s now March 2026. The news cycle has moved on. The internet has found new scandals and people to obsess over. And yet, the scrutiny remains. For there to be real change, we must actually stop rewarding cruelty with clicks and decide that it’s no longer worth our attention.
As we celebrate Women’s History Month, honoring women’s achievements while refusing to participate in a culture that constantly tears them down, seems like a good way to start!