Millie Bobby Brown did nothing to deserve the hate she’s getting

The reaction to Millie’s look was perplexing and vile (Picture: ACPR/Cordon Press/BACKGRID)

Another day, another demand on women to look a certain way. This time Millie Bobby Brown is the target of the bored, insecure mob.

The 21-year-old – who recently caused an online uproar for getting married (how dare she!) – took to the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of her new Netflix film The Electric State in a gorgeous textured golden gown and chunky necklace.

She also unveiled a blonde hair transformation, which was apparently the most controversial thing to happen in Hollywood since the dawn of the red carpet. The reaction to Millie’s look was perplexing and vile.

‘Man either she has to fire her stylist or she’s aging terribly,’ said one X user in the septic tank that is X, where all the bacteria go to huddle and vibrate with excitement over tearing down women.

‘So happy she turned 40 so I can hit on her now,’ added another, while someone else said her skin was ‘so bad’.

‘She looks so old,’ said a hater, while another critic added: ‘She’s too young to look this old. They aren’t styling her appropriately.’

Even if she was 12, she can dress however she likes (Picture: LISA O’CONNOR/AFP via Getty Images)

Others compared her to 63-year-old White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge. Come on, really?

She’s 21! She’s a grown woman who can dress however the hell she likes.

Even if she was 12, she can dress however she likes. Quite honestly, even if she rocked up in a bin bag, we should not be tearing apart women for their appearance in 2025.

Millie’s Stranger Things male co-stars of a similar age – like Noah Schnapp, Finn Wolfhard, and Gaten Matarazzo – haven’t sparked the same outrage when taking to the red carpet dressed to the nines in Dior suits.

But because Millie is a woman who grew up in the spotlight – starring as Eleven from the age of 11 – she’s apparently not allowed to grow up like them.

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We’ve seen it before with the likes of Emma Watson in Harry Potter – who was sexualised and prodded from a young age, while her male co-stars were crowd-surfed into adulthood – and we will see it again.

What is ‘appropriate’ anyway? It seems to change from woman to woman on the knee-jerk whim of a load of spiteful losers.

God forbid if Millie was to turn up to her premiere dressed like an average 21-year-old woman of 2025 – who, with 90s and 00s looks all the rage, are in their crop top era. I bet if she did that Millie would be told by the internet to ‘cover up!’

And remember the backlash Madonna has suffered for decades for her risque bodysuits and latex looks? The sad people on the internet said she was far too old to be revealing so much of herself.

There is no way to win (Picture: Instagram/@milliebobbybrown) Comment nowWhat do you think about the way Millie is treated compared to her male co-stars?Comment Now

But I’ll bet if the 66-year-old pop icon was spotted out and about dressed in a cardigan, floral tea-length skirt, Clarks shoes and thick skin-coloured tights, everyone would ridicule her all the same: ‘Dress like a younger woman! Dress like an older woman! No, I mean dress your age… But not like that!’

So what can we do? There is no way to win.

The lyrics to Lola Young’s hit song Messy comes to mind: ‘I’m too messy, then I’m too f***ing clean / You told me get a job then you ask where the hell I’ve been / And I’m too perfect ’til I open my big mouth / I want to be me, is that not allowed?’

The song’s success can be credited to its sentiment, which captures the reality of women everywhere, and thus plucked Lola from obscurity to number one overnight over the past month.

It perfectly encapsulates the whiplash women in 2025 feel under the pressure of the conflicting demands society places on us.

This time Millie is in the firing line, but it’s not really about her at all. It’s not about her face, hair or dress.

It’s about a lot of unhappy people filling their voids with nastiness. 

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