Millie Bobby Brown Knows Fans Are Interested In Her Personal Life. Why She’s Cut Back On Social Media Anyway

Millie Bobby Brown in a press image from Netflix as Eleven at school during Season 4 of Stranger Things.
(Image credit: Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2022)

Netflix’s mega-hit Stranger Things catapulted its cast into superstardom, and now these actors are household names. Of course, Millie Bobby Brown is one of the most well-known among the young performers in the ensemble, and she’s grown a social media following of over 63 million. With this fame, a lot of interest in her personal life has come with it, and she knows it. However, the actress/producer explained why she has cut back on her social media use, and why she is trying to keep a lot of her private life private. 

As we wait for Season 5 of Stranger Things and Millie Bobby Brown plans her wedding, she is also preparing to release her book Nineteen Steps in September, which is about her family history set in the 1940s. While opening up about this project, she also commented on being in the spotlight and trying to keep her personal life private. She told WWD:

I think it’s nice for people to have a look through a window and see how my heart is, because so many people love my characters and are interested in my characters. But for people to actually…I try to keep a lot of people out. I draw the curtains because I believe in privacy for my own sanity really, just to keep people out and lock that fence.

While she doesn't often post about her personal life anymore, when Brown got engaged to Jake Bongiovi in April, she posted about the exciting news on Instagram with a sweet Taylor Swift lyric as the caption. Obviously, the internet had a lot of thoughts about the Stranger Things star’s engagement, and the opinions came at her from both positive and negative directions. This is a good example of while the 19-year-old actress does receive tons of love, there will always be critics online making rude comments. 

As the article explains, and as you can see on Brown’s Instagram, her social media presence is made up of mostly pictures of dogs that are available for adoption and posts about her upcoming projects and collaborations, with an occasional post about Bongiovi here and there. She elaborated on her decision to not get too personal on social media, saying:

I personally feel it wasn’t adding anything to my life. And I felt positive when I didn’t have it on my phone. I just felt like I could live my life with more confidence and freedom, mental freedom [without social media]. I just feel better for it. But that doesn’t mean that the good social media I don’t get to see: I just have a wonderful team that kind of censors it all, so that I can protect myself.

The older cast of Stranger Things has talked about how the popularity of the show has impacted their own careers, and Matthew Modine noted that the fame these kids have reached can be “devastating.” Brown has also been open over the years about the challenges of being on social media as she commented about haters who called her out for her looks when she was younger. However, despite its challenges, based on the Enola Holmes star’s most recent comments, it seems like she knows people are interested in her, she has a good handle on her fame, and she uses her social media to promote what she truly cares about, animals and her work. 

At the moment, we don’t know when Season 5 of Stranger Things will be available. However, in the meantime, you can watch Millie Bobby Brown and the cast of the sci-fi smash with a Netflix subscription, and you’ll be able to get her book Nineteen Steps on September 12.

Riley Utley
Weekend Editor

Riley Utley is the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. She has written for national publications as well as daily and alt-weekly newspapers in Spokane, Washington, Syracuse, New York and Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated with her master’s degree in arts journalism and communications from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Since joining the CB team she has covered numerous TV shows and movies -- including her personal favorite shows Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She also has followed and consistently written about everything from Taylor Swift to Fire Country, and she's enjoyed every second of it.