Earlier this week, Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown turned 18, and while the birthday was an exciting milestone for the teenager, it was somewhat overshadowed by the disturbing behaviour of online predators. In fact, fans of the actor noticed a number of online forums counting down to Millie's 18th birthday – and they took to social media to call the behaviour out.
Sharing a screenshot on social site Reddit, where some of the countdowns had been hosted, one person exposed a thread that had been created to countdown until Millie turned 18. "NSFW subreddit created for a minor, Millie Bobby Brown," the user wrote, alongside a screenshot of the subreddit. "The subreddit has been created for weeks and is waiting to 'open' on her 18th birthday. It already has thousands of subscribers."
"I cannot believe I have to say this once again but stop being f**king creepy and weird about Millie Bobby Brown," said one person on Twitter, with another saying: "There’s a NSFW subreddit with a countdown to Millie Bobby Brown’s 18th birthday. Friendly reminder that disgusting men are everywhere and waiting for someone to turn 18 (WITH A COUNTDOWN!) doesn’t make you less creepy."
Since then, Reddit confirmed that the subreddit had been banned, and a spokesperson for the social platform told us: "Reddit's Content Policy prohibits any sexual or suggestive content involving minors or someone who appears to be a minor. In line with these policies, the community in question was banned. We will continue to enforce our policies across the platform."
Elsewhere on social media, people recalled other times child celebrities were sexualised ahead of their 18th birthday, including the likes of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Britney Spears and Emma Watson. The sexualisation of female child stars is something that Mara Wilson, best known for her role as Matilda, has spoken about previously, referencing her own experience.
"Even before I was out of middle school, I had been featured on foot fetish websites, photoshopped into child p*rn and received all kinds of letters and messages online from grown men," Mara told Elle in 2017. "What’s really at play here [is] the creepy, inappropriate public inclination to sexualise young girls in the media," she said at the time, not only of her experience but other child celebrities, including Millie.
"Commenting on a child's body, whether in a 'positive' or 'negative' way, in a sexualising or pitying way, is still commenting on a child's body," she emphasised.
Similarly Emma Watson, whose breakthrough role in Harry Potter came when she was just 10-years-old, has spoken about the way she was treated by the media in the lead up to, and shortly after, her 18th birthday.
"I remember on my 18th birthday I came out of my birthday party and photographers laid down on the pavement and took photographs up my skirt, which were then published on the front of the English tabloid [newspapers] the next morning," she said at a 2016 HeForShe press conference. "If they had published the photographs 24 hours earlier they would have been illegal, but because I had just turned 18 they were legal." It's worth noting that since 2019, upskirting – the act of taking unsolicited photographs up somebody's skirt – has been illegal in the UK.
News that some people were counting down to Millie's 18th birthday comes just weeks after a clip resurfaced in which Machine Gun Kelly made sexual comments about Kendall Jenner, who was underage at the time. In the clip, the musician asks if he is "counting down the days til she's 18?", to which he replies that he is "not waiting til she's 18."
Jade Biggs
Jade Biggs (she/her) is Cosmopolitan UK's Features Writer, covering everything from breaking news and latest royal gossip, to the health and fitness trends taking over your TikTok feed. She also works on first-person features and investigative long-reads, taking a deep-dive into mental health, celebrity culture and women's rights. Jade has been a journalist and content writer for ten years, and has interviewed leading researchers and doctors, high-profile influencers and fitness experts. She is a cat mum to four fur babies and is obsessed with Drag Race, bottomless brunches and wearing clothes only suitable for Bratz dolls. Follow her on Instagram or Twitter.
