SICK sexual countdowns begin online as Millie Bobby Brown approaches 18th birthday
Trolls on the internet had been counting down the days to the moment they can 'legally sexualize' Millie Bobby Brown before the 'Stranger Things' star turns 18 this weekend.
Several sick countdowns began to surface on online forums as Brown's birthday approached, including an NSFW Reddit thread that was slated to open on her birthday. One Redditor explained that the forum would be “dedicated to sexual pictures of Millie" as thousands of potential subscribers waited for the content. Brown's 18th birthday was marked by older, male social media users sexualizing the young star, including inundating a birthday post she shared this weekend with sexual comments.
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It's worth noting that the sexualization of child stars and former child stars as their 18th birthday approaches has been going on for decades and predates the internet. Hollywood megastar Natalie Portman, who is now 40, revealed how her local radio station began a countdown for her 18th birthday shortly after her role at age 12 in the movie 'Léon: The Professional'.
Radio hosts started similar countdowns throughout the '90s and 2000s, targeting famous child stars such as the Olsen twins and Emma Watson. Mara Wilson, who shot to fame after starring in 'Matilda' in 1996, recently spoke about being "photoshopped into child porn" and “receiving all kinds of letters and messages online from grown men” even before she finished middle school.
"Even before I was out of middle school, I had been featured on foot fetish websites, photoshopped into child porn, 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 sexualize young girls in the media," she said at the time. "Commenting on a child's body, whether in a 'positive' or 'negative' way, in a sexualizing or pitying way, is still commenting on a child's body," she stressed.
Watson, who became a household name after her role in Harry Potter at age 10, also opened up about the way she was treated by the media when she turned 18. "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."
Similar 18th birthday countdowns have been created of late for contemporary stars such as Billie Eilish, who turned 18 in 2019. Meanwhile, rapper and social media personality Bhad Bhabie made $1 million within six hours of joining OnlyFans on her 18th birthday. In 2013, TMZ ran with the headline "53 DAYS" while displaying photos of Kendall Jenner in a bikini 53 days before her 18th birthday. Another company is said to have offered Jenner $1.8 million for her to star in a pornographic film with “a partner of her choosing” to mark her birthday.
As noted by Jezebel, the pressures of fame and creepy reactions from the public that child stars are subjected to carry lasting consequences for their mental health and safety. However, it's obvious that little has changed over the years when it comes to the sexualization of female child stars and the warped obsession of treating them as sexual objects.