'It's really hard to be hated': Millie Bobby Brown reveals she sought therapy to deal with cyberbullying
ATLANTA, GEORGIA: Millie Bobby Brown opened up about the negative impact social media had on her life after the triumph of her breakthrough role as Eleven in 'Stranger Things.' The 18-year-old claimed she had to seek mental help to deal with the persistent cyberbullying she faced as the Netflix series rose to international acclaim.
In an interview with the magazine Allure, Brown stated, "It's really hard to be hated on when you don't know who you are yet. Then you just start shutting down because you're like, 'Who am I? Who do I need them for?'" Brown claimed that the amount of bullying she experienced as a child actor had a negative impact on her, which led her to decide to stop using social media.
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Brown, who was just 12 years old when she landed the most significant role of her acting career, claimed that she has no social media on her phone. She had deleted all of her accounts, with the exception of Facebook and Instagram, both of which are handled by someone else. In order to deal with the bullying, she decided to go to therapy as a result.
The 'Enola Homes' star has faced improper sexualization for years despite her best efforts to ignore it; unfortunately, the effects of harassment and trolling have been drastic. Millie had been receiving angry threats, abusive comments, and even NSFW screeds from adult men on Twitter and TikTok before she deleted them.
The Florence by Mills website's blog articles, which resemble journal entries, is now the only way Brown interacts with her admirers directly. Because "nobody can comment," as she puts it, it works. The 'Stranger Things' star acknowledged that the road had been challenging and expressed her gratitude to her family and friends for their assistance.
Brown went on to say that avoiding social media has helped her flourish. "I started growing more, and my family and friends really helped me," Brown stated. "It helped me understand that I didn't have to be anything they said I should be. I just needed to grow within myself. That's what I did. That's what I'm doing."
Brown discussed her relationship with TikTok celebrity Hunter Ecimovic later in the interview, calling it an "unhealthy situation." She also discussed her choice to break up with Ecimovic in January 2021. "Also, no one on the set knew I was going through this. So it was kind of nice to be able to just deal with that myself and no one else knew," Brown said. "Then it was harder when the whole world knew."
Ecimovic, who Millie jovially refers to as a "blip," went live on social media in July 2021 and made ludicrously, damaging charges about the actor. Millie had started dating 20-year-old Jake Bongiovi, Jon Bon Jovi's older son by that point.
Analyzing the events in the past with deep introspection, Brown said: "It was a year of healing. When you get publicly humiliated this way, I felt so out of control and powerless. Walking away and knowing that I'm worth everything and this person didn't take anything from me, it felt very empowering. It felt like my life had finally turned a page and that I actually had ended a chapter that felt so f****** long."