“The influence of social media and the press had a negative effect on my mental health, and anxiety is still a huge battle I’m dealing with today,” the actor said.
Social media has become the peril of modern times, known to affect people worldwide, especially the impressionable ones who tend to think that the virtual lives of people reflected on social media platforms are the absolute truth. While teenagers and young adults fall prey to this, it tends to affect adults, too. In the past, many celebrities have spoken about this, with some of them even deactivating and deleting their accounts, and others going on a hiatus. Recently, actor Millie Bobby Brown shared just how much social media affects her.
The ‘Stranger Things‘ star, who is all of 19, has an immense global following. Currently, she commands 63.5 million followers on Instagram. But, she has been dealing with mental health issues lately, mainly anxiety. During her acceptance speech at Glamour‘s 2023 Women of the Year Awards event held in New York City earlier this week, Millie was quoted by international outlets as saying, “Growing up in the industry, I felt very aware of the feeling of rejection. As I was getting older, I started reading a variety of the things people were saying about me and felt that same feeling of rejection, like when I didn’t get an acting job. I felt alone in that feeling like no one else knew what I was going through.”
The actor, who plays ‘Eleven’ on the hit Netflix show, further said, “The influence of social media and the press had a negative effect on my mental health, and anxiety is still a huge battle I’m dealing with today. Luckily, with the love and support from my friends and family, I feel strong enough. I do not feel alone anymore.”
The ‘Enola Holmes’ actor also mentioned that she has been using her platform to help people struggling with that same feeling of loneliness, especially child actors, who get catapulted into fame fairly early in their lives. “Social media can be a detrimental place to the minds of my generation and the ones that come after. Mental health is not a taboo topic. It’s a necessary one. Remember, we are human beings,” she added.
Millie also mentioned that for eight years, she “wanted to sparkle, flourish and break out of the box everyone tried putting [her] in”. “I decided to be quiet when taking interviews and not say anything that could be twisted because I was scared. But that fire and free spirit in me was bursting to come out. It didn’t take long for me to finally realise I didn’t care, that who I was was enough,” the actor was quoted as saying.
In an interview with Glamour magazine, she also talked about her fianc Jake Bongiovi, 21, who apparently helped her love her true self. “When I met Jake, I just felt I could be loud. He embraced that and encouraged that. And I fell in love with myself while being with him.”
