And you have to shave your head for this. How was that? Um, interesting. My name is
Millie Brown. I'm 11 years old. Do you think we'll see a season two of this?
And the actor goes to:
Stranger things. Now you're known around the world. Please welcome,
Millie Bobby Brown. Millie Bobby Brown!
Millie Bobby Brown!
And I started to get like a hundred thousand followers. Two hundred and I hit a million
and then two million, 3.3 million. And Paul, Zac Efron, you know they're tweeting
about us. Steven Spielberg said it's his favorite thing. You're one of the youngest
Emmy nominees. You're the youngest guest I've ever interviewed. You've won so many awards.
Millie Bobby Brown, a victim of cyber bullying crucified on the internet. It's the
huge double-edged sword of social media. In this case, with Millie Bobby Brown, people may forget
she's only 14 years old. So this is a lot for a teenager to deal with whether or not she's famous.
Hey guys, it's Donna. We've discussed online teen girl hate before
when I did a video about Jojo Siwa. But that was more in the realm of getting hate from
her peers because she was deviating from the social norms of what's acceptable as
a teen girl. Many condemned her for dressing and acting too young for her age.
The online hate toward Millie Bobby Brown is slightly different. You know, beside the fame
and celebrity status, Brown behaves in a way most 18 year olds pretty much would. So no deviation
from any social norms. Additionally, many public scandals Brown has been involved in are largely
the fault of the other party rather than her. These circumstances make the hate for Brown
kind of baffling. Of all her castmates, why does she receive the most criticism?
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There are a multitude of reasons why media figures may be irrationally disliked.
Critics, for example, often cite that James Corden is annoying. "Hello I'm James Corden.
Do you wanna hear my stupid jokes? Do you wanna hear my stupid jokes?" Talks over guests, is
too much of a show-off during carpool karaoke, and his nice guy act?
All a facade. While judgment is inevitable for all those who stand on a stage,
I find a lot of judgment on particular famous teen girls to be quite baffling.
And I get it. That song by Rebecca Black was pretty annoying.
How could you not comment on Bad Baby acting like this when she was 12. "The hoes are laughing? Yep.
So the audience are a bunch of hoes. Yeah." And I can sort of see the perspective from the angry
parent when Miley Cyrus started performing um adult acts during the MTV music video awards.
That's a tad bit controversial when you just wrapped a kids program.
Well, any sort of online harassment is never justified. Some of that online critique is
pretty reasonable. "Say what?"
However today's video isn't about whether these critiques are right or wrong. Today we
are talking about public figures who have almost no underlying reason for criticism yet still get
the same amount of public disapproval, if not more. They get called out for having their feet
on the dashboard in an ad and their typos. Yes, they get called out for their typos.
The best showcase to examine this quandary is "Stranger Things" star Millie Bobby Brown.
"One problem. Hold on, lemme talk Millie. Millie lemme talk. Millie lemme talk. No,
No. Hold on. One second. Now, I'm gonna start talking. Hey, shut up Noah. No I'm gonna start."
"When I was little, I went on a press tour and I have four incredible boys that I work with.
Yeah. And i would get really excited because i have so much to say. And then I would be like,
oh god and I would talk over them. And they would also talk over me, but it was kind of like,
we were 12. Yeah. And I got absolutely so heavily bullied by the media for doing it
and I never spoke again in interviews because I just didn't want to even acknowledge the
fact that I was even in the interview. So I would just sit there, deer in the headlights.
"Millie bobby brown is the most annoying and over-the-top child actress in years." I've really
enjoyed 'Stranger Things,' however she is not the phenomenal actress that people make her out to be.
Millie Bobby Brown. 18 year old girl or 40 year old woman? Millie Bobby Brown is a
terrible actress. Bad actress, is super annoying. I don't get the hype around Millie Bobby Brown."
From dedicated Reddit posts to random podcasts, the disdain for Brown is not hard to find. "Millie
Bobby Brown's kind of a b__. We thought so. So we were thinking. So we watched "Hot Ones" and
we're like yeah she's probably kind of a b__. She kind of seems like she's a b__."
There are even videos that hit millions of views that are dedicated to showcasing her flaws.
Let's actually go over her main criticism, shall we? According to one of these videos,
do any of these points have validity? Okay, so this video has 10 million views and it's called
"Millie Bobby Brown in Real Life is so Rude."
First glance at it comments are off, so i'm guessing all their points were dumb that
they had to turn the comments off. Uh, you can tell this is going to be a hit piece when it's
titled "What Millie Bobby Brown is Really Like when the Cameras are Off." "The strangest thing
that people have found out about Millie Bobby Brown is probably her friendship with Drake."
From what I remember, there was an interview uh where Millie Bobby Brown mentioned Drake.
"You know we text. We just texted each other the other day and he was like,
'I miss you so much.' I was like 'I miss you more.' What advice does he give you? Like,
what does he say? Uh, about boys. He helps me. What? Yeah yeah yeah. He's great. He's
wonderful. I love him. What's his advice on boys? You know, that stays in the text messages."
Everyone thought it was weird that a grown man was texting a kid about this. Which yes,
it is. But I feel like this is more Drake's fault so I'm not sure why this is in the video.
"That she believes the Earth is flat." Okay, you have to expect some criticism for that take. But
I think if you're sitting there seething in anger and triggered,
you might wanna check yourself. Just a kid saying kid things.
This was when Millie Bobby Brown decided that she would rather have all the attention on her
and started making faces and interrupting David in the middle of his speech. The young
girl even hopped out of her chair and physically stopped David from finishing what he was saying.
To me, it looks like they're joking around. He doesn't seem bothered. There are multiple videos
on the internet showing the teenage actress talking over or interrupting the other cast
members of "Stranger Things." This one I remember seeing a lot in the comments of early interviews.
I do feel like it's the job of the interviewer and their media coaches to handle, like the structure
of the interaction. Like all the interviews where they're kid kids. It always looks like
things are about to be out of control. You know, everyone's talking over each other
so yeah I think that should be handled by the interviewer. And you know,
media coaches. I'm just going to breeze by more of them because there are a lot.
They hate her because of what her siblings have said. They hate who she dates. This
one actually says "she chooses her man over her fans." It actually says that.
They hate that she spells stuff wrong. Okay. And then they hate her because she puts her
shoes on the dashboard and that doesn't promote safety. There are tons of these
videos that are dedicated to the criticism of Millie Bobby Brown. And they do well because
for some reason, many collectively have disdain for the "Stranger Things" star.
But one glance at these online slams should inform any reasonable viewer that,
you know, some of these matters are pretty trivial, not worth any sort of cancellation.
Typos, shoes on the dashboard, apparently promoting unsafe actions. This particular
complaint was blown so massively out of proportion the advertising standards
agency was forced to step in and clarify that the advertisement didn't breach any
safety concerns. Shocking. It's evident that the feedback Brown receives is unique to her. Viewer
outrage would never hit the peak that it has for Brown if any other party behaved as she did.
As we've already gone over, this is not the case of a teen girl being judged for deviating from the
social norms of being a teen girl. I.e Jojo Siwa acting too young for her age or Bad Baby acting
too old for her age. Brown seems like she behaves as any 18 year old would. If they were in her
position. I would probably go as far to say that she's more subdued than your average 18 year old.
Some would say the answer to this is fairly obvious and to that, I agree.
You can actually see it littered in this video here
called "Stranger Things Three Cast World Tour - Best Moments slash Netflix."
"This is the life I've always dreamed of. Imagine making people happy just because you exist,
that just by talking to someone you can make the best day of your life. I want to live like
this. I don't want to be forgotten. I want to mean something to everyone. I wish I was part of
the cast. I would be living my life. I love that they are having fun, but does anyone else feel
bad about their boring lives? Me watching this for the fifth time knowing that all it's gonna do
is make me jealous, but at the same time I can't stop watching because you mentally attach to them.
Is it just me? I would literally give the world to have a career and bond like theirs. I want to
be a famous actress so bad and be a part of things like this. This is all I want in life. Go on world
tours with my cast and have fun and do things like this. Oh I want to be an actress so bad.
Strange how this video made everybody including me feel jealous. These kids are living their dreams.
Going on exciting world tours and living off their fame; while the vast majority
of us are just getting on with our boring normal lives which are even more boring."
Yeah, it's jealousy. Even if that answer was apparent, it fails to answer the oddity of "Why
Millie Bobby Brown?" All of her castmates also possess a lifestyle that would make one feel
envious yet this is seen across the entertainment world. Certain teen girls
in the public eye receive more criticism than others. See Miley Cyrus versus Selena Gomez.
Britney Spears versus Christina Aguilera. Charlie D'Amelio versus every Tik-Toker out there.
Millie Bobby Brown is unfortunately an individual who lies on this side of the spectrum
where every move is judged, picked apart, and often spun negatively. So what is it
about Brown that causes an audience to despise her for essentially nothing?
There's this theory by psychologist Leon Fessinger and it's called Social Comparison
Theory. It essentially proposes that people have this innate drive to evaluate themselves
in comparison to others and it helps them evaluate where they stand.
So say you were an aspiring basketball player and you want to try out for the
team. Before doing that, you're going to subconsciously make an upward comparison
and compare yourself to the best player you know or the best player on the team.
Okay I'm not that good, but with a little more practice I can probably get to that level.
You may also make a downward comparison to the worst player you know or the worst player on
the team. I'm definitely better than him so if he can make it, I probably can too.
Now this psychological framework is normal, automatic, and helpful. It propels you to achieve
goals, while also keeping your expectations realistic so you're not wasting time.
If you feel your skills are not as good as the worst athlete you know,
you're probably gonna go practice more before trying out or you quit.
You automatically compare yourself to others in almost every area of life.
Relationships, career, education, looks, etc. Normally this happens in your isolated community.
The dilemma occurs when this framework is projected in media and all of a sudden,
social comparisons happen not just in your community but almost every community
across the globe. I believe this is what is happening to Millie Bobby Brown.
What happens next to this high achiever is something that is noted across a number of
different cultures. Crabs in a bucket. If one crab tries to escape by climbing out of the bucket,
others will pull it back down. In japan, they say the nail that sticks up gets hammered down.
In Australia and New Zealand, the tall poppy gets cut down.
Brown has undoubtedly reached the top in many areas of life
and has become a tall poppy when it comes to social comparisons.
Even though all her castmates are at a level many of us will never reach, because she is at the top;
people will tend to compare themselves to her. You will notice the same thing looking back at
these comparisons. The more disliked one is, also comparatively, the more popular of the two.
Now, usually they are disliked by people who are in their age range. Jojo Siwa says
the same thing. Yes, adults also criticize this demo, but it's often for reasons like
uh "We didn't do this back in my day" or you know it's usually for reasons they don't understand.
And "Ahh change is scary. TikTok". Pretty cut and dry. When the criticism is from your peers
and rooted from a place of social comparison that's when you get criticisms like this:
There is no reason for it. Social comparison theory also notes that downward comparisons
actually makes you feel better about your own abilities. So by putting a high achiever like
Millie Bobby Brown down, rhymes, and saying things like, "Oh at least I'm not like that."
You were actually making yourself feel mentally better. In fact, this study found a person's
attitudes towards tall poppies were related to that person's level of global self-esteem and
level of competence. The evidence indicated that those subjects with low global self-esteem and
low perceived personal competence were more likely to favor the fall of tall poppies. Those with high
global self-esteem and high perceived personal competence were more likely to favor their reward.
When a celebrity like Millie Bobby Brown doesn't really behave in a way that's too egregious,
that's when you get ridiculous criticisms. They're trivial. Most likely done because the
person needs to feel better about themselves and to do that they have to put the tall poppy down.
Now I asked you on Instagram "What celebrities do you
irrationally hate?" If you want to be part of the videos be sure to follow me on the 'gram.
Like i said in the beginning of the video, media figures are criticized for a number of reasons
not just social comparisons. So let's go through all the celebrities you
irrationally hate and see if it's because of social comparisons
or something else. As a child, I hated Anderson Cooper because my mom said she had a crush on him.
Camera Operator: "Maybe like for his dad."
Oedipus?
"E-Musk. People act like because he's rich he's suddenly the smartest person on Earth."
"All of them. I hate anyone doing better than me."
Social comparison, for sure, literally.
"Tom cruise, one look and I was angry."
Oh look here: "Millie Bobby Brown 'cause I was convinced
her British accent was fake (still not sure)." Maybe they're an offended British person.
"Ariana Grande, maybe because my ex was obsessed and I never found her amusing."
"Lebron because I'm a Warriors fan." Nah, he's just loyal to his team."
"Jake paul for his squeaky voice." Why is this weird?
"Google advertisement girl." Who's that?
Oh there's a Finn Wolfhard hater here.
"Finn Wolfhard because of his character Mike in 'Stranger Things'. Irrational,
I know." Actually, I agree. I don't hate Finn Wolfhard, but his character season 4. Eh.
There is a lot of Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift haters.
Okay so I remember watching Disney Channel or Nickelodeon as a kid and thinking if I were to
be famous I'd want to be the main protagonist's best friend or the comedic relief. At that age I
already felt like there was always this unbearable pressure on the main character. Even looking at
protagonists that were generally well liked such as Hillary duff and Miranda Cosgrove.
I always felt like their characters were more subdued to avoid general hate. Too loud and
talkative? You're annoying. Too scandalous? You're a w__. Even though your team built you that way.
There is a positive for Brown and others like her, though.
The hate doesn't last. You can already see the tide shifting in her most recent interviews.
With her audience defending her. I think a large part of that is just her viewers
maturing with her. Her notoriety began at 12 and now she's 18. I think as you grow older,
you naturally gain more confidence and that type of social comparison just naturally goes down.
That's the end of the video. I'll see you guys next time. Stay psyched.