Millie Bobby Brown shares what she lost because of ‘Stranger Things'

Millie Bobby Brown has opened up about the unexpected downside of growing up on the Stranger Things set, and it turns out that spending her childhood surrounded by adults on a film crew came at a social cost she is still working through.

Speaking on Monday's episode of the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, the 22-year-old actress reflected on what she missed out on by not attending public school.

"Well, I didn't go to public school, so maybe a bit of socialization," she said, explaining how the gap has shown up in surprising ways.

"Sometimes, when fans come up to me, they'll be like: 'Millie!' And I'll be like, 'Ahh!' And it's not because I've… It's just I don't know how to react sometimes to people my own age. I have a harder time."

The root of it, she said, was the particular world she grew up in.

"I grew up with primarily men on crews, let's change that, men over 40 years old. So I heard a lot of adult talk growing up, and didn't really talk about the things you're meant to talk about as a kid."

The conversational gap this created is something she describes with characteristic self-awareness.

"You hear, 'Where's the grip? Let's grab a ladder,' you know, that's your whole conversation. So I could talk to that person extensively for hours about different lens changes and shots, but I can't talk to you about, 'Oh my god, what bars do you like around this area?!' I'm like, 'I don't know.'"

Her husband, Jake Bongiovi, son of Jon Bon Jovi, whom she married in May 2024, has apparently been a helpful counterbalance.

Brown described him as "the most social butterfly" and her "complete opposite," crediting his boarding school and college experience with giving him an ease around people she is still working to develop.

"When I met him, I really tried to lean in more to that. So I'm in my social era."

She also spoke about removing social media from her phone in 2021 and hiring a manager to handle her accounts. 

"I couldn't do it anymore. So I needed to hire someone, for my mental health, to take care of it for me." 

She was keen to stress, though, that she still writes her own captions. 

"I still want to feel connected to my fans… I don't want to see what people have to say about it because I don't care."

Brown played Eleven across all five seasons of Stranger Things, from 2016 to 2025. 

The end of the show hit harder than she expected. 

"It was very hard for me. I would not have expected that coming off of the show. I'm a very happy-go-lucky person," she admitted, saying she fell into "a slight depression" when filming wrapped.

She and Bongiovi announced last August that they had adopted a daughter, keeping her name and image private. 

It sounds like Brown is navigating the transition from child star to adult life with the same honesty she brings to everything else.