WOMEN WE LOVE: Millie Bobby Brown
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Millie Bonnie Brown Bonjiovi, better known to her millions of fans as Millie Bobby Brown, has had a whirlwind 21 years. She stepped into the public spotlight in 2016 with her iconic breakout role as Eleven on Netflix’s "Stranger Things", and ever since then, she has continued the series, starred in several movies, started her own cosmetics and fashion brand, gotten married, and adopted more than 60 animals!
Brown moved to Los Angeles with her family in 2013 and she began her acting career. Her first foray to the small screen was on "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland", a spinoff of "Once Upon a Time", playing Young Alice. She had a few more guest roles over the years in shows like "NCIS" and "Modern Family" before landing the role of a lifetime at 12 years old for Netflix’s sci-fi horror series "Stranger Things".
Starring as Eleven thrust Brown into an international spotlight, and her performance on the show led to a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She then won, along with her co-stars, the Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. "Stranger Things" has been an international hit. Netflix revealed that the third season set their records with 40.7 million households watching it within four days of release. The fifth and final season is set to release in July, so we’ll see how that record holds up.
Following her meteoric rise to fame, Millie decided that she wanted to found a cosmetic brand targeted at people her own age. The brand Florence by Mills was born out of a desire to make young people feel good in their natural skin. “You don’t want to cover up your beauty,” Brown said. “You want to add to it. I think that’s what we’re missing.” Her love for animals has always been important to Brown, and she quickly decided that this brand would be 100% vegan and PETA cruelty-free. She has been the face of Florence by Mills since its inception in 2019, and in 2020 she acquired a majority stake in the company.
Also in 2019, after earning a supporting role in the big budget feature Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Brown landed her first leading role in a feature film as the titular character of Enola Holmes, playing the younger sister of the iconic literary detectives Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. This was also Brown’s first producer credit. She and her sister had read the first of the Enola Holmes mystery novels by Nancy Springer and knew they wanted to bring it to life. After shopping the idea around, the film was picked up by Legendary Studios. While telling a story to inspire young girls, then-16-year-old Brown felt inspired herself. “I definitely felt like I was being taken seriously,” Brown said. “My age and my gender weren’t defining the words coming out of my mouth.” Brown also starred in and executive produced Enola Holmes 2 (2022), and a third movie is reportedly in development.
In 2024, Brown kept her focus on strong female characters by starring in Damsel. The twisted fairytale follows Princess Elodie, a damsel in distress with no one to rescue her. For a significant chunk of the movie, Brown is alone on screen fighting her way out of a dragon’s lair. Her anger, fear, pain, and hope carry the film. “The underbelly of the film is about female empowerment and equality,” Brown said. “I will always push that message wherever I can.”
And when it comes to female empowerment, that includes her own. Recently, Brown took to her Instagram to speak to her 63.3 million followers about some of the criticism she has recently faced in the media. She called out writers by name who had spoken harshly about her appearance on the press tour for her latest film, Electric State. “The fact that adult writers are spending their time dissecting my face, my body, my choices, it’s disturbing,” Brown said. “The fact that some of these articles are written by women? Even worse.” Preach, Millie!
When she’s not advancing her career, Millie Bobby Brown Bongiovi is at her Georgia farmhouse with her husband Jake Bongiovi. Jake is a model and actor and the son of iconic rock star Jon Bon Jovi. The couple first linked up on Instagram before being spotted together in June of 2021 in New York City. In April of 2023, the couple hinted at their engagement on Instagram before later confirming it, then getting married privately in 2024.
The pair run the animal rescue organization, Joey’s Friends, out of their shed, working to treat rescued animals before finding them forever homes. Brown has also been taking veterinary classes online at Purdue University since 2022. “I’m able to treat wounds, take their pulse, moderate blood pressure, things like that,” Brown said. “I do all their medical records myself.” These skills must come in handy considering the 62 animals that currently live on the farm, including dogs, cats, sheep, goats, and a donkey named Bernard.
We're waiting on the edge of our seats for "Stranger Things" Season 5, but in the meantime you can check out Netflix’s Electric State, a sci-fi adventure starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo. Then we’ll have to look out for what she does next, as we can’t imagine she’ll be slowing down anytime soon! Said the Russos, “She has characters in her that audiences cannot even guess at yet.”