Fourteen-year-old Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown – who just last week quit Twitter after her likeness was made into a homophobic meme – has used her MTV Movie and TV Awards acceptance speech to highlight the issue of bullying.
Brown sent in a video message to acknowledge her win for ‘Best Performance in a Show’, saying that she couldn’t attend the ceremony as she’s stuck at home in Atlanta nursing an injury: a split kneecap she posted about on the ‘Gram a few days ago.
After giving her thanks to the series’ creators, her fellow cast members and Netflix, Brown used her speech to call out bullying culture and to encourage fans to slide into her Insta DMs if they’re struggling.
Since I know there are many young people watching this, and even for the adults too, they could probably use the reminder that I was taught: if you don’t have anything nice to say, just don’t say it. There should be no space in this world for bullying, and I’m not going to tolerate it, and neither should any of you.
If you need a a reminder of how worthy you are – and to rise above the hate – message me on Instagram.
The callout seems to address the Twitter bullying she faced just last week, which led her to deactivate her main account @milliebbrown, and turn off comments on her Instagram page.
Users were taking images of Brown and overlaying them with anti-gay slurs – a troll’s attempt at ‘irony’, Brown being a vocal LGBTQI+ advocate and anti-bullying campaigner. It’s not even the first time they’ve pulled this stunt, with similar images lurking around the internet last November featuring homophobic and racist remarks attributed to Brown, using the hashtag #TakeDownMillieBobbyBrown.
Another Twitter-verified account @Milliestopshate, which aims to “share love and positivity” is still live on the site – although hasn’t been posted to since December last year.
Over the weekend Brown posted a video to Insty talking about her injury which also wished her cast mates the best of luck.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkDa1DzAZ_D/?hl=en&taken-by=milliebobbybrown
Care of Brown’s Insta Stories, you can share in all the joy of Brown’s winning moment, like how she was actually FaceTiming with one of her co-stars, Noah Schnapp, while her acceptance aired, which makes for an incredibly sweet piece of video footage. She also posted a big ol’ loving thank you to her fans, and a congratuwelldone to Schnapp for winning ‘Most Frightened Performance’ (what a category) and the rest of the Stranger Things gang.
Let’s all take Brown’s advice shall we and just be kind, please. Good, we’re agreed.
