It’s a running joke on the Internet that the Stranger Things kids are going to be approximately 45 years old by the time the final season airs. Like most good jokes, it’s funny because there’s a grain of truth to it: it’s been seven years since the show debuted on Netflix, and way more time has passed in the real world than in Hawkins, Indiana. Enough time, in fact, that breakout star Millie Bobby Brown is ready to pack it in. “When you’re ready, you’re like, ‘All right, let’s do this. Let’s tackle this last senior year. Let’s get out of here,’” she tells Glamour in a new interview. “Stranger Things takes up a lot of time to film and it’s preventing me from creating stories that I’m passionate about. So I’m ready to say, ‘Thank you, and goodbye.’”
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Brown previously trotted out the high school analogy in an interview with Women’s Wear Daily, explaining, “It’s been such a huge factor in part of my life, but it’s like graduating high school, it’s like senior year. You’re ready to go and blossom and flourish and you’re grateful for the time you’ve had, but it’s time to create your own message and live your own life.”
She is grateful that the show gave her “the tools and the resources to be a better actor,” but she also experienced unimaginable scrutiny when the series became a phenomenon; the criticism she faced as a kid for speaking excitedly on talk shows caused insecurity and rendered her quiet in future interviews. It’s made her protective of other child stars, she shares with Glamour: “You cannot speak on children that are underage. I mean, our brains physically have not grown yet. To diminish and practically stunt someone’s growth mentally, strip them down, tell them, ‘Hey, listen, you don’t look that great. Why are you wearing that? How dare you think you can wear that? How dare you say that?’”
The attention has closed off Brown’s personal life (“I don’t have a lot of friends”), though her professional life is thriving (she’s a UNICEF ambassador, has a makeup/coffee brand, and is starring in the Russo Brothers’ next film with Chris Pratt). Unfortunately, she’s still got Stranger Things to get out of the way, which can’t happen until the actors strike resolves. Unlike some stars when their hit show concludes, Brown isn’t in mourning over the situation: nobody’s dying, she says to Glamour. “When it ends, I’m going to be able to still see these people.”