How Millie Bobby Brown’s Engagement Announcement Triggered Cultural Anxiety in Indians

Millie Bobby Brown announced her engagement on Tuesday and just became another trend for Indian social media.

Millie Bobby Brown a.k.a Eleven, from Stranger Things, broke the internet as she Taylored her caption announcing her engagement with her longtime boyfriend Jake Bongiovi. Bongiovi is the son of the famous American singer Jon Bon Jovi. The news was up on her Instagram on Tuesday, and since then people just could not keep calm. The couple posted images in a monochromatic black-and-white (aesthetic) but the vibrant hues of their love could be seen through it (inserting evil eye). And even if you scroll down their feeds, you might as well feel the palpable aura of warmth and love.

In this contemporary digital age, Twitter, and Instagram have become the new ‘newspaper’ (iykyk) and that’s often where breaking news and the latest trends first appear. And MBB’s engagement was not another celebrity life update but an update that became a trend. What made headlines is her age (but age is just a number, or is it?) – She is Just 19.

Eleven turned 19, got engaged and of course, there are 99 opinions about it.

She is Just 19?!

While people do say, her life-her rules, there will always be 99 opinions. Fans and the world doesn’t seem to sit very right with the idea that a young woman is engaged at the age of 19. They are too young to be married! This is not the right age! Who gets married at 19? These are some of those thoughts that have surfaced in various comment sections of various posts about her engagement.

Brown has been in the public eye since the tender age of 9 and her reel and real-life personas seemed to be morphed with the cultural anxieties for many. She decided for herself at 19 and people cannot sit right with that.

How it triggered cultural anxiety?

The Enola Holmes actress’ announcement has garnered all sorts of reactions. Why do fans and people seem to be too fixated on her decision at the age of 19 ONLY? It has been raining memes on Twitter and they actually tickle your funny bone. But today, crisis and gloomy moods are often blended and projected via memes. And so did this, the existential crisis button was hit and a wave of cultural anxiety emerged and how:

1.First, the fact she is just 19

19-year-olds are usually a fresh batch of young adults out of school trying to figure out their lives into college. Well, that’s at least the general notion, the general social construct in India. Until then, people are usually in a shell of their homes and are yet to navigate through the ways of the world and “settle in life” per se. They are still learning to come out of those cocoons.

These young adults are considered to still lack a sense of maturity, often still have to play by the rules of their parents and probably (for sure) don’t have the sense to get married and take that giant leap towards another milestone in their lives. Legally adults but just not enough to make important decisions in life like getting married!

2.The reel and real-life shenanigans

Social media is not only the modern age broadcast where news flashes first but it is also the place where people often like to put out their lives. Snapshots from that Maldives vacay, a BTS from a wedding, or simply life updates through photo dumps, social media is a new angle to life. This lead to people making a comparison between what others have and what they do not.

3.Brown is a woman engaged at 19

Eleven is no more an 11-year-old girl, but a woman of 19. Being exposed to the public domain, she has been privy to that public gaze. Gradually, she probably adult faster. A successful actress and an established businesswoman, Millie Bobby Brown also has her own range of health and wellness brands- Florencebymills. Too many accomplishments at 19!

4.Unable to detach from Eleven

Things turned upside down for fans when Eleven said she was engaged. ‘Stranger Things’ was a big hit and built a huge fandom around it. In such record-breaking series, as an audience, we often relate and associate with characters. It becomes a tad bit difficult to detach the character from the actor and see them as individuals capable of other things.

Similarly, with Eleven, somewhere the image of that young teenager still unconsciously plays in our minds, even when we see her being ready to take that big step in her life, which is exactly why her taking a big leap in her life as an adult is a little hard to digest.

5.The reality check

What do we think when we speak of getting married? There are certain checkboxes that need to be ticked, right? Like being financially stable, being settled in a career, maybe owning a home, and being able to fend for oneself. But if that is a social construct for Gen Z, Millie has probably ticked off most of these. She is a successful actor, and a businesswoman, and has found the love of her life. She has done her bit of hard work and invested her sweat and blood enough to be in the right space to get settled and we wish her all the luck and love. And what’s the right age to get married anyway? It’s when you feel right, about yourself, about where you are in life, and about the person you are getting married to. Your right is you!