Millie Bobby Brown, the latest influencer to hawk Sugar Bear Hair vitamins, attended the Time 100 Gala alongside a number of celebrities, but, most importantly, Emma Gonzalez, the Parkland survivor whose shaved head has become an emblem of teen activism in the past two months. Brown, who is 14, was the youngest person honoured last night.
"To be the youngest honouree this evening was not only extremely special but it meant a lot to share this with you all," Brown wrote in an Instagram story last night. "Influence is a very meaningful word and I don't know how I fit in the criteria of that word, but that you #time for thinking differently."
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Brown stars as the superpowered Eleven in Netflix's Stranger Things. She rose to prominence in 2016 when the show debuted, making waves in the television space with its extreme '80s nostalgia. When the show premiered, she was just 12, and had yet to take a leading role in a television show. Last year, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her role in Stranger Things. Today, she has over 16 million followers on Instagram. Safe to say, Brown, one of only a handful of teen idols, is influential.
Gonzalez was one of five Parkland survivors honoured in the Time 100 issue. She appeared alongside David Hogg, Jaclyn Corin, Alex Wind, and Cameron Kasky — all students who made gun violence their mission after the tragic events of February 14, 2018.
On Instagram, Brown joked that she and Gonzalez were "shaved head girls." Brown shaved her head for the first season of Stranger Things because her character was a scientific experiment. Gonzalez told the Sun Sentinel that she shaved her head because she lives in Florida.
"It’s Florida. Hair is just an extra sweater I’m forced to wear," she explained.
Millie Bobby Brown lives in Atlanta, Georgia — maybe she'll take the same tack, eventually.
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