‘Stranger Things’ Star’s Season 5 Look Sparks Lip-Filler Rumors

Millie Bobby Brown’s lips have been stealing the show in the fifth season of Stranger Things.

Fans have opined that the actress’s seemingly fuller lips this season are “distracting” from the storyline, as memes circulate suggesting Brown, 21, received lip-plumping injections. “I can’t get over how this little girl in Stranger Things looks like she has lip filler,” wrote one user on X.

Stranger Things fans lamented that they “couldn’t focus on the dialogue” because they were fixated on the star’s lips, with one user writing that Brown’s “face was a distraction in all her scenes.” On Reddit, a frustrated fan stated that they do not judge Brown, but felt that the show’s “dramatic scenes are ruined from the lack of movement & expression in her face.”

One person offered Netflix a suggested update to the platform’s talent agreements. “I genuinely think actors should sign contracts that ensure they don’t get work done during a show’s run period,” they wrote.

Some users reacted more positively, though they were just as convinced that the star had work done to her lips. “Watching the new Stranger Things [episodes] and I’m kinda obsessed with Eleven coming back from the Upside Down with a fresh 2 [milliliter] of lip filler,” one wrote.

Brown, who reprises her role as 17-year-old Eleven in the show’s final season, has repeatedly called out the media for speculation about her appearance.

Since rising to stardom on the show—which premiered when Brown was just 12 years old—the actress has grown up. In May 2024, she married actor Jake Bongiovi, the son of legendary singer Jon Bon Jovi, and in August of this year, the pair adopted a daughter. Still, spending her adolescence in the spotlight has its downsides. Brown told British Vogue last month, “For some reason, people can’t seem to grow up with me. Instead, they act like I’m supposed to stay frozen in time… And because I don’t, I’m now a target.”

At just 16, in the wake of numerous headlines dissecting how she’s aged, Brown was already calling for more “kindness and support” for child actors growing up in the limelight. And though many fans agree the star has been unfairly targeted, more seem less willing to pause on their critiques when they feel the star’s appearance “distracts” from the series’ story.

The actress was similarly ridiculed when she debuted her platinum blonde hair in February, after which she told Vogue, “I was depressed for three, four days. I was crying every day.”

Brown has never revealed whether she’s indulged, but her latest Tonight Show appearance added more fuel to the rumor mill. Earlier this month, after Fallon joked that Stranger Things villain Vecna looked thinner this season and may be “on Ozempic,” Brown quipped. “It’s funny that people are commenting on Vecna’s body. I mean, God help him if he gets a little lip filler.”

And while the star may have been teasing that her Season 5, Volume 2 lips were going to be a bit poutier to soften the blow, online fans seem anything but softened on the matter. Brown insisted to Vogue, however, that she’s willing to keep calling out her critics as needed, “not just for myself, but for every other girl who wants to try a new hairstyle or wear a red lip,” she said.

“It’s, like, get off my f***ing case, you know? I am 21. I am going to have fun and play and be myself.”