Millie Bobby Brown Claims Stranger Things Has Limited Her Creatively: 'Thank You and Goodbye'

Stranger Things made Millie Bobby Brown a household name when she was just 12 years old — now, the 19-year-old actress is ready to move forward with a career outside of the Netflix hit's universe.

Comparing her feeling ahead of the show's final season to the way a senior in high school feels, Brown told Glamour: “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 continued, “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.’”

PEOPLE has reached out to Netflix for comment.

Brown noted that, along with the success of the show, she’s experienced plenty of public scrutiny and negative comments over the years.

According to Brown, she was called “an idiot,” “stupid” and “a brat” when she was just 13 years old — and was accused of “trying to steal the thunder” from her costars during Stranger Things press tours.

“We’re kids — we talk over each other,” Brown said. “I was just penalized for over-talking and oversharing and being too loud.”

“It’s hard to hear that at 13,” she continued. “You’re like, ‘I don’t want to ever talk again. I don’t want to be the loud person.”

She said she “couldn’t help but think” about those comments whenever she would do other interviews, and it affected the way she would present herself. “So I just remembered to stay silent and speak when I was spoken to, even though I was dying to join in. I just felt it wasn’t my turn,” Brown said.

However, she said the backlash she’s received has inspired her to take initiative to protect other child stars in the industry. 

“You cannot speak on children that are underage,” she told Glamour. “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 actress said that while she ultimately credits Stranger Things for giving her “the tools and the resources to be a better actor,” she isn’t mourning the show ending as she’s “going to be able to still see” her costars.

She is already working on expanding her portfolio with the Russo Brothers’ film The Electric State, in which she’s set to brush shoulders with Guardians of the Galaxy actor Chris Pratt. The experience is something she described to the outlet as “a very exciting opportunity I never thought I’d be able to have.”

Brown has also been growing outside of the acting sphere, launching her Florence by Mills beauty brand and recently publishing her first novel Nineteen Steps.

“It’s in me. It’s in my blood. I can’t sit still,” she said, describing her passion for her work. “It’s just a part of who I am.”

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Stranger Things' first four seasons are currently streaming on Netflix.