This story has a bad version. At the age of twelve, a young girl gets cast in a huge Netflix series, skips school, becomes entangled in brand deals and red carpet events, and somewhere along the line, education subtly fades from the picture. In Hollywood, that kind of plot is fairly typical. Millie Bobby Brown never quite allowed that to happen, which is what sets her path apart.
Born in Marbella, Spain, in 2004, Brown moved around a lot as a child, first to England and then to Florida. A traditional school schedule was practically unfeasible by the time Stranger Things catapulted her into true international fame in 2016. There wasn’t much space for a typical classroom setup because of filming, press tours, modeling campaigns, and an early beauty product business. Her family decided to homeschool, a decision made by many young performers.
It’s worthwhile to consider the practical implications of that. For a child actor who works, homeschooling isn’t exactly a comfortable kitchen table with textbooks. With tutors and online resources filling in the gaps that a traditional school day would typically cover, the education is pieced together between takes, across time zones. It’s really difficult to determine whether that’s a better or worse experience than sitting in a classroom. However, Brown seems to have found success with it, or at the very least, it prevented her from falling behind.
What she decided to do after gaining more autonomy over her own schedule is more revealing. Brown started taking online classes at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, in 2022. During an interview with Allure magazine, she brought it up almost casually, describing it as something she was just doing rather than a PR stunt or a well-planned announcement. Her field of study was human services, which she defined as helping young people and comprehending systems. The choice of subject felt less like a random academic interest and more like something personal given the kind of public scrutiny she’d experienced since childhood, including online harassment and what she’s called inappropriate sexualization by media and users alike.
The Purdue connection has a subtle irony that is difficult to overlook. Purdue, an Indiana university, has already made appearances in Stranger Things, including on a shirt in Season 3. The show is set in the made-up Indiana town of Hawkins. It’s unlikely that that had an impact on her choice, but it creates an odd and satisfying loop.
The story of Millie Bobby Brown’s education isn’t one of overcoming adversity or dramatic reinvention. It’s more genuine and modest than that. Her career required her to be homeschooled. She wanted to continue learning, so she enrolled in college. It appears that neither choice was made with optics in mind. She and her husband, Jake Bongiovi, welcomed a daughter in August 2025. Studying human services online while filming major productions and raising a new adopted daughter suggests someone attempting to create something more than a career.
Given the pressures she’s faced since she was barely a teenager, it’s easy to forget how uncommon that kind of intentionality is at her age. For young stars, fame has a way of making schooling seem optional. It obviously never did for Brown.
