What our fascination with famous young women getting married and having babies really means.

Millie Bobby Brown knows you have thoughts and feelings about her engagement.

The 19-year-old Stranger Things star is engaged to 21-year-old Jake Bongiovi, the son of Jon Bon Jovi, who she has been dating since 2021.

Yes, they're young. And yes, they could wait.

"It's not because I can't do it in 10 years; of course I can do it in 10 years," she said in a new cover interview with Glamour. "But why, when I know that it's going to work now? Just like Florence [by Mills, her beauty line] will be there in 10 years. You'll be able to see my movie in 10 years on TV. And I know that Jake and I will be okay."

Both she and Bongiovi have parents who married young and are still in love decades later.

"We were modelled wonderful, loving relationships so it's something that we both had that mutual drive for," she said. "His family were so wonderfully accepting of me and embraced me, and it's so nice to find a second family in that."

And it was her family that taught her that 'seize the day' attitude by making sacrifices so she could pursue acting.

"It's like, why wait?" she said of the engagement. "Let's go for it."

Brown is a child star who became a household name when she was only 12, thanks to her role as Eleven in Netflix's juggernaut Stranger Things. She's already a business owner, a producer and the youngest ever UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

She's also, presumably, really, really rich.

Nineteen is definitely young to get engaged. I'd even argue it's too young for pretty much everyone. But also, consider the fact that Brown doesn't live in the same world that we did at 19 or that other, non-Netflix-star 19-year-olds do now.

The barriers that non-famous young people have to overcome – like affordable housing, the cost-of-living and building a career – simply don't exist to her, and she's already achieved success in her field beyond most people's wildest dreams.

So, it makes sense that she's also ready to 'fast-forward' to live stages others wouldn't expect to reach until years later.

With each young Hollywood engagement, wedding or baby comes backlash, like allegations that celebrities are glamourising young parenthood or marriage, as if every young fan is going to rush into a marriage or baby because their favourite famous person did.

But on the other hand, there's opportunity.

Kylie Jenner — who, like Brown has been famous since she was a child — was only 20 years old when she had her first child, Stormi, now five. At 26, Jenner is a mother of two.

"Being a young mom just means we met a little early and I get to love you a little longer," she captioned a 2022 Mother's Day message to Stormi.

And just like, uh, practically everything in their orbit, Jenner's role as a mother has become integral to her very lucrative public brand.

Also consider the brands of other young, famous and married people.

Sofia Richie was 24 when she married Elliot Grainge earlier this year. Brooklyn Beckham was 23 when he married 27-year-old Nicola Peltz. 

And Hailey Bieber was just 21 when she married Justin Bieber, 24.

"I was married when I was 21, two months before I turned 22, which is insanely young," she reflected in 2021. "And sounds almost ridiculous when you say it out loud. Although I do think for somebody like me and somebody like Justin, [it's different]. We've seen a lot for our age. We have both lived enough life to know that's what we wanted."

They've all managed to use our fascination with their choice to be so publicly married at young ages to their own advantage.

Sofia Richie's online fame and fandom skyrocketed during the lead up to her wedding and she's now a TikTok icon.

 The Peltz Beckhams are the most Married People to have ever been married, scoring joint magazine covers in Vogue among other things. 

The Biebers have dealt with their fair share of mess, but Hailey's public profile in particular has risen, which has contribued to the success of her beauty brand Rhode, which she launched in 2022.

This isn't about contributing a woman's success to a man (or Brooklyn Beckham's to his wife); rather, it's about showing how highly discussed moments like a celebrity wedding can permanently alter someone's profile.

Brown has not shared any details on her and Bongiovi's wedding plans. After all, marriage was never her main driver.

"That wasn't my dream," she told Glamour. 

"My dream was to have a baby. I wanted to be the woman that my mum is to me and I wanted to be the woman that my grandmother was to me. So that was never my, like, intention, to be a wife. But after meeting Jake and seeing, 'Oh, I don't have to be this stereotypical wife for him. He doesn't want me to be that either. He wants me to go and do my thing and live my life, and he will hold my hand in the process of that.' I was like, 'Oh, I do want this.'"

We can judge her for these choices – whether we really have a right to or not.  But as young Hollywood has come to learn, the backlash is really just a mask for our fascination. And that's very good for business.

Feature image: Getty.