How Millie Bobby Brown Choosing Adoption Over Surrogacy Sets Her Apart In Hollywood

For some, 21 might seem far too young to marry, let alone to mother. We live in a culture that whispers, you have time; live for yourself now. But for generations before us, women knew a different secret: that fullfilment is often found not in stretching out adolescence, but in pouring yourself out for others. How has today’s culture really served us? A Yale study shows female happiness has fallen drastically in both relative and absolute terms since our sexual “emancipation” in the 70s. Millie’s choice is countercultural, but it is also deeply human. 

Adoption is not modeled enough in our culture, often seen as a “last resort” or “back-up” if other means of procreation are unavailable, rather than a means to support and prioritize child welfare. We don’t know if Millie can’t have her own children, or simply was moved in compassion to do a great and selfless act regardless of her own fertility. Either way, in an age when Hollywood elites increasingly outsource pregnancy to women in financial desperation, Millie stands apart.  

Surrogacy, after all, is sold as liberation, yet it comes at a heavy cost. As seen in the parade of celebrities—from Kim Kardashian to Lily Collins—who hire women’s wombs for nine months, the transaction is not as glamorous as the Instagram reels suggest. 

In an age when Hollywood elites increasingly outsource pregnancy to women in financial desperation, Millie stands apart.  

Behind the glossy newborn portraits lies a darker reality: poor women, often driven by financial need, put their health and bodies on the line. They face heightened risks of pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, and even long-term trauma. And when the baby is born, the most innocent of all—the child herself—is wrenched from the only mother she has ever known. 

Science affirms what mothers instinctively know: bonding begins in the womb. Babies recognize their mother’s voice and scent. They are soothed by a hormonal symphony that unites them to the only woman they know. To intentionally sever this bond at birth is not compassion. It is commodification, and can have severe long-term effects on a child's psychological and physical health, including increased risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), separation anxiety, depression, and developmental delays, as well as increasing the likelihood of behavioral issues and attachment disorders later in childhood. Most recently, a major UN report highlighted these dangers, calling for a global ban on surrogacy to protect women and children.

Surrogacy prioritizes the desires of adults over the wellbeing of the baby, even if those desires are well-intentioned. 

Against this bleak backdrop, Millie’s decision shines. By adopting, she has given a child a home without exploiting another woman’s body or disrupting the natural bond of birth. She has prioritized the baby’s needs and welfare above her own— the pinnacle of successful parenting. 

Surrogacy intentionally causes a severance wound between baby and mother, and then places the child in the arms of the one who commissioned their trauma. Adoption takes a child who has suffered a separation trauma at the hands of another, and attempts only to heal their pain. Millie has not treated motherhood as a luxury good to be bought, but as a vocation to be embraced. In doing so, she has joined a long tradition of women who found their deepest joy in welcoming children early and wholeheartedly into their lives. 

Adoption takes a child who has suffered a separation trauma at the hands of another, and attempts only to heal their pain.

Millie Bobby Brown may be just 21, but she has had the wisdom to reject an industry that commodifies women and children, and instead embraced a child who needed a family. At a time when celebrities are normalizing the purchase of babies, Millie is modeling something better: that motherhood is not about products or contracts, but about love and selflessness. 

And in embracing that truth, Millie Bobby Brown has not only changed one child’s life—she has given us all a glimpse of what true womanhood can look like.