One blinks, and eight years slip by with the same stealth as a Demogorgon behind a lace curtain. Stranger Things premiered in July 2016, presenting children in 1983 who looked as though they required written permission to use the toaster, and now those same innocents have morphed into coiffed, red-carpet regulars. Finn Wolfhard has traded boyish timidity for leading-man hauteur, Noah Schnapp has exchanged vanishing acts for nuance, and Sadie Sink, Caleb McLaughlin, and Gaten Matarazzo have become positively luminous. One cannot blame a certain young heroine for feeling the tug.

Millie Bobby Brown, understandably wistful, recalled how microscopic she, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Caleb McLaughlin, and Gaten Matarazzo once seemed.

Millie Bobby Brown recently shared a sentimental Instagram Story that struck a chord with admirers, capturing the passage of time with a rather theatrical flair. The post placed two images side by side: an early Stranger Things season 2 red carpet photograph of Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, and Gaten Matarazzo as wide-eyed, pint-sized rising stars, contrasted with a recent red carpet moment featuring the same group looking refined, composed, and unmistakably adult. The comparison needed no elaborate caption to deliver its emotional impact.

Accompanying the images in Millie Bobby Brown's story was a fan tweet that read, “Oh… I wanted to sleep but I guess I am crying instead,” a reaction that appeared to summarize the collective emotional response. The humorous despair of the comment seemed to match what Millie Bobby Brown herself might have felt when confronted with such a dramatic visual reminder of time’s rather unkind speed, hinting that she, too, may have reached for a tissue rather than the pillow.

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In honor of Millie Bobby Brown’s nostalgic throwback post, fans are suddenly reminiscing about the cast’s glow-up from tiny Hawkins kids to near-season finale adults.

At the dawn of Stranger Things, the youthful cast resembled a troupe assembled from the lost-and-found of show business. Millie Bobby Brown had sampled roles and hardship in equal measure, Finn Wolfhard had wandered through The 100 and Supernatural like a polite Canadian ghost, and Noah Schnapp’s chief distinction was sounding remarkably like Charlie Brown’s confidant. Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin had conquered Broadway before puberty, and Sadie Sink arrived in Season 2 with the confidence of someone who had survived Annie.

Now, the fledglings have returned as swans with management teams. Brown commands Hollywood, commerce, and humanitarianism before the ink on her marriage certificate has dried, and even motherhood, as you can see in her photo dumps. Wolfhard alternates between films, guitars, and cinema verité, Matarazzo pirouettes back to Broadway, and Caleb McLaughlin releases music with the air of a man doing the world a favor. Schnapp studies at the University of Pennsylvania while selling virtue in snack form, and Sink collects critical praise, film roles, and fashion contracts as though hoarding rare orchids. One suspects the true Upside Down was witnessing this astonishing metamorphosis in real time.

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Did Millie Bobby Brown's Instagram story make you emotional, too? Let us know in the comments down below!