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A Gen Zer’s stark realization about how old she feels has gone viral online after she reflected on the passage of time while watching the hit TV series Stranger Things. Anastasiia Taranina (@ananasssme), 27, from London, U.K., sparked widespread nostalgia on TikTok when she shared her reflections on how much has changed since the series first premiered. “The fact that Millie Bobby Brown is a mom makes me feel so old I can’t even explain. I thought I was growing up together with the cast of Stranger Things, but it turned out I was getting old,” she captioned the video. Her post, which received more than 54,000 likes and 508,000 views, highlighted that the first season of Stranger Things aired before TikTok or Instagram Stories even existed. “I’ve been watching a lot of Stranger Things content recently—interviews where the cast members were reminiscing about moments from the previous seasons—and I suddenly realized how much time has passed. I know I’m not the only one feeling that way; I’ve seen lots of TikToks where people talk about how much has changed in the actors’ lives and how we’ve literally watched them grow up,” Taranina told Newsweek. At the time, The Vampire Diaries was still on television, pop stars Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter had yet to launch their music careers, and Barack Obama was still president of the United States. A split image of Anastasiia Taranina as she shared her musings on how old she felt. Created by Matt and Ross Duffer, Stranger Things first premiered on July 15, 2016, on Netflix. Set in the 1980s in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, the story follows a group of kids who encounter a girl with psychokinetic powers as they search for their missing friend and confront the terrifying alternate dimension known as the Upside Down. Taranina recalled that when the first season aired almost a decade ago, she herself was 19 and beginning university. Watching the actors grow up on screen reminded her of her own coming-of-age, prompting her to compare how much both her personal life and the world at large had changed over the show’s run. While many people idealize the past, she said her intention was simply to reflect on how different life feels now—not just in terms of technology and culture, but in how much older she and her peers have become. The content creator said the realization made her emotional. When the first season aired, she was a student in Moscow, and now she is married and living in London. She remembered watching the early seasons as a carefree university student, then the third one with her best friend right before their final exams. By the time the fourth season came around, she had moved countries and was watching with new friends—and her husband—in an entirely different stage of life. For her, the show had become a timeline of adulthood, underscoring how much can change in just a decade. Taranina admitted she has always been a nostalgic person, even as a teenager, but this reflection brought that feeling into sharper focus. She said she doesn’t particularly enjoy getting older—not because of physical changes, but because of the awareness that time with loved ones is finite. Living abroad means she only sees her family a few times a year, which she finds painful. She also reflected on aging in the context of pop culture, saying it saddens her to realize that the artists and actors she admires are growing older too, giving fans less time to enjoy their work. She expressed admiration for older performers who continue to thrive, citing Helen Mirren—and her performance in Collateral Beauty—as a source of inspiration when she feels sad about how quickly time passes. Her TikTok struck a chord with viewers who flooded the comments section with their own memories. One user wrote: “Gen Z knew Sabrina Carpenter from Disney lol.” “When Stranger Things came out I was in middle school and now I’m in my last year of university,” shared another user. “Millie Bobby Brown is hella young though,” said Cynthia. “I was 11 when Stranger Things one came out and then I’ll now I’ll be 20 when it ends. I spent my whole teens watching the show and being obsessed,” shared another viewer. “I watched season 1 with my ex husband and our kids were 7,10, and 12. We’ve been divorced eight years and I’ve been married to a woman for five years and our kids r now 16, 19, and 21, crazy,” shared another user. “I watched season 1 while I was pregnant with my first daughter…she’s 9 now,” said one user. Do you have any viral videos or pictures that you want to share? We want to see the best ones! Send them in to life@newsweek.com and they could appear on our site.
