Eleven.
Probably the number spoken most often in the world since the arrival of Stranger Things on our screens. We all – adults and children – fell in love with this group of young people who burst onto the screen from the first episode of the American series. And particularly for the character of Eleven, played by British actress Millie Bobby Brown.
Shaved hair, intelligent look, she is “one of the boys”, with her personality and her striking powers.
She was only twelve years old when Stranger Things was launched and, since then, the entire planet has seen her become a woman. So fast. Like Emma Watson, who had first been Hermione.
If I’m talking to you about these young women, it’s because while doing my personal assessment of the year 2023 a few days ago, I surprised myself by stopping at this number, eleven, which is the current age of my daughter and my daughter-in-law. Time and time again in recent months, it has struck me: it truly is the most fascinating age there is.
At the start of the new year, I would like us to pay tribute to these children who, at the end of the summer, will enter secondary school.
Just before having to stay at home for more than a month for the strike and the holidays, they took giant steps: visiting secondary schools, taking “decisive” exams, making choices (or having them imposed on them). ).
Yes, while they still sometimes have their baby face, they are already talking about the future. Some even worry about this one. With their long growing legs, they could still run for a long time in this schoolyard which has become a second home, with habits, another family to which we will have to say goodbye. Besides, I thought about this: why don’t we say “recess” anymore in high school? The recess bell becomes “go to break”. We have less than fun ?
Anyway, I was watching my daughter play Nirvana at drumand then went to give Tigger a hug, and I said to myself that eleven years is a strange time, the same.
You start getting twenty dollar bills at Christmas, but you also know now that there is a $30,000 difference between public and private.
You borrow laundry from your parents, the t-shirts you find coolbut you also want to receive gift certificates, to go and choose the clothes that will be yours, chosen by you.
You think you’re dating someone because you have a kick above.
You read Sarah-Maude Beauchesne, but you also watch Ninjago with your little brother.
You still want to believe in Santa Claus, perhaps you even write to him, but you will choose in advance the cosmetic products that you will receive, at the pharmacy, with your grandmother.
(Millie Bobby Brown’s line, obviously).
And I, girls, suddenly see in your faces, while chatting with you, both the features that defined you as a child and those that you will have when you are even older.
Come on, there’s still one holiday weekend left before you go back to your last year of elementary school… We’re going to watch a film together called The summer of my eleventh birthday.