The Brunch round-up: The week and how it made us feel

Millie Bobby Brown, 20 years old, has hit back at haters who said she looks twice her age. “Women grow!! Not sorry about it,” she’s posted on her story. It’s unfair to expect her to stay the 12-year-old Eleven we saw in Stranger Things. Her beauty line, Florence by Mills, doesn’t have anti-ageing stuff either. Maybe the trolls need to do some growing up, too.

Tom Holland has announced that whenever he becomes a dad, he’ll step back from the spotlight: “Golf and dad. And I’ll disappear off the face of the earth”. Okay, calm down, Tom. We love you, but we hardly see you anyway. How about you do more while you’re still around, so we can actually miss you later?

2025 has already blessed us with our first weird fashion trend: Tabi shoes, the ones with toe separators. They seem to be inspired by old-school Japanese socks, or the ones grandma wears with chappals on cold days. Brands say the shoes have more stability and balance. We’re saying they look uncomfortable. And ugly. Hard pass.

Attention, those in a situationship. If you’re planning to have a baby, know that the kid will be part of Gen Beta. He/she/they will likely live long enough to see the 22nd century. What awaits them? A smaller human population, jobs we haven’t invented yet, a climate change battle we lost and passed on to them, vacations in space, better healthcare, AI teachers. Damn, son.

Actor Chloë Grace Moretz snuck a ring pic into her end-of-year Insta carousel. Fans noticed, and believe she’s engaged to girlfriend Kate Harrison. The men are heartbroken. Has she been into women all these years? Women are heartbroken too. One commented: “Play ‘That Should Be Me’ by Justin Bieber”! The couple does look good together, though.

XO Kitty is back with Season 2, and not only do all the characters have a massive glow-up, there are hints of some new complicated love triangles. Kitty blows a flying kiss in the trailer, and it appears to land on Minho’s cheek, not her S1 BF Dae’s. Such validation for those of us with second-lead syndrome! Sorry, Dae. We love enemies-to-lovers more. #IYKYK

Perry, the real-life donkey who inspired Donkey in the Shrek movies, has passed away at age 30. Perry was five, and frolicking in his pasture in Bol Park, California when animators discovered him. The head shake, the trotting, the quirks, they’re all Perry’s mannerisms. RIP, OG Dunkäe. You’ll be missed.

Go on. Admit you were one of those weirdos who ate 12 grapes at midnight on Jan 1, making 12 wishes in accordance with the TikTok-famous Latin-American ritual? Did you pick specific colours of underwear for luck too? Apparently, yellow attracts money, red attracts love, and blue is for good health. Did it work? Are you rich now? Have you fallen in love? Did a single wish come true? At least you started 2025 eating healthy.