'Stranger Things' star Dacre Montgomery gets candid about anxiety, weight struggles as a kid
A Stranger Things star’s post about his childhood struggles is inspiring fans to share their own stories in which they’ve had to fight the feeling that they’re “not good enough.”
Dacre Montgomery, 24, is an Australian actor best known for his role of Billy Hargrove on Stranger Things. He took to Instagram on Monday to write about the difficult setbacks he faced tackling his weight, anxiety and academic performance throughout his teenage years.
“I had a really tough time in school. I was a big kid who loved drama,” he wrote. “I never got passing grades, I wasn’t popular or a gifted sports player. Girls were never interested in me. I suffered from anxiety from a young age.”
Montgomery shared a different hurdle he had to cross every year, but wrote that in the end he still believed in himself and never let anyone make him feel otherwise.
“When I was 15 I failed my high school drama exams. When I was 16 I was told I needed to loose weight. When I was 17 I was told I should go to drama school and train. When I was 18 I was fired from my job. When I was in drama school I was told to leave,” he wrote. “Well, you know what… I lost weight, I went to drama school and I never stopped wanting it, I never stopped being curious. I never let the failures get me down.”
People were inspired to share their own experiences, and spoke out in the comments section about their own successes and how thankful they are to the actor for opening up. One fan wrote that the post was the push they needed to “take a leap” and follow their own dream.
“I think my heart just exploded, you're an inspiration to thousands of people and it means the absolute world that you shared this piece of information about yourself,” the person commented. “I've reached a crossroads in my life between pursuing my dream or keeping in my comfortable corner, but now, with this very post, I'm going to take that leap and if I fall flat on my face, it's cool, I'll get up and try again.”
Another person shared a childhood story about teachers saying she wasn’t good enough.
“When I was a young orphan girl in China, I was told by my teachers that I would never succeed in America once they heard I was getting adopted,” the Instagram user wrote. “But now, I want to go up to them say, "look at me b———, I am a very motherf——— successful college student who's about to graduate within a year!"
A third person addressed Montgomery’s struggle with anxiety, writing that ‘you have to hustle hard’ to fight back during tough times.
“Negative people and failures always fill us with anxiety,” the comment reads. “That's why it's really important to believe in yourself in your darkest times. You have to hustle hard, fight back. Thank you for the message this will help a lot of people.”
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