Stranger Things is a brilliant show in a lot of ways, but one of the main reasons is that the main kid characters are some of the best-written kid characters I've ever seen. Usually, in film and television made for adults, children are pure, innocent, naive little angels who need protecting, or whiny brats. The Stranger Things kids are neither of these things. They are humans with personalities and motivations.
In fact, I think adults can learn a lot from these kids. While nobody can stay a literal child forever, becoming a mature adult doesn't mean getting rid of or suppressing optimism, creativity, and resilience because those traits might be seen as "childish."
Optimism is one of those traits that is seen as inherently childish. Optimistic people are often seen as inexperienced, privileged, or sheltered. While that may be true of some, most optimistic people aren't blind to the dark side of life. Optimism is what keeps the Stranger Kids going. They don't give up, they keep trying until they find a way to solve the problem. Even in the ending of Season 1, after learning that the Upside Down had claimed one life and with the high possibility that their friend was dead, they still fought when it would have been easy to just leave town and never look back.
Creativity is another defining feature of childhood that seems to be frowned upon among adults unless one happens to be a famous artist. Weirdness is seen as a sign that something is wrong, rather than a new frontier to be explored. But to a kid, everything is new and weird. The Stranger Kids don't waste time denying the Upside Down's existence like the adults did, they understand it through the games they play and the stories they know, and they immediately start finding ways to fight back using the tools that are familiar to them: games and toys. Kiddie pool isolation tanks, Dungeons and Dragons battle plans, and capturing an alien larva in a Ghostbusters prop are just some examples of the innovative ways the Stranger Kids solve problems.
Resilience in the face of strange and scary situations is another thing that is surprisingly considered childish among some adults, who see it as "mature" to be defeated by life's problems and settle for a miserable situation. This is closely tied in with optimism but it is a different thing. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from a bad situation. Eleven, in particular, has this trait in spades.
She's gone through torture and experiments at a young age that would break most adults and in fact, did break her mother. Will has been captured twice and spent most of the second season possessed. While Eleven and Will both have PTSD, both are still able to rebuild their lives with the help of their friends.
I've had depression since my early teen years, and maybe even earlier, but I've relearned over the years how to see the world like I did when I was a child: opportunities instead of obstacles. I'm not there yet, but shows like this remind me that childhood is worth holding on to.
