It is hard to look anywhere in Hollywood without seeing the impact of the five teenagers who have collectively become known as “the Stranger Things kids.” They’ve taken over the Emmys stage with a killer rendition of “Uptown Funk,” and even earned a cosign from Nicolas Ghesquière, the creative director of Louis Vuitton. In short, they’ve been an instant phenomenon since the moment their show debuted on Netflix this summer. And at the core of the viral juggernaut are five kids — Millie Bobby Brown, 12; Caleb McLaughlin, 14; Gaten Matarazzo, 14; Noah Schnapp, 12; and Finn Wolfhard, 13 — who are… well, just enjoying being kids.

Teen Vogue caught up with the rising stars to talk about how they balanced the very real middle school drama of Hawkins, Indiana, with the paranormal fright of the Upside Down’s monster, how they keep connected while navigating the spotlight together, and what they hope happens in season 2 of the show.

Teen Vogue: Stranger Things is really driven by the friendship between these kids. How does it feel to be at the center of it all?

Finn Wolfhard: It feels amazing.

Caleb McLaughlin: Yeah, it feels pretty cool. I didn't even realize [the amount of] attention that everyone has been paying [to the show], but it's pretty cool being a kid in this amazing project.

Gaten Matarazzo: Yeah, it's definitely a good feeling to be part of such a big project and [to be] beloved characters in a big project like this. I was really honored to be part of the project.

Noah Schnapp: I went to camp and I came back, and I saw that people from across the world were watching the show, and everyone was interacting with us on social media. I was so happy and amazed by how far the show had gone.

TV: In the beginning of the story, Eleven is very much an outsider but the boys pull her into their friendship group. How did you figure out that dynamic and build off that?

Millie Bobby Brown: We created a group chat, earlier on when we all got the job, so I kind of thought I knew them already. We also had school before we actually filmed this, [so] we knew who the prankster was, we knew who the sensible one was… It just really showed on camera.