Billie Eilish has revealed in a new interview that she has a “terrible relationship” with her body. The Happier Than Ever singer shared she compares herself to people online.
Billie Eilish got a handful of Grammy Awards at only 18. She got Grammys for Best New Artist and Best Song and Album of the Year. Now, she has just released her new album, Happier Than Ever.
But, despite all that success, the society has still a big impact on how Billie Eilish sees her body.
Known for her neon hair and baggy clothes, Billie Eilish changed it all this year, debuting a platinum blonde. She also wore tight clothes for a Vogue photoshoot, showing off her curves for the first time.
There’s been a constant struggle to shift the conversation from weight to talent, and artists feel the pressure all the time.
Billie commented on this aspect with The Guardian, and shared that she still compares herself to others.
“Since I was a kid, my dad and I have always talked about a certain type of person who’s so insecure, or hyperaware and self-conscious, that they never move in a weird way, or make a weird face, because they always want to look good. I’ve noticed that, and it makes me so sad. If you’re always standing a certain way, walking in a certain way, and always have your hair just so… It’s such a loss to always try to always look good. It’s such a loss of joy and freedom in your body.”
Billie continued that there are also unrealistic Instagram pictures that made her feel uncomfortable about her body: “I see people online, looking like I’ve never looked. And immediately I am like, oh my God, how do they look like that? I know the ins and outs of this industry, and what people actually use in photos, and I actually know what looks real can be fake. Yet I still see it and go, oh God, that makes me feel really bad. And I mean, I’m very confident in who I am, and I’m very happy with my life… I’m obviously not happy with my body. But who is?”
She also commented on her choice of baggy clothes on stage, that don’t show “everything:” “When I’m on stage, I have to disassociate from the ideas I have of my body. Especially because I wear clothes that are bigger and easier to move in without showing everything – they can be really unflattering. In pictures, they look like I don’t even know what. I just completely separate the two.”
Billie added: “Because I have such a terrible relationship with my body, like you would not believe, so I just have to disassociate… Then you get a paparazzi picture taken when you were running to the door and had just put anything on, and didn’t know the picture’s being taken, and you just look how you look, and everyone’s like, ‘Fat!’
“We only need bodies to eat and walk around and poop. We only need them to survive. It’s ridiculous that anybody even cares about bodies at all. Like, why? Why do we care? You know, when you really think about it?”
She moves on to hair obsessions: “Why do we care about hair? Why does everybody hate body hair so much, but we literally have an enormous thing of hair on our heads, and that’s, like, cool and pretty. Like, what’s the difference? I mean, I love hair, and I do crazy things with my hair. I’m as guilty as everybody else. But it’s so weird. If you think about it hard, you go crazy.”
