Billie Eilish has candidly spoken out about her relationship with her body and the ways in which she has struggled with her body image throughout the years.
The Grammy-award winning artist is famed for her sense of style, which often revolves around baggy items.
The 22-year-old, who released her critically acclaimed album Hit Me Hard and Soft earlier this year, revealed the ways in which she dresses has changed over the years.
In a new interview, she told Complex: “What’s really interesting is that when I was a little girl, I loved big dresses. All I wore was fairy dresses and skirts. I never wore pants or shorts when I was a little kid.
“But when I got to be about 11, I got obsessed with this brand called Brandy Melville. And they only sold clothes in one size.
“I was chubbier and I was obsessed with these clothes, but I’d buy a shirt and it wouldn’t fit me. That’s when my body problems started. I was around the age of 10 or 11.
“I got boobs at like 9, and I was just developing really early. I wasn’t slim. Also, I was in ballet, and that’s this whole world of body problems.”
She then shared how this evolved further when she became famous.
Eilish added: “I was wearing all these baggy clothes, and it was my style, but at the same time, it was how I could feel comfortable in my body and not feel tied to how my body looks. I didn’t want my body to be part of my outfit. I wanted my outfit to be my outfit, and my body happens to be inside it.
“Then [my career] got to be big, and when I was around 16, I was put in such a box of, like, ‘Billie Eilish wears baggy clothes only. And she’s not a woman. And she doesn’t look like a girl. And she’s not desirable’. So when I made Happier Than Ever, I was kind of like, “OK, people have decided that I’m this one thing. And I am that thing. But I’m also all these other things.”
It’s a struggle many women will be able to relate to – and we commend Eilish for playing around with people’s expectations, as she pointed out later in the interview.
She said: “So of course, classic me, I had to go with the completely extreme version of it. I couldn’t just, like, wear a skirt once. I had to completely reverse everything and be this girly girl for a second and have these pink nails, blonde hair, skirts, dresses, button-ups, bras, and lingerie.
“I really just did it to prove a point. I was just like, ‘F**k you guys. I can do whatever I want. And then I can go back to what I was doing before, and you guys can eat it’. So even though it was a little extreme how I did it all, I feel really grateful for it.”
