Billie Eilish has reflected on the impact that social media has had on her body image and claimed she “wouldn’t be able to exist” if she was growing up with the internet now.
The “Bad Guy” singer, 21, said that although she has had to deal with body-shaming comments online for years, they “still hurt” her feelings.
Speaking to US Vogue, Eilish said it was “tough” to deal with the negativity aimed at her via social media.
“Honestly, nobody can say anything about my body that I don’t have a stronger opinion about,” she said. “I also think that if I was younger, like if the internet talked about me the way they do now when I was 11, I don’t think I would be able to exist, to be honest.”
Eilish continued: “I like myself more than I used to and I’m more interested in how I feel than how they feel. But then also that might be a load of bulls*** because it still hurts my feelings like a son of a b****.”
The “Happier Than Ever” singer added that she has had a “rough time” receiving hatred from trolls online and she is “still figuring it out”.
“It’s really hard, you know? … But it’s definitely a weird life, I’ll say that,” she claimed.
Eilish has consistently faced scrutiny over her appearance and was branded a “sellout” for wearing more traditionally feminine clothing in recent years, having opted for baggy T-shirts and shorts when when she first started her career in music.
In May, she addressed online comments she had seen about her clothes on her Instagram Story and said: “I spent the first five years of my career getting absolutely OBLITERATED by you fools for being boy-ish and dressing how I did, and constantly being told I’d be hotter if I acted like a woman.
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“And now when I feel comfortable to wear anything remotely feminine or fitting, I CHANGED and am a sellout… and ‘What happened to her’.”
Eilish hit out at critics, branding them “true idiots” and “bozos” and called on them to just “let women exist”.
“FUN FACT! Did you know that women are multifaceted? Shocking, right?” she wrote sarcastically. “Believe it of not, women could be interested in multiple things.”
The Grammy-winning singer also spoke candidly about “hating” her body as a teenager. She was diagnosed with hypermobility syndrome, which is a connective tissue disorder that causes pain from very flexible joints.
She told US Vogue in January that she had a lot of “anger” towards her body and was “mad… at how much pain it’s caused me”.
“I felt like my body was gaslighting me for years,” she said, explaining that she had “to go through a process of being like, ‘My body is actually me. And it’s not out to get me’.”
