Billie Eilish Said She Wouldn't Have Been Able to Handle the Criticism About Her Body If It Came When She Was Younger

"Nobody can say anything about my body that I don’t have a stronger opinion about."

Billie Eilish is just as well-known for her unique sense of style as she is for changing up that style whenever she damn well pleases. Case in point? She wore oversized Gucci everything for what felt like forever, swapped to Old Hollywood glam for the Met Gala one year and then this time around, went full-on goth glam. In a new interview with Vogue, the singer admitted that her transformations are a way for her to express herself and noted that having been in the music industry for so long (she's 21 now and started to arrive on the scene back when she was 13) hasn't made that time in the spotlight any easier, especially when it comes to everyone talking incessantly about her body.

billie eilish arrives for the 2023 Met Gala

ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

“Dude, I don’t even know. It’s tough, man,” Eilish said. “Honestly, nobody can say anything about my body that I don’t have a stronger opinion about […] I also think that if I was younger, like if the internet talked about me the way they do now when I was like 11, I don’t think I would be able to exist, to be honest.”

She went on to say that while she's been open about being able to brush off the comments in the past, they really do get to her. That brave front that we all see? Eilish admitted that even she can't ignore everything forever.

“I like myself more than I used to, and I’m more interested in how I feel than how they feel," she added. "But then also that might be a load of bullshit, because it still hurts my feelings like a sonofabitch.”

Billie Eilish attends The 2023 Met Gala

Cindy Ord/MG23/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

Eilish also spoke about her going from glam to, well, un-glam in the blink of an eye. While we were all oohing and aahing over her Simone Rocha look at the Met Gala, she couldn't wait to take it off afterwards and get into a sneakers.

“I went back to the hotel and was just like, get this offfff me!” she said. “I put on big North Face pants, a big zip-up jacket, a backward hat, and some Jordans — and that’s how I feel the best. I feel so powerful like that.” 

But because Eilish is all about dichotomies, she also noted that she's not against getting glam every once in a while and is even getting more and more comfortable embracing her super-feminine side, even if parts of that still scare her.

“I’m trying to be more comfortable wearing makeup, like a lot of makeup,” she said. “Obviously, I wear a little makeup all the time, but it’s just like, big faces of makeup … it’s something that I look up to, and I admire, and for me, I’m just like so scared of it.”

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