Billie Eilish expressed her feelings about online critics who body shame her in a new interview with British Vogue.
The 21-year-old pop music sensation – who was spotted hitting the gym this week – told the fashion publication she’s had a ‘rough time’ navigating hurtful comments.
‘Dude, I don’t even know. It’s tough, man,’ she said. ‘Honestly, nobody can say anything about my body that I don’t have a stronger opinion about.’
She added, ‘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.’
The hitmaker went on to admit, ‘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**t because it still hurts my feelings like a son of a b***h.’
Not easy: Billie Eilish expressed her feelings about online critics who body shame her in a new interview with British Vogue
Her 2021 Vogue look rocked the world: The 21-year-old pop music sensation – who was spotted hitting the gym this week – told the fashion publication she’s had a ‘rough time’ navigating hurtful comments
The star shared that she copes with the negativity by turning her focus to things like taking baths, spending time with friends, and taking her dogs for a walk.
Despite this, she said she stills struggles – ‘But it’s really hard, you know? I’ve had a rough time, TBH, and I’m still figuring it out. But it’s definitely a weird life; I’ll say that.’
Another step she’s taken to gain control is removing social media apps from her phone.
‘I don’t look at it anymore,’ Eilish noted on an episode of the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast.
‘I deleted it all off my phone, which is such a huge deal for me. Cause dude, you didn’t have the internet to grow up with,’ she explained.
‘For me, it was such a big part of – not my childhood, I wasn’t an iPad baby, thank god – but honestly, I feel like I grew up in the perfect time of the internet that it wasn’t so internet-y, I had such a childhood, and I was doing stuff all the time,’ she remembered.
The Grammy-winning music artist has long discussed her struggles with body image while living in the public eye.
In a 2019 conversation with Vanity Fair, the singer-songwriter revealed why she often turns to loose-fitting clothes.
‘To be quite honest with you, I only started wearing baggy clothes because of my body,’ she said at the time.
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Past statement: In 2019, Billie told Vanity Fair, ‘To be quite honest with you, I only started wearing baggy clothes because of my body’; pictured June 22 in Paris
Also in 2019, when starring in a Calvin Klein campaign, the Los Angeles native spoke about her clothing choices.
‘I never want the world to know everything about me. I mean, that’s why I wear big baggy clothes. Nobody can have an opinion because they haven’t seen what’s underneath, you know?’ she mused.
‘Nobody can be like, “Oh she’s slim-thick, she’s not slim-thick, she got a flat ass, she got a fat ass.” Nobody can say any of that because they don’t know,’ she continued.
More recently, the songstress has experimented with her fashion, opting to wear dresses and more form-fitting looks at times.
Back in May, Billie took to Instagram to respond to critics in a Stories post.
‘I spent the first 5 years of my career getting absolutely obliterated by you fools for being boy-ish and dressing how I did & constantly being told I’d be hotter if I acted like a woman,’ she wrote.
‘And now when I feel comfortable enough to wear anything remotely feminine or fitting, I changed and am a sellout. I can be both,’ she stated.