Yahoo Finance Billie Eilish Got Incredibly Vulnerable About That Viral Paparazzi Photo and Her "Horrible Body Relationship"
Back in October 2020, a rare paparazzi shot of Billie Eilish hit the web and went viral for the wrong reason. Eilish, who is usually clad in oversized shirts and baggy shorts, was captured in a tight-fitting tank top, and the body shamers had a field day. Of course, many more people of the internet came to the young star's defense, but no matter which way the scenario was sliced, we were all talking about Eilish's body.
"I think that the people around me were more worried about it than I was, because the reason I used to cut myself was because of my body," Eilish told Vanity Fair in her March 2021 feature interview. "To be quite honest with you, I only started wearing baggy clothes because of my body."
However, Eilish notes that her relationship with her body has improved since she first broke through the fame barrier in 2016 at just 15 years old. She's thankful that this internet gang-up about her body image happened now rather than back then.
"I was really, really glad though, mainly, that I'm in this place in my life, because if that had happened three years ago, when I was in the midst of my horrible body relationship—or dancing a ton, five years ago, I wasn't really eating," she told Vanity Fair. "I was, like, starving myself. I remember taking a pill that told me that it would make me lose weight and it only made me pee the bed—when I was 12...Yeah. I thought that I would be the only one dealing with my hatred for my body, but I guess the internet also hates my body. So that's great."
But after a moment, she corrects herself, "The internet hates women."
The baggy look has become her signature style, but it also acts as a shield to protect herself from being oversexualized and becoming tabloid fodder for, again, the wrong reason. Perhaps the more comfortable she becomes in her own skin as she continues to grow up, her style will change to reflect her evolving confidence. At only 19, she has plenty of time ahead of her to get comfortable.
