Billie Eilish Says She Has a 'Terrible Relationship' with Her Body

Billie Eilish is pulling back the curtain on a personal struggle. The Grammy winner, who just released her second studio album, "Happier Than Ever," revealed in a new interview with The Guardian that she is "obviously not happy with her body."

Discussing unrealistic beauty standards often displayed on social media, Eilish told The Guardian, "I see people online, looking like I've never looked." The 19-year-old pop star continued, "And immediately I am like, oh my God, how do they look like that? I know the ins and outs of this industry, and what people actually use in photos, and I actually know what looks real can be fake. Yet I still see it and go, oh God, that makes me feel really bad. And I mean, I'm very confident in who I am, and I'm very happy with my life… I'm obviously not happy with my body."

Eilish, who has performed in loose and oversized clothing, also explained how she often has to tune out negative self-talk. "When I'm on stage, I have to disassociate from the ideas I have of my body, especially because I wear clothes that are bigger and easier to move in without showing everything — they can be really unflattering," she told The Guardian. "In pictures, they look like I don't even know what. I just completely separate the two. Because I have such a terrible relationship with my body — like you would not believe — so I just have to disassociate."

Before the COVID-19 pandemic cut her tour short last spring, Eilish addressed her critics, who alternately attacked her for covering up and for showing even just a sliver of skin. In the short film, Not My Responsibility, which was released in May 2020, Eilish is seen removing her trademark oversized hoodie to reveal a black bra, telling the viewer, "The body I was born with, is it not what you wanted? If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman. If I shed the layers, I'm a slut." Eilish faced significant backlash again after shedding some layers on the June 2021 cover of Vogue UK, an incident she said made her "never want to post again." (Related: People Are Defending Billie Eilish After a Troll Objectified Her On Twitter)

When she isn't performing or otherwise in the public eye, Eilish is still at risk of criticism from strangers, thanks to simply being famous enough for photographers to pursue at her own house. "You get a paparazzi picture taken when you were running to the door and had just put anything on, and didn't know the picture's being taken, and you just look how you look, and everyone's like, 'Fat!'" Eilish told The Guardian. The trolling, the singer believes, is partly due to the false images of perfection that other celebrities project and essentially no one can attain. Eilish called out these pressures in her 2021 song "OverHeated," in which she asks, "Is it news? News to who? / That I really look just like the rest of you?"

"'OverHeated' applies to all the people who promote unattainable body standards," she explained to The Guardian. "It's completely fine to get work done — do this, do that, do what makes you feel happy. It's just when you deny it and say, 'Oh, I got this all on my own, and if you just tried harder, you could get it. That makes me literally furious. It is so bad for young women — and boys, too — to see that."

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The dissection of one's body is still very much perplexing to Eilish, who told The Guardian, "it's ridiculous that anybody even cares about bodies at all. Like, why? Why do we care? You know, when you really think about it?"

Eilish, who recently went blonde after trading in her signature black hair with green roots, continued, "Why do we care about hair? Why does everybody hate body hair so much, but we literally have an enormous thing of hair on our heads, and that's, like, cool and pretty. Like, what's the difference? I mean, I love hair, and I do crazy things with my hair. I'm as guilty as everybody else," she said. "But it's so weird. If you think about it hard, you go crazy."

Eilish has long been an open book when it comes to speaking out about her personal struggles. And while she's certainly taking everything day by day, she will forever have the support of her fans through it all.