At just 19 years old, Billie Eilish is already a music industry veteran: She released the career-launching song “Ocean Eyes” when she was 13. As she has reached adulthood, Eilish has sometimes left behind her baggier, more modest looks in favor of form-fitting or revealing fashion choices, which has garnered both praise and backlash. Now Eilish has reflected on those sorts of reactions in a new Elle feature.
She addressed losing fans who didn’t want to see her change from how she was in the early part of her career, saying, “People hold on to these memories and have an attachment. But it’s very dehumanizing. I lost 100,000 followers, just because of the boobs [laughs]. People are scared of big boobs.”
For ELLE October, @billieeilish opens up about making music, directing videos, and why she doesn’t give a #%!* what anyone has to say about her hair, clothes, or sexuality. “I’m still the same person. I’m not just different Barbies with different heads.” https://t.co/APNZ9rjJHp pic.twitter.com/2ORjgkQTDI
— ELLE Magazine (US) (@ELLEmagazine) September 23, 2021
Eilish seems to be referring to December 2020, when she shared drawings of breasts on her Instagram Story and subsequently shed about 100k followers. At the time, she reacted by writing, “LMFAOOO y’all babies smh.”
In the feature, she also talked about the challenges of fame, saying, “I just wanted to make a song once, and then I kept making songs. I never said, ‘Hey, pay attention to my life.’ All my friends know I don’t wanna see any of [the negative chatter]. When people send me something mean, it hurts my soul.”
Read the full feature here.
