Billie Eilish is getting candid about how hurt she's been by body-shaming comments from internet trolls.
“Dude, I don’t even know. It’s tough, man,” the 21-year-old Grammy winner told British Vogue. “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 added.
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The older she gets, the more the "Bad Guy" singer has learned to embrace herself just as she is. But nasty comments about her body still have a negative effect.
“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 b------ because it still hurts my feelings like a son of a b----," she said.
Eilish said she has learned to ignore the rude remarks and instead engage in activities that "chill" her out, like taking baths and hanging out with dogs.
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“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," she said.
Eilish previously opened up about being frustrated by nasty online comments about her appearance during an interview with Dazed published in April 2020.
The "Happier Than Ever" singer, who was just a teen when she broke onto the music scene wearing bold green hair and baggy clothes, said she was surprised when fans criticized her when she first began wearing dresses.
“If I wore a dress to something, I would be hated for it,” said Eilish “People would be like, ‘You’ve changed, how dare you do what you’ve always rebelled against?’ I’m like, ‘I’m not rebelling against anything, really.’ I can’t stress it enough. I’m just wearing what I wanna wear.
"If there’s a day when I’m like, ‘You know what, I feel comfortable with my belly right now, and I wanna show my belly,’ I should be allowed to do that.”
As for the baggy clothes, Eilish revealed that she wore them to hide herself in public. "The only reason I did it was ’cause I hated my body," she said.
She also felt uncomfortable with her body when she was alone at home.
“There was a point last year where I was naked and I didn’t recognize my body ‘cause I hadn’t seen it in a while,” said Eilish. “I would see it sometimes and be like, ‘Whose body is that?’”
The singer added that her self-image had improved since those days. “It’s not that I like (my body) now, I just think I’m a bit more OK with it," she said.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY
