They say youth is wasted on the young. It becomes more and more true. Billie Eilish is, in my opinion, an equal blend of “bratty teenager” and “old soul.” There are moments when she’s wiser than her years and other moments when I want to tell her to grow the f–k up. It’s an interesting blend and yes, she’s very watchable. Billie covers the latest issue of Vogue Australia to promote her current album, Happier Than Ever. This second-album era is all about blonde hair, bangs (I’m screaming) and not-baggy clothes. She’s still wearing layers and she still covers up sometimes, but she’s past the oversized-clothing and green hair phase. Billie chatted with Vogue Australia about feeling angsty over social media and understanding that everyone is embarrassed by who they were at 15. Some highlights:
On her old interviews: “I said so many things then that I totally don’t agree with now, or think the opposite thing. The weirdest thing is how nothing ever goes away once it’s on the internet. Every interview I did when I was 15 is still out there, and I think about it constantly. When you’re a f–king teenager, you don’t really know yourself, so you’re trying to figure yourself out. That was the hardest thing for me: I didn’t actually know how I really felt. So I just came up with this facade that I stuck to.”
Learning how to take time away from her phone: “You can’t really just not go on your phone for a week because you’re having fun and you want to be in the moment, because if you do the internet is like: ‘Where did she go? She’s on hiatus.’ I’m like: ‘Dang, I’m just trying to have fun.’”
Everyone is ashamed of their past: “The internet brings up things from everybody’s past and I’m like: ‘Don’t you guys understand that everybody is incredibly embarrassed and ashamed about their past? Like, do you not think about the fact that maybe you’re embarrassed of your past, so maybe everybody else is embarrassed, too?’”
On Britney Spears: “It’s really, really horrible what a lot of young women have gone through—I mean, to this day. I didn’t have a team that wanted to f–k me over—which is really kind of rare, which [itself] is pretty f–ked up. All I have to be is just grateful that I happened to have a good group of people around me that … didn’t want to just take advantage of me and do what people have done in the past.”
Getting advice from pop stars like Justin Bieber & Katy Perry: “I feel like when something like that happens, your body kind of goes into shock and you can’t really actually look at it… I think about it all the time because people that are like global idols say these things to me and about me that are the most crazy sh-t I’ve ever heard! I don’t know how to process it or believe it, you know, it doesn’t feel real to me. When people say, ‘Live in the moment’, it’s really hard … I feel like whenever I have tried to make it a point to be in the moment, all I’m thinking about is if I’m in the moment or not.”
She doesn’t want her image to be about her image: “It really sucks for me to have the image be important. I wish I could just be like: ‘Oh, I don’t care. You guys do it.’ You know? But the thing is that I’ve done that before and it doesn’t make me feel good. It doesn’t satisfy me. So it’s a ton of work to try to control the image and you can only do it so much, because people are gonna think whatever they think. But it has been so vitally important to have the image that I want, and try to be seen how I want to be seen. Of course, it didn’t really work. It’s really hard to control the narrative in a position like mine, right? You can’t really control it that much, but you can try.”
On the past year: “I’ve just been so much more comfortable in my own skin and confident with my writing and voice. I just have loved growing up and loved changing and getting older. It’s just been the best thing ever to grow up.”
Yeah, I’m still embarrassed about stuff I did and said when I was 15 years old. And 19 years old. And 22 years old. And 30 years old. You never stop being embarrassed about that stuff, honestly, but you do learn how to let it go. All of that bad fashion, all of those trash opinions, all of that bad hair? Forget about it! You can’t change it now. As for this: “I just have loved growing up and loved changing and getting older. It’s just been the best thing ever to grow up.” That’s what made me think “youth is wasted on the young.” When you’re that age, you’re in such a hurry to “grow up” and be an adult and be taken seriously and do all of the grown-up things. Then you get there and no one has their sh-t figured out and adults behave like immature a–holes and you realize you should have enjoyed your youth while you had it!
Covers & IG courtesy of Vogue Australia.
I mean yeah I would be ashamed too if I had done and said racist shit. Idk why racist people always assume other people think and feel the same way. It’s not some teenage phase. I managed to make it to adulthood, in the social media age, without doing it saying anything racist. It’s not that hard.
Well the racist controversy didn’t hurt her career at all. She got hired to put out two limited edition Jordan shoes…which I am sure will sell out quickly. Some people get away with this sh*t, others don’t. *shrugs shoulders*
What did she do that was racist? I know she sang to a song (at 13) that had the word ch*** in it, but I am poor upset by that word being in the sing in the first place; not at a 13 year old singing along.
Lol I wouldn’t pay to go back to being a teenager. About to turn 30 and feel like I am finally THRIVING. I will never tell my kids when they are teens that it’s the best time of their lives because it’s 1. Untrue. 2. Truly was the worst time of my life (so far).
Eh. I can’t judge her because she is young and in a horrible industry. I wish she would let her music speak for itself. That said, I think she is going to be embarrassed by this blond, sort of sexy phase in a few years. It doesn’t feel like she’s very comfortable.
She is young but at least she’s aware now. I think it took me longer.
I do think she’s right, however, I don’t regret doing or saying anything racist or sexist or anything like that and how did Sinatra sing that song? “Regrets, I have a few but then again too few to mention.” Really???
I have many regrets. Many, many regrets but they have more to do with close family members and lovers not the public at large.
I’m solid with friends and I’m pretty good with career and education choices. I regret I wasn’t better with money when I was young.
I regret I ever smoked a cigarette. I smoked off and on for years always outdoors but still. It’s been 10 years now though since the last.
I regret one pregnancy. That’s a big one.
I regret things I said in anger. I regret not always being there. I regret ignoring the red flags. I regret not ending bad relationships sooner.
What are you gonna do? You can’t undo anything.
You can try to make amends with those who matter and don’t f*ck it up in the future.
Maybe an unpopular opinion but I find her exhausting. She seems to take herself so seriously and this new thing she said about people being afraid of big boobs is laughable… no one is afraid of big boobs people were criticizing her because at one point she was totally against showing any skin and now she’s being compared to Marilyn Monroe because of her MET Gala dress. She’s no Marilyn. I find her smug and someone who will learn the hard way that she needs to get over herself.
To be fair, she was “sold” to the world as a girl who didn’t like showing her body and prefered oversized clothes. The “I’m not like the other girls” of her generation who also sang about dark topics. That’s what her fanbase bought and emulated, bad hair styles and all. Could it be that they were ones scandalized about her showing more cleavage?
Sometimes I wonder if musicians are aware of the way they are being promoted by their teams/record labels.
@Sof – I think they quickly lose control of their image and how they are promoted, but they get a lot of money and fame waved in front of them, and that’s more important to them anyway.
Exactly this– no one is afraid of boobs, but her taking this approach is such a manipulative way to be … performative woke. A couple years ago I heard a podcast where they interviewed her management team and talked about how they were promoting her, and how they were already thinking a few years ahead when she would be out of her teens. Gross, they were already planning for the inevitable awkward phase turned into sexual awakening. That we see ALL the time. Basically, all dudes more than twice her age are making decisions on how she is marketed, expertly planned down to the very last detail.
It’s not that she was against showing skin (for herself or others). She has admitted that her decision to be modest when she was younger was partially motivated by fear, plus she was underage. She wouldn’t have gotten away with much else without being slut-shamed and blamed for violent crimes committed by other people. Even when she was the modestly dressed kid, she made it clear she wasn’t promising to look that way forever, and that she also didn’t like being used to put down other women who chose differently. She’s also not saying this look is going to be a forever thing. It’s really not a matter of her abandoning morals for money and fame. Sometimes people like to mix it up, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not realistic to expect women’s feelings about being modest to stay the same.
It also seems like many only care about the gender of whoever is managing or working with an artist under *certain* circumstances. Aren’t the majority of artists, regardless of gender or sexuality, working with more men than women? That alone doesn’t confirm that someone wants to present themselves only in a chaste wholesome way but is being prevented from following those values by men.
I’m not a fan, but my heart goes out to her generation. I’m eternally grateful to have grown up in a time when my stupid thoughts were confined to my diary.
She looks like Miley Cyrus here.
poppedbubble, she does. It’s the cookie cutter teeny bopper look, recycled.
I like her but I die at her audacity to speak for “EVERYONE’S FEELINGS”
Lol.