Billie Eilish Grew Up With ‘Anger’ Towards Her Body

Billie Eilish used to view her body as the "bad guy." In a new interview with Vogue, the 21-year-old singer got candid about her years-long struggle with her body image which began due to an injury. "Going through my teenage years of hating myself and all that stupid s---, a lot of it came from my anger toward my body and how mad I was at how much pain it's caused me and how much I've lost because of things that happened to it," the singer told the publication.

At 13 years old, Billie had a growth plate injury in her hip, which crushed her dance ambitions. As a result, she turned her focus to music. “I got injured right after we made ‘Ocean Eyes,’ so, music kind of replaced dancing,” she said. Years of subsequent lower body injuries and many misdiagnoses increased the alienation Eilish felt in her own skin. That all changed when her movement coach, Kristina Cañizares, told her she was suffering from a condition called hypermobility.

Per the Cleveland Clinic, hypermobility is described as having joints more flexible than normal due to weak or loose ligaments. "I felt like my body was gaslighting me for years," Billie said. "I had to go through a process of being like, my body is actually me. And it's not out to get me." Treatment for the singer would be tricky, as certain kinds of massages or chiropractors could cause her more pain.

During her career, Billie has been candid about her relationship with her body, with the singer rejecting the notion that she has to wear skintight clothing as a pop star. Back in 2021, Eilish told The Guardian she has to "separate" thinking about what her body looks like and simply just live in the moment because of her "terrible relationship" with her body. "I just have to disassociate," she said. "We only need bodies to eat and walk around and poop. We only need them to survive. 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?"