Billie Eilish says body insecurity is ‘a loss of joy and freedom’

Teenage pop artist has received praise for calling out society’s unrealistic standards of beauty for women

Billie Eilish has made a series of frank comments about body image in a new interview, following the release of her new album Happier Than Ever.

The 19-year-old has previously discussed how she chose to wear baggy clothes to avoid scrutiny over her body, and has also spoken about the toxic expectations on women to meet a certain standard of idealised beauty.

“Since I was a kid, my dad and I have always talked about a certain type of person who’s so insecure, or hyperaware and self-conscious, that they never move in a weird way, or make a weird face, because they always want to look good,” she told The Guardian.

“I’ve noticed that, and it makes me so sad. If you’re always standing a certain way, walking in a certain way, and always have your hair just so... It’s such a loss to always try to always look good. It’s such a loss of joy and freedom in your body.”

In the same interview, she addressed how her new song “OverHeated” condemns people who promote unattainable body standards.

“I see people online, looking like I’ve never looked,” she said. “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.’”

The teenage pop star’s second record was released to critical acclaim on Friday 30 July. In a four-star review, The Independent praised Eilish for weaving her personal struggles around “universal woes”.

“Despite what the newly platinum-blonde hair and perky album title might have led you to believe, that taste for melodrama and darkness remains,” critic Alexandra Pollard wrote.

“Eilish’s musical mission statement is that you must come to her – she whispers; she sniggers; she makes you lean in and then grabs you by the throat. The album dips its toes into genres Eilish hasn’t touched before – country and bossa nova among them – but it is mostly more of the same intimate, gothy electro-pop that Eilish does better than anyone.”