The Plights of a Child Popstar: Billie Eilish

At the tender age of 14, Billie Eilish recorded her single “Ocean Eyes,” the song that would push her fame and popularity into rapid exponential growth. Fast forward to four years later and she has taken the Grammys by storm, winning 5 in total- 4 of them being in the top categories no less. Sold out world tours, 60 million Instagram followers, making history at the Grammys, all while just barely turning 18. She is a force to be reckoned with. 

Now, we come to the debut of her world tour in Miami, where she becomes more vulnerable than ever with a taped segment of her stripping off her baggy layers. Her disembodied voice delivers a personal message about her body image and body shaming:

“Some people hate what I wear. Some people praise it. Some people use it to shame others.

Some people use it to shame me. But I feel you watching. Always. And nothing I do goes unseen. So while I feel your stares, your disapproval, or your sigh of relief, if I lived by them,

I’d never be able to move... If I wear what is comfortable, I am not a woman. If I shed the layers, I am a slut. Though you’ve never seen my body, you still judge it and judge me for it.”

The video that accompanies the message shows Billie stripping down to a tank top. Yep, a tank top. 

The crowd erupts and goes wild, uncomfortably so. Losing their shit is a more accurate way of putting it. The arena suddenly reverts back to Victorian London with a very “She showed an ankle, call the police!!!” type of feeling. It seemed that the monologue fell on deaf ears in the face of cleavage. 

What led up to this? Well, we know that Billie has a style that is unconventional with her neon green roots and the extremely oversized clothing that she has ushered into the mainstream. Certainly peculiar for a pop star. This was noticed right away ever since she first stepped into the limelight. She stood out. She was weird, but not in a bad way per se. Weirdness can either make you or break you. In her case, she stepped into a landscape where the quintessential female popstar for the longest time has been extremely revealing. This is showbiz baby, and sex sells. 

Not only that but being revealing was a form of rebellion against the longstanding conservative social expectations of how women should be dressing. Exposing the body made a bold statement in terms of female liberation. Madonna, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Beyonce, Rihanna, the list goes on. You know the ones. We even saw this with the flapper girls of the 20s. Tame compared to now, but that was the true edgy woman of the day. But as the pendulum of pop culture swings back and forth between opposite extremes, we see Billie swing back to a more conservative image, opting to liberate herself through a means of not choosing to show her body at all. 

Yet Billie has surely felt compelled to talk about her body image, whether she wants to or not, after all, she is questioned about it in an interview after interview. In a 2019 interview with CBS, she reveals that “Me and my body’s relationship has been, pfft, the most toxic relationship you could even imagine.” This is not shocking in the slightest. She’s still a child for Pete’s sake, and she’s going through what all young women go through in the most public way possible. That sounds like a nightmare. 

She has been in this burgeoning spotlight for a while, and it only seems to get more intense. Many female artists have developed their image around their bodies, and in a way, Billie has fallen into that same trap. You show your body, and people hyper-fixate on it. You don’t show your body, and people hyper-fixate on it. It goes to show that sometimes there's just no winning and that it’s damn hard to be a woman. 

And really, a girl in a tank top shouldn’t be this incendiary. It all must be overwhelming for her. At 18, you have no walls. You are so utterly permeable. Whatever comes at you, you absorb. For some, this can go on for a lifetime- a turtle with no shell being easily poked and wounded.

But on the flip side of the coin, this moment in Miami shows a lot of self-awareness and growth. Her disrobing seemed to symbolize a reveal of her true identity, or even a reclaiming of her body as hers and hers alone. It was all done in a beautiful and artful way. Still, we will focus on what she wears, which may be well-intended but still part of the problem. 

We can only hope that the composure she displays will remain with her. It is wild that she’s been touring for four years. Most of us would be absolutely burnt out and go off the deep end. A lot of young child musicians do go off the deep end at some point in their careers, whether it be struggling with drug abuse or other mental health issues. It’s a lot of pressure on a child to be thinking and performing with the responsibilities of an adult, but really, none of the power. 

On top of that, ever since her debut, her parents have worked for her and she’s paid their salaries. Not to say that Billie’s parents are wrong for doing so or are taking advantage of her, they genuinely seem like loving and caring parents. However, the dynamic of the relationship must feel very unnatural. If Billie decided to quit tomorrow, her family's money flow would come to a halt. What an immense amount of pressure to put on a young teen. 

Even if you’re not supporting your family, being a teenager in general is a tough position to be in. We’ve all been there. To her young audience, that’s a big appeal. They see that struggle in her because she’s so open about her struggles. There’s so much at stake for her and she’s carrying a lot of weight on her shoulders in terms of her career and her own perception of herself. 

The shedding of her layers during that concert was reminiscent of a snake shedding its skin as it grows. Growth hurts, and she seems to have already learned some lessons that others may not ever learn in their lives. It can be a struggle to handle fame with grace when your life is on display. But as her career continues to develop, we’ll all be watching, and she’ll feel us watching. 

“Is my value based only on your perception? Or is your opinion of me, not my responsibility” 

-Billie Eilish