Billie Eilish is having a great year. She took over the Billboard Hot 100 chart with ‘Bad Guy,’ she’s made a huge impact on pop music, and she got to achieve her tweenage dream of recording a song with Justin Bieber himself.
Unfortunately, fame comes with some downsides, especially when you’re just 17 years old.
Billie is famous for wearing baggy, oversized clothing.
Billie’s love for oversized, comfortable-looking clothing is well-known and well-documented across all of her social media pages. It’s not just about comfort, though. There’s another reason she dresses the way she does.
She’s been pretty clear that she does not want to be sexualized.
For her part in the #MyCalvins campaign, Billie explained, “I never want the world to know everything about me. I mean, that’s why I wear big, baggy clothes.”
Billie does not want people commenting on her body.
She continued, “Nobody can have an opinion because they haven’t seen what’s underneath, you know? Nobody can be like, ‘aw, she’s slim thick,’ ‘she’s not slim thick,’ ‘she’s got a flat ass,’ ‘she’s got a fat ass.'”
She also discussed this with Vogue magazine.
“It kind of gives nobody the opportunity to judge what your body looks like,” she said . “I want layers and layers and layers and I want to be mysterious. You don’t know what’s underneath and you don’t know what’s on top.”
People have ignored her wishes in the past.
When a Twitter user found some candid photos of Billie in just a tank top, he did the exact thing (almost with an exact quote) that Billie didn’t want to have happen.
Fans were quick to defend Billie from these unwanted comments.
Many were also quick to point out that Billie is only seventeen years old, which makes a lot of the men who are commenting on her body and her appearance extra skeevy.
They immediately pointed out that this is exactly what Billie doesn’t want.
Her fans were obviously going to point that out, and many replied with links to the Calvin Klein commercial in its entirety. It didn’t seem to be very effective.
Her desire not to be sexualized is why this magazine cover featuring her was so surprising.
The cover, which shows a digitally altered Billie with no hair and no clothing looking like an android, caught Billie’s attention for a very important reason.
It was totally fake, and she had no idea it was being made.
Billie left a scathing comment on their Instagram share of their cover, reiterating that she had no idea the cover was happening, she had no creative input on the use of her image, and that to create an image of her topless when she’s only 17 was super messed up.
Of course, she also had to point out that they made her bald.
Sure, all the teens online like to joke about their “wigs” being “snatched,” but I don’t think any of them want to see themselves bald on a magazine cover.
Nylon responded, adding this to their post.
They explained that the cover was a part of a series they were doing on digital prodigy artists, and that they didn’t intend to insult her. Fans were not appeased, saying on Twitter, “THIS IS SO MESSED UP.”
“Celebs finally speaking up about how badly media treats them….I AM SO HERE FOR IT,” wrote another.
That fan was likely referencing Troye Sivan’s recent tweets slamming an interviewer for asking him inappropriate questions about his sex life.
Troye also spoke out about the double standard in the industry.
I am so here for celebrities speaking up about unfair treatment in the media, whether it’s a creepy fake magazine cover or totally inappropriate interview questions!
We all love to say stars are just like us until they ask us to treat them the way we’d like to be treated.
