Billie Eilish says it’s “such a loss to always try to look good”

Billie Eilish has opened up about body image again and worrying how people perceive her, saying it’s “such a loss to always try to look good”.

The pop star is known for wearing baggy and oversized clothes, which she previously explained was to try to keep the focus away from her body.

Speaking in a new interview, Eilish discussed people’s insecurities around the way they looked, as well as the pressures of Instagram warping our perception of attainable bodies. “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.”

Talking about her second album ‘Happier Than Ever’, which was released yesterday (July 30), Eilish revealed the song ‘OverHeated’ is about “people who promote unattainable body standards”. “It’s completely fine to get work done – do this, do that, do what makes you feel happy,” she said. “It’s just when you deny it and say, ‘Oh, I got this all on my own, and if you just tried harder, you could get it.’ That makes me literally furious. It is so bad for young women – and boys, too – to see that.”

She added that, even though she is aware that photos online are often edited or airbrushed, she also is made insecure by the images she sees. “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,” she explained. “Yet I still see it and go, ‘oh God, that makes me feel really bad’. And I mean, I’m very confident in who I am, and I’m very happy with my life… I’m obviously not happy with my body, but who is?”

Eilish released ‘Happier Than Ever’ yesterday, achieving a five-star album review from NME. In the review, NME’s El Hunt said: “Though it’s unlikely that her place among their ranks was ever in doubt anyway, ‘Happier Than Ever’ fully establishes Billie Eilish as one of her generation’s most significant pop artists – and, better still, does so without repeating a single trick from the debut that turned her life upside down.”