Billie Eilish Recalls Hating Her Body as a Teen Amid Hypermobility Diagnosis

The singer opens up about her love and understanding of her body.

Billie Eilish has found the love and strength of her body. In the latest issue of Vogue, the 21-year-old singer opens up about her new outlook on her physique after overcoming a diagnosis that derailed her dance career at a young age. 

"Going through my teenage years of hating myself and all that stupid s**t,' Eilish tells Vogue inside the latest issue. "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."

When she was 13, the "Happier Than Ever" singer suffered a growth plate injury. As a result, she had to stop dancing. After dealing with various lower body injuries, Eilish was finally diagnosed with hypermobility -- a condition where the joint can bend beyond the typical range of movement.  

According to the singer’s mother, Maggie Baird, certain treatments that may be helpful to others could harm Eilish, "like, certain kinds of massage or chiropractors, could actually hurt her," Baird says. 

Following her diagnosis, music replaced dancing for the GRAMMY-winning singer. According to the "Everything I Wanted" songstress, her journey with her body led to a beautiful discovery. 

"I felt like my body was gaslighting me for years," Eilish tells the publication. "I had to go through a process of being like, 'My body is actually me. And it’s not out to get me.'"

Inside the magazine, Eilish also discusses the growth she has seen as she has become more active in climate change awareness. On the cover of the magazine’s latest issue, the songstress poses with young climate change activists, who like her, are part of the generation who could possibly make a lasting impact on the global climate crisis. 

"I’ve spent all of my effort trying not to be in people’s faces about it, because people don’t respond well to that. It makes the causes that you believe in look bad, because you’re, like, annoying the sh*t out of everybody," the "Bad Guy" singer says about her activism. 

"I’m still not shoving information down people’s throats, I’m more like, ‘'I’m not going to tell you what to do. I’m just going to tell you why I do this,'" she says. "But you’re also a bad person if you don’t do it."

Through her conversations with her fellow young activists, Eilish says she is inspired and knows that her love and passion for climate change isn’t in vain. However, she knows that it doesn’t just stop with her. 

"We all wish that we could just do it ourselves. I wish I could just make changes in my life and save the world alone," she tells Vogue. "Grow my own food and live off the grid. Erase my carbon footprint. But all that does is erase me. When really, if every single person just did half of what they should do, we could fix this."

Outside of her love for her body and the climate, Eilish dished on her boyfriend, Jesse Rutherford. The pair confirmed their relationship in October, and the singer can see the positive impact it has on her.

"Once I realized we were in it together, my life just got a lot better, you know," she says.  

RELATED CONTENT: 

 

Latest News