We Owe Billie Eilish a Massive Apology

I think it’s fair to say I used to be Branksome Hall’s resident Billie Eilish stan. Not only did I wear a beanie with her logo to school literally every single day, I would also make it very clear to people I was there before Bad Guy, when she was still performing in 200-person venues. In truth, I still feel a twisted sense of pride about that. Over the years though, my taste in music has expanded greatly; Billie didn’t even appear in my most recent top 5 Spotify Wrapped artists after holding a top spot for over four years. Now that she’s announced the release of her new album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, I’m going down a neverending rabbit hole rewatching her interviews and relistening to her albums. It doesn’t help that she just performed at Coachella with Lana Del Rey, another one of my childhood idols (I still haven’t fully recovered). All of this is a very different experience than when I was eleven; at sixteen years old, however young that may be, I feel like I have the life experience to view Billie’s fame from a new angle. After all, she was sixteen herself when she achieved international stardom. There is a lot to say, but one thing stands crystal clear: Billie deserved a lot better.

The pitfalls of being a child star

There’s musicians who got famous at a young age, and then there’s Billie Eilish; when her song Ocean Eyes went viral, she was only thirteen. The discussion around child stars has changed dramatically in the age of family influencers; unlike actors and musicians, online influencers seem far less removed from reality, thus making them more relatable to their audience. Perhaps, this is why we are a lot more concerned about child stars on YouTube than in Hollywood; they look and behave like the average children in our lives, so we feel more sympathy for them. However, as society has started cracking down on child influencers, many people are reassessing child stardom in other sectors. Think of people like the Olsen twins, Macaulay Culkin, and Jeanette McCurdy; the second they were old enough to make their own decisions, they stopped acting. Mary-Kate Olsen even claimed she “wouldn’t wish [her] upbringing on anybody”. The unfortunate story with most child stars is that they were forced into the industry by their parents for financial profit and exploitation–when they’re older, even if they hate their job, they’re afraid to let their families down. I don’t think this was the case for Billie Eilish, because her fame was more so accidental. Of course, being born to two actors in Los Angeles, she had a leg up; but Ocean Eyes was initially written for her dance class, and only uploaded to Soundcloud for fun. The problem is that she was one of the first child stars in the age of social media. Of course she was “cringe” sometimes–every single teenager is. Everyone is embarrassed by their teenage self, but not everyone has videos of themselves at such a young age accessible to the entire world on social media. Billie was relentlessly bullied online by adults and teenagers alike. People didn’t like the way she dressed, the way she sang, the way she coloured her hair… it almost felt like there was more criticism than support for her in the beginning. She tried to act tough and defend herself, but it’s obvious that the hate affected her. Like most child stars, she went through severe depression, anxiety, and mental health troubles–and it was all heavily publicized. Even worse, child stars are easily manipulated. Truth is, most celebrity managers are money-hungry and don’t have the best interest of their clients in mind. If their client is a child, they will promise them the stars if it means forcing them into an uncomfortable situation. Even though most people hate the D’Amelio’s, their documentary was an interesting look into the lives of child stars. In one scene, Charli’s manager presented her with a plan for her 2021 year, filled with initiatives such as a fashion line and a Hulu show. Sure, Charli amassed a disgusting amount of money from doing close to nothing, but imagine you’re sixteen years old and your every move is planned out by a team of adults, and you can’t do anything about it? Of course, Charli D’Amelio and other child stars live privileged lives that most people would kill for, but they don’t come without their own set of problems.

The Grammys

I still remember one of the biggest debates in early 2020 pop culture: did Billie Eilish rob Lana Del Rey of a Grammy? At the 62nd Grammy Awards, Billie won all four of the main categories; Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year. Not only was Billie the youngest person to ever accomplish this at just 18-years-old, but the first woman as well. The Grammys, as we know, are deeply problematic. There are many issues regarding gender-equality and racial bias, and those issues must be addressed. They also point to the rising commodification of art; why should we decide what music is objectively good based on the accolades it does or doesn’t receive? Despite this, I am constantly blown away by people’s inability to engage in civil discourse about the Grammys. When Billie Eilish won Album of the Year, people were not happy. Lana Del Rey fans were particularly severe; her 2019 album Norman F***ing Rockwell was very well-received and people expected her to win. Looking back now, I do think that Norman F***ing Rockwell was the best album of 2019, if not the 2010s–but that doesn’t make Billie or any of the other nominated artists any less deserving. Throughout the ceremony, Billie appeared to be getting embarrassed, and in her acceptance speech she said that Ariana Grande should have won. Even though Ariana and Lana didn’t express any anger (the opposite, in fact), it didn’t stop their fans from tearing Billie apart on Twitter. Even news companies run by adults exploded with headlines questioning the validity of Billie’s fame and success. Remember though, she was eighteen years old, barely an adult, and had recently risen to global stardom. She was still new to the industry and very vulnerable to criticism. She’s even said in interviews that the first few weeks after the Grammys ceremony were horrible for her mental health. Yes, it’s hard to feel bad for celebrities and multi-millionaires but the toxic and irrelevant discourse surrounding the Grammys feels like brain rot sometimes. Should we not be worried about the systemic inequality instead of, I don’t know, whether an 18-year-old singer deserves the award she won?

The objectification of female celebrities

Lastly, Billie was incessantly sexualized in the beginning of her career. One defining aspect of her style was that she used to exclusively wear baggy clothing. Initially, people made fun of her for this, claiming she was “trying too hard” or that it looked ridiculous. Later, she revealed that she wore baggy clothing to prevent being sexualized by the media. Unfortunately, her worries were confirmed the first time she was caught by the paparazzi wearing form-fitting clothes. After the photos spread to the Internet, one tweet read: “In 10 months, Billie Eilish has developed a mid-30s wine mom body” and others followed with similar cruelty and misogynistic insults. While many people defended her, they did so backhandedly, calling her “brave”. This implied that there was something inherently embarrassing with the way she looked, so in truth it was an insult disguised as a compliment. Later, in 2021, Billie posed for the cover of Vogue wearing lingerie and a corset, effectively destroying the image she had made for herself. News outlets and trolls on social media inevitably began accusing her of selling out, before resorting to slut-shaming her. She retaliated with her sophomore album, Happier Than Ever, and in the song “Not My Responsibility”, she poses the audience a question: “Is my value based only on your perception? / Or is your opinion of me not my responsibility?”. The song “OverHeated” specifically deals with how she was objectified in her teen years. The conversation regarding the sexualization of women and girls (famous or not) continues to grow. In the age of the #FreeBritney movement, I think people are starting to realize the subtleties of objectification, and so it is my hope that we can allow women real agency over their image moving forward.

Conclusion: is Billie a unique example, or a representation of a larger issue?

All this being said, I don’t think Billie’s story is necessarily unique. Every female celebrity has been wronged in one way or another. I could write article after article about every single female celebrity we owe an apology to and not run out of names.I guess the difference is just that Billie was so young, and one of the first Gen Z superstars. I relate to her more than ever now, because I am the age she was when she went viral. Even at 11, I identified with her; her songs were angsty accounts of the troubles of adolescence–and yes, I think her fanbase was bullied because a large fraction of it was made up of teen girls. I was lucky enough to see Billie live in the summer of 2022. It was a transformative experience, because in a way I figured that if she had struggled with self-esteem as a teenager and ended up performing at famous stadiums, I would also be okay in my own way. As we await her new album, I think we all owe Billie an apology and the right to reintroduce herself.