Billie Eilish Opens Up About the Struggles of Fame and Self-Discovery
Billie Eilish has recently opened up about the struggles she faces in her journey through the unforgiving world of public life. In a candid interview for Allure’s “Best of Beauty” issue, the 21-year-old singer revealed that fame wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Speaking of the exposure, which she said she feels the need to hide from often, she shared, “But I can do that. That’s the thing about diving into the hurt — I don’t need to do that. I’m starting to do better, but I’ve not been doing so great, to be honest.”
Billie, who burst into stardom at just 16 with her debut EP Don’t Smile at Me, has achieved worldwide success with multiple Grammy wins, two No. 1 albums, and five top-10 singles. Yet, fame came at a cost she couldn’t have predicted as she spoke of her “impending-doom feelings most of the day” and how the realization of never having privacy again can lead to “crazy things.”
The transition from being a teenager to a superstar proved to be a daunting experience for Billie. She once described it as “strange” to go from being just another person “in the comments” online to becoming a topic of discussion herself. Growing and changing under such scrutiny is undoubtedly tough, as she candidly admitted.
Billie’s journey has also been one of self-discovery. She shared, “When I was 17, I was like, I found it. I found the person I am, forever. This is how I’m going to do it. I found all the ways. These are my boundaries. These are the things that make me happy, and this is my recipe for how I’m going to make music and be happy. Then I grew up a little, and suddenly life was like, These aren’t going to work. You’ve got to change. You’re not that person anymore.”
Even at 21, the Ocean Eyes hitmaker continues to learn about herself. A moment in Paris, during a challenging period in her life, led to a significant realization. As she recalled, a motorcycle with a helmet sticker that read “Move on” served as a powerful reminder to let go of control and accept the things beyond one’s control.
Moreover, her growth as an artist has paralleled her personal growth. She spoke about her songwriting process for the new song from the Barbie soundtrack, highlighting how it wrote itself once they found the chords and opening lines.
“I have the whole video of us writing the song, and the first thing we wrote were those lines in the first 10 minutes,” she shared. “We wrote most of the song without thinking about ourselves and our own lives, but thinking about this character we were inspired by.”
