Singer Billie Eilish has responded to the trolls who criticized her for posting a swimsuit photo earlier this year, revealing how she feels she "cannot win".
Earlier this year, Eilish stripped off on stage to make a powerful statement on body shaming:Back on January 10, the five-time Grammy award winner shared a selection of pictures and videos with her 60 million Instagram followers from her recent vacation to Hawaii. However, the teen had the AUDACITY to don a swimsuit - something which several trolls called her out on, despite the fact you could only see Eilish's head and shoulders.
Check out Eilish's vacation memories below:Now, in a new interview with Dazed, Eilish has responded to the backlash she received for choosing to wear a swimsuit on vacation. The 18-year-old said: "It was trending. There were comments like, 'I don't like her anymore because as soon as she turns 18 she's a w***e.' Like, dude. I can't win. I can not win."
The 'Bad Guy' singer also recalled a time last year when she was photographed wearing a tank top, saying: "I saw comments like, 'How dare she talk about not wanting to be sexualized and wear this?!'"
She continued: "If I wore a dress to something, I would be hated for it.
"People would be like, 'You've changed, how dare you do what you've always rebelled against?' I'm like, 'I'm not rebelling against anything, really.' I can't stress it enough. I'm just wearing what I wanna wear."
Last year, Eilish revealed the real reason as to why she commonly wears loose-fitting clothes.
Speaking as part of a Calvin Klein campaign, Billie explained that she wears "baggy clothes" because she doesn't want the world to know everything about her. In the ad, she says:
"Nobody can have an opinion because they haven't seen what’s underneath. Nobody can be like, 'She's slim-thick', 'She's not slim-thick', 'She's got a flat ass', 'She's got a fat ass'. No one can say any of that because they don't know."
And earlier this year, during an interlude at a concert in Miami, Billie played a video on the venue's big screens for the live crowd in which she made a powerful statement on body shaming.
In the video, she gradually removes layer after layer of clothing until she is left wearing a bra, all while a monologue plays in the background, in which the teenage star says (video above):
"Do you really know me? You have opinions about my opinions, about my music, about my clothes, about my body.
"Some people hate what I wear, some people praise it. Some people use it to shame others, some people use it to shame me. But I feel you watching... always. And nothing I do goes unseen.
"So while I feel your stares, your disapproval or your sighs of relief, if I lived by them, I'd never be able to move. Would you like me to be smaller? Weaker? Softer? Taller? Would you like me to be quiet? Do my shoulders provoke you? Does my chest? Am I my stomach? My hips?
"The body I was born with, is it not what you wanted? If what I wear is comfortable, I am not a woman. If I shed the layers, I am a slut.
"Though you've never seen my body, you still judge it and judge me for it. Why? You make assumptions about people based on their size. We decide who they are. We decide what they're worth.
"If I wear more, if I wear less, who decides what that makes me? What that means? Is my value based only on your perception? Or is your opinion of me not my responsibility?"
Fortunately, Eilish revealed to Dazed that she is learning to ignore the haters and starting to accept her body. She said: "It's not that I like [my body] now, I just think I'm a bit more OK with it.
"If there's a day when I'm like, 'You know what, I feel comfortable with my belly right now, and I wanna show my belly,' I should be allowed to do that."
