Billie Eilish: Taking The Power

Photo Credit: The New York Times

The defining features of pop sensation Billie Eilish are her dark hair: a variety of neon green roots, black tresses, and navy blue hues, and her affinity for baggy, loose-fitting clothes. Eilish was seldom spotted wearing anything other than a matching baggy tee and pants (sometimes hat and acrylic nail set) in a gaudy designer print.

Billie had her baggy clothes the way Ariana has her ponytail.

Note how I said had, that's because this whole persona changed on Sunday, May 2nd when the cover of British Vogue's May edition was released. Starring none other than Billie Eilish, clad in lingerie and blonde hair on the cover.

When I saw this cover my jaw dropped. I have always loved Billie, and I was just so happy because she looked so happy. She looked like herself. Although there is no doubt that her baggy clothes and dark hair fit Billie's personality, I couldn’t help but feel like the world was seeing the real unafraid version of Eilish for the first time on this cover.

There were many hints of this new era coming, starting with Billie posting a photo of her blonde hair on Instagram, surpassing 1 million likes in 6 minutes. And her the cover of her upcoming album Happier Than Ever portraying her in an angelic light. But I don’t think anybody expected such a drastic change from Billie, but that doesn't mean we all didn't love it. Instagram story after Instagram story reposted images from her spread in the magazine and portions of her powerful interview.

The era, and the dramatic reveal of the era, has been of the utmost importance in pop, specifically the women's pop, world. In her documentary, “Miss Americana” Taylor Swift went into depth about how women in the industry need to continuously make themselves seem new and shiny in attempts to keep the public's attention. All of this to say, even though Billie is 19, it wouldn’t be surprising if the misogynistic industry decided they were done with her.

But I don’t think that is why Billie did this. I mean obviously, it gained publicity, but I think that was more of a coincidental effect, and the real reason Billie did this, is because of her history with body insecurity, and her journey on self-acceptance.

All the media had known Billie in terms of her style and body was a girl in baggy clothes. However, due to the media's fixation with women's bodies, it comes as no surprise that the paparazzi were motivated to get a shot of Billie’s body. (Just writing that sentence made me feel so disgusted, anyway…) On the 12th of October 2020, The Daily Mail published a photo of Billie getting out of her car, just wearing a simple tank top and shorts. The Daily Mail tried to make the article that the photo was published in seem simply journalistic, but the motivation was clear: Show this teen girl's body to get clicks and stir up media attention and drama. Eilish, of course, went through the onslaught of hate and opinions about her body people were throwing at her with kindness. But that doesn’t mean the situation wouldn't have hurt Billie. She has been open about the reasoning behind her baggy outfits: body insecurity, and so the fact that her body was exposed, without her permission, in a way for the whole world to see, was not acceptable.

But Billie took her power back, first in the Therefore I Am music video and now in this Vogue cover, she is showing her body, on her terms, and that is powerful.