Body shamers can still hurt me, admits Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish has admitted online critics and body-shamers can still hurt her feelings despite her massive success.

The 21-year-old Grammy-winning star, who had her first No1 hit when she was just 17, has told Vogue of her “rough time” dealing with hurtful comments.

“It’s tough, man,” she admits in the fashion magazine. “Honestly, nobody can say anything about my body that I don’t have a stronger opinion about.

“I also think that if I was younger, like if the internet talked about me the way they do now when I was like 11, I don’t think I would be able to exist, to be honest.”

Eilish went on: “I like myself more than I used to, and I’m more interested in how I feel than how they feel. But then also that might be a load of bulls**t because it still hurts my feelings like a son of a b***h.”

The Los Angeles-born star says she copes with the negativity by turning her focus to things like taking baths, spending time with friends, and taking her dogs for a walk.

She has also revealed that she has deleted social media apps from her phone.

Eilish has long struggled with her body image while living in the public eye.

Discussing the clothes she favoured in the early days of her career, she previously admitted: “I never want the world to know everything about me. I mean, that’s why I wear big baggy clothes. Nobody can have an opinion because they haven’t seen what’s underneath, you know?”

More recently, Eilish has chosen to dress more conventionally in body-conscious clothes.

But she says she is frustrated that she can’t appear to please her detractors either way.

In May, she wrote on Instagram: “I spent the first five years of my career getting absolutely obliterated by you fools for being boyish and dressing how I did & constantly being told I’d be hotter if I acted like a woman.

“And now when I feel comfortable enough to wear anything remotely feminine or fitting, I changed and am a sellout. I can be both.”