CULTURE

Billie Eilish Continues to Be the Only Mature Person Discussing Her Body

Yes, a 17-year-old has had to explain she was “born with f-cking boobs.”

Sep. 5, 2019

Photo by Sebastian Sabal-Bruce, styled by Caroline Grosso. Produced by Biel Parklee. Hair by Bert Ketizerow for Kadus Professional at Artlist New York, Makeup by Morgane Martini for Chanel at The Wall Group. Photography Assistant: John Daniel Powers.

Billie Eilish is all of 17 years old, and she’s not about to let you forget it. In the past five months alone, the Gen-Z icon has not only shared that she still isn’t allowed to drink soda, but revealed that she only recently learned that the Spice Girls were real. At the apex of her crusade to make millennials feel old, she also dared to ask the weightiest of questions: “Who is Hilary Duff?”

There is one subject matter, however, that causes much of the media and public to conveniently forget that Eilish is a teenager. In June, Eilish made headlines for departing from her signature oversized style—which is to say that she simply appeared in public wearing a tank top. The fact that Eilish was born in December of 2001 didn’t stop the frenzy that followed, which Eilish summed up in her fittingly slime green cover story of Elle‘s October issue as thus: “My boobs were trending on Twitter! At number one! What is that?! Every outlet wrote about my boobs!”

According to Elle, Eilish physically yawned at the topic of the public’s fascination with her body—understandably enough. But for those who still don’t get it, she also once and for all spelled it out. “You’re missing the point!,” she said of the theories that she’s desexualizing herself, or setting an example for younger girls to cover up. “The point is not: Hey, let’s go slut-shame all these girls for not dressing like Billie Eilish. It makes me mad. I have to wear a big shirt for you not to feel uncomfortable about my boobs!”

As for the photo that went viral, at this point, Eilish—apparently the only sensible, mature person involved in tank top-gate—can laugh it off. “I look good in it,” she said. “I was born with fucking boobs, bro. I was born with DNA that was gonna give me big-ass boobs.” And that, she continued, has created an issue for her for as long as she can remember, hence why she covers them up. “I was recently FaceTiming a close friend of mine who’s a dude, and I was wearing a tank top. He was like, ‘Ugh, put a shirt on!’ And I said, ‘I have a shirt on.’ Someone with smaller boobs could wear a tank top, and I could put on that exact tank top and get slut-shamed because my boobs are big. That is stupid. It’s the same shirt!”

On December 18, Eilish, who rose to prominence at just 15, will at long last turn 18. “I’m gonna be a woman. I wanna show my body. What if I wanna make a video where I wanna look desirable?,” she posited. “Not a porno! But I know it would be a huge thing. I know people will say, ‘I’ve lost all respect for her.'” Hopefully, those who created a spectacle out of the aforementioned tank top will by then have recovered from the shock.