5 Lines From Billie Eilish's British Vogue Interview

Gone are the baggy clothes and black-and-green hair: Billie Eilish, 19, appears in a pinup-style outfit, with her new blonde hair, on the cover of British Vogue. The new look also heralds a new album (Happier Than Ever is due out in July, Billboard reports), and that album includes a song aimed at those who exploit and abuse underage girls. "Don't make me not a role model because you're turned on by me," Eilish tells Vogue. More big lines from the interview, which can be read in full here:

• Of the song "Your Power," Eilish says, "It’s an open letter to people who take advantage—mostly men." She adds, "I would like people to listen to me. And not just try to figure out who I’m talking about, because it’s not about that. It’s really not at all about one person. You might think, ‘It’s because she’s in the music industry’—no, dude. It’s everywhere. I don’t know one girl or woman who hasn’t had a weird experience, or a really bad experience. And men, too—young boys are taken advantage of constantly."

• Eilish says she was abused when she was younger, though she doesn't discuss the details other than to say it was not by someone in the music business. "You can always be taken advantage of. That’s a big problem in the world of domestic abuse or statutory rape—girls that were very confident and strong-willed finding themselves in situations where they’re like, ‘Oh my god, I’m the victim here?’ And it’s so embarrassing and humiliating and demoralizing to be in that position of thinking you know so much and then you realize, I’m being abused right now."
• She anticipates getting criticized for the subject of the interview and her look on the cover: "You’re going to complain about being taken advantage of as a minor, but then you’re going to show your boobs?" she imagines someone asking. "Yes I am, mother------! I’m going to because there’s no excuse."
• One random quote, on the question of whether she has a horse: "Maybe, maybe not, who knows? That’s a whole part of my life that I’m not interested in anybody having any info on."

She also talks about the unplanned year off she got due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which she spent swimming and eating Taco Bell and making the new album with her brother Finneas. The full interview is worth a read. (More Billie Eilish stories.)