Billie Eilish Reacts To Losing Thousands Of Followers For Being More 'Provocative' On Social Media

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Billie Eilish has had a massively transformative year. She released a new album, Happier Than Ever, and has recently started playing massive shows for the first time since her 2020 tour was cut short due to the pandemic. Ahead of releasing her album over the summer, the Grammy-winning singer decided to change a few things about her image, and the reaction was viral. Now, she shared some thoughts on losing followers for being more "provocative."

Months before dying her hair blonde or posing in corsets for a photoshoot, the 19-year-old singer once took to Instagram to do a Q&A with fans. One fan asked for her to share a drawing she’s really proud of and she posted a page out of her sketchbook full of nude drawings of women and half-jokingly proclaimed: “I love boobs.” The reaction to her post was the loss of a ton of people who follow her on Instagram. Eilish recently spoke about it to Elle:

I lost 100,000 followers, just because of the boobs, [laughs]. People are scared of big boobs.

It is pretty funny when you think about it. Boobs are boobs, and yet Billie Eilish sharing drawings of them seemed to offend a lot of people. Before this year, the singer has been well known for wearing baggy clothes and not showing her body. Like many women who live in our society, she hasn’t always had the best perception of her own body image. After Eilish decided to shed some of her layers while out and about, she was surprised by the public reaction:

The other day, I decided to wear a tank top. It wasn’t even a provocative shirt. But I know people are going to say, ‘Holy fuck, she’s dressing sexy and trying to make a statement.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I’m not. It’s 500 degrees and I just want to wear a tank top.’

Billie Eilish is the moment. A lot of eyes are on her as a ton of ears listen to her hit music. As she shared with the magazine, not everything she does is some major statement. She’s a person living her life just like the rest of us. Can you imagine being judged in front of the whole world for what outfit you chose to wear the other day? Eilish also spoke to her decision to dye her hair blonde:

I had no goal of ‘This is going to make everybody think differently of me.’ I’ve had different-colored hair and vibes for everything I’ve ever done. I wanted this album to have its own thing. The other day, I posted a video from when I had green hair, and I saw people go, ‘I miss this Billie, the green-haired Billie. I’m still the same person. I’m not just different Barbies with different heads.

The singer’s new “vibe” for Happier Than Ever was recently showcased on the Disney+ concert film Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter To Los Angeles. The movie was inspired by one of Billie Eilish’s favorite movie characters, Who Framed Roger Rabbit’s Jessica Rabbit. Interestingly enough, that character is also defined a lot of time by her looks and the line, “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way.”

You can check out the concert special on Disney+, and use this link to sign up if you don’t have a subscription. Eilish will soon be heard in the upcoming James Bond movie, No Time To Die, which opens in theaters on October 8.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.