What has the internet done to Billie Eilish?

But it’s another thing if she simply feels that it’s too much hassle to deal with the comments of the crowd. “I mean, that’s why I wear big, baggy clothes,” she says. “Nobody can have an opinion because they haven’t seen what’s underneath, you know?”

“Nobody can be like, ‘Oh, she’s slim-thick, she’s not slim-thick, she’s got a flat ass, she’s got a fat ass,” Eilish adds. “No one can say any of that, because they don’t know.”

Since being discovered on SoundCloud in 2016, Eilish has become a worldwide success for capturing Generation Z’s teen spirit for the 21st century. But her rise to fame hasn’t come without difficulty.

Worldwide fame is a lot for any teenager to deal with, and Eilish even told the Los Angeles Times last month that “it’s hard to make friends when you can’t go out to lunch” without getting mobbed.

Making friends is hard for other reasons, too. “I can invite someone over, but that’s giving them my address,” she said. “They’ll see my car with my license plate. They could take a picture of me in my room while I’m changing and blackmail me.”

Eilish is understandably afraid of judgment, betrayal, and scrutiny. But it also speaks poorly of our culture that a young girl is afraid to wear non-baggy clothes for fear of scorn.

Thanks to the anonymity of the internet, too many people feel like they can critique others with impunity. Unfortunately, the fear of online harassment is just another example of how Eilish has become a mirror for her anxious generation. Such peanut gallery commentating causes widespread harm.

So to avoid losing, Eilish has stepped out of a game she shouldn’t have had to play in the first place.