17-year-old singer Billie Eilish was on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show yesterday. This is the first time I’ve seen her speak. She came across as much older than 17, very mature while still conveying some teenage wonder. Billie is somewhat of a child progeny, having started writing music when she was 11. In 2016, her first single, Ocean Eyes, went viral and led to her debut album, Don’t Smile at Me. In addition to negotiating fame at such an early age, Billie has lived with Tourette Syndrome her whole life. Tourette Syndrome is a type of tic disorder. According to the Tourette’s Association’s website, “Tics are involuntary, repetitive movements and vocalizations.” Last November, after someone posted video of her tics, Billie revealed in an Instagram story that she had Tourette Syndrome. While on Ellen, she said she hadn’t brought it up until that moment because she doesn’t want to be defined by it.
It’s something I’ve lived with my whole life. And everybody knows. Like, everybody in my family, all my friends, all the people that are closest to me know I have it. And it’s not anything different, you know? And, I just never said anything because I didn’t want to. I didn’t want that to define who I was. I didn’t want it to be ‘the artist with Tourette’s, Billie Eilish, is on Ellen.
I’m getting very maternal here, thinking about this poor 17-year-old who was “outed” by her followers. Good on her for being able to articulate her thoughts about it so well. As Ellen said, it does take the scariness away when public figures admit to living with such disorders. Billie said that once she disclosed her Tourette’s, she found many of her fans have it, so she felt even more connected to them. I understand what she means by not wanting to be defined by just one part of your genetic makeup. And by talking about it, she’ll take control of the conversation.
Tourette Syndrome is commonly used as playground fodder as ‘the swearing disease.’ That whole concept is such a misrepresentation of it. Since roughly 1 in 100 school aged children have Tourette Syndrome, it’s important to educate the public about it. Billie said that in pre-taped interviews, she releases her tics when they cut away for the questions. But there was one interview they didn’t warn her they would not cut away and many of her tics were caught on camera. That was the video that prompted her to speak about it in her Instagram story. I feel bad that she was ‘outed’ before she wasn’t ready, but I am so impressed with how she handled the discussion since it came out.
Plus, when your full legal name is as awesome as Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell, that’s what you should be defined by.
Photo credit: WENN Photos and YouTube
Love her, she is very much her age but still very thoughtful and intelligent which is so refreshing to see.
My daughter has loved her and her music for a couple of years now. Her music is very cool. Good for her!
I’ve never heard of this young woman and then I’ve seen four or five articles on her in the past week. I’ll hand it to her PR folks, they got hustle.
She’s the biggest streaming artist on Spotify at the moment with 3.9 BILLION streams of her music. And has sold over 7.3 million records worldwide. And that’s before ever dropping an album. And the reason you are seeing her everywhere is because her debut album just dropped.
She’ll be fine. She comes from a family that’s super connected with the business (her brother was on Glee), so she was always going to make it in a sense. She reminds me of an edgier more contrived version of Lorde.
As a side note I absolutely hate her fashion which is very petty of me Ik, but I don’t understand this trend of ugly fashion on purpose. I don’t think it’s some anti-beauty ideal thing either, because I’ve watched videos on it and they try really hard to come up with these outfit combos. Estoy confudidaaaaaaa
She was always going to make it.
Really? LaToya Jackson is reading this and fuming right now.
Billie’s fans are young, know exactly what they like and could care less about Glee.
Your comment made me laugh but I see what Lynnie was trying to convey. She was homeschooled, her brother ALWAYS worked with her because she has a talent for sure but also – and this is the important bit – she has someone who can promote her and establish links in the industry.
It annoys me a bit because I have kids around her age who then see her success and find themselves lacking. They see how sure of herself she is and all the attention she gets and I am sure that it somehow seems strange that such young girl has the platform and the attention she does.
Yes she was always going to make it because she’s personally driven, has a level of talent above/different from her current peers (which helps because the mainstream pop market is at it’s blandest rn), fits the suicidal but “lol it be like that sometimes ¯_(ツ)_/¯” real life meme niche that’s very popular and trending with the market she’s selling to rn, and has a well connected, and I’m assuming sane, family that wants to see her succeed. The Jackson family is not a good example as far I’m concerned when it comes to the last point, and LaToya had her own personal issues that were too much and ultimately interfered with her career. I can’t speak to her talent, because she was before my time, but I’m assuming that there’s a reason why her and the rest of the Jackson 5 careers withered while Janet’s and Michaels didn’t.
I brought up Glee to illustrate an example of how her family is a stage family, and how her current rise isn’t a complete stroke of luck/spontaneous. Her PR push has been trying to make it seem otherwise, and since she’s relatively unknown a lot of the authors and people listening to her don’t know that either.
That being said a lot of her fanbase is young yes, but a lot of them also grew up with Glee too and honestly I’ve seen the overlap quite a bit. Internet culture is strange.
ETA: Your last paragraph @Snowslow is what fueled my original comment, but I couldn’t get it out in words properly so thanks for that! =)
Man she’s been everywhere for the last 6 months or more. I’m not really a fan of her voice, but that’s just my opinion. She seems to be thoughtful, I don’t know about being wildly mature, but compared to some people her age she’s definitely more mature.
I think it’s just a case of hearing “ohhh she’s the anti-popstar” but we hear that about someone SO OFTEN. She’s not the first to jump on the more alternative thing, so that’s always kind of bugged me, I guess. I’m willing to concede that for her age group she’s probably one of the main alternative anti-trend girls.
Either way, it’s annoying that it got out before she was ready. It must feel horrible to have to deal with that kind of thing, and I can’t imagine going through that at 17. I will say though – it will help other kids with tourettes – visibility is important. It’s just awful that she didn’t get to do it on her terms.
I love Billie Eilish! She’s insanely talented and a breath of fresh air on the music scene. Ive been listening to her album non-stop. It’s SO good. She’s coming to Chicago in June around my birthday and you can bet that if I can get my hands on tickets this 38 year old will be rocking right alongside the kids to her music.
I’ve seen her speak quite a few times (she’s all over YouTube) and she’s incredibly smart and well spoken and insightful.
She’s super talented.
Is her accent real? I read that she grew up in LA. Do people in LA sound like this? This is a genuine question, not a slam.
(I saw a video of her interpreting Michael Jackson’s “Bad” and was surprised that she came up with a good interpretation that was her own).
In the Ellen interview, I thought she resembled….Scarlett Johansson face-wise.
She grew up in LA but her family is from the UK. I know many homeschooled kids who grew up in the states but because their parents had accents so do they. She sounds like someone who grew up with a family who has accents.
You know, I wrote that based on something I heard on a podcast but never looked it up. I don’t think her parents are from the UK! I just commented out of my butt. Sorry!
I hope this helps kids with Tourette’s out there.
re: Billie herself, to put it in my 19 years old daughter’s words, “she scares me”. My 13 year old son is obsessed with her and she seems to really be that person who adores attention and who has followers deliver that attention at her feet. So I researched her and I find her super grating: the fact that she can talk about the slightest detail of her life was if she as super interesting shows that she’s lived a privileged life of someone who has links in the industry and is not often questioned.
Her voice is nice and her songs are typical of her age.
I love her. My 10 year old son, who often listens to mumble rappers etc., is a huge fan and I’m so happy he’s discovered a musician whose music focuses on poetic lyrics and atmosphere. Her musical style is minimalistic, which brings attention to the story and feelings she is conveying. Taking him to see her in May and I look forward to seeing how this all translates to the stage.
I think you mean prodigy, not progeny
Good for her for speaking up about it.
If you haven’t seen it, the documentary called “I have Tourette’s, but Tourette’s doesn’t have me.” is well worth the watch.
https://tourette.org/about-tourette/tourettes-doesnt-have-me/
I have an honest question…
I’ve always heard, and it’s stated in the definition above, that Tourette’s is involuntary; but she said that she waits for the cameras to go off to get her ticks out. Is that possible? Is that something that’s possible with the inclusion of medicine/ treatment, etc?
Just honestly curious
I have tourette’s so I can speak to this! Mine is actually really similar to Billie’s, to the point where I started crying when I saw this post a few days ago (she wasn’t on my radar at all before) because it was so amazing to finally see someone with tics like mine in the public eye and owning it.
Anyway, they -are- involuntary, but it’s more similar to a sneeze or blink than a muscle spasm, if that makes sense (at least for me). Like, you can try really hard to resist blinking or sneezing, but only for so long. Eventually it needs to come out, and it will. A big part of therapy for tourette’s is actually working on those little delays and trying to delay tics longer and longer.
I would guess that a lot of people have coping mechanisms for when/how they do their tics. For me at least, I think the intense shame of being recognized/called out/made fun of for them when I was younger pushed my body into automatic responses. A lot of times in conversations I wait for that one moment when someone looks away and then the tic will come out. I also tend to cover my face in a cough or a yawn and attempt to look natural when I can’t “hold” it anymore and it needs to come out.
Anyway, just wanted to share a little about my experience. Obviously the experiences’ of others might be different, especially those with more severe cases than mine.