Billie Eilish is opening up about a part of her life that not many people seem to understand.
The 20-year-old singer appeared on David Letterman's talk show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. There, the veteran interviewer asked her about her Tourette syndrome after noticing a tic. Billie, who has never hidden that she lives with the neurological disorder, confirmed she was comfortable talking about it, though she hasn't really done so in the past.
Billie revealed that a lot of people don't understand what her illness entails. She was first diagnosed when she was 11 and finds that although her tics have decreased significantly over the years, they still creep up in her downtime.
After noticing one of Billie's tics, David Letterman asked if they could discuss her life with Tourette syndrome.
"If you film me for long enough, you’re going to see a lot of tics," she said.
"I actually really like answering questions about it because it's really interesting, and I am incredibly confused by it. I don't get it."
Billie's tics have reduced significantly since she was first diagnosed at 11 years old. When someone does notice one, she says they often don't know how to react.
"The most common way that people react is they laugh because they think I'm trying to be funny," she shared. They think the movement is her attempting to be funny and not the involuntary situation it actually is.
"And so they go, 'Ha,' and I'm always left incredibly offended by that," she admitted.
"Or they go 'What?' and then I go, 'I have Tourette's.'"
Billie noted that Tourette syndrome is a lot more common than most people realize. She even said that there are "a couple of artists" who have confided in her about their own diagnoses.
"I'm not going to out them because they don't want to talk about it," she said.
"But that was really interesting to me because I was like, 'You do? What?'"
Billie says that because there isn't a lot of visibility around Tourette syndrome and it has often been made a punchline, a lot of people don't feel comfortable being public with it. As a result, it stays misunderstood and elicits the kinds of reactions that people living with the syndrome quietly fear.
Billie explained that she doesn't experience tics when performing or doing other physical activities. She finds that she experiences them more in her down time.
"These are things you would never notice if you're having a conversation with me, but for me, they're very exhausting," she shared. She even demonstrated some of her most common tics.
"I wiggle my ear back and forth and raise my eyebrow and click my jaw and flex this arm here and this arm there."
Billie admits that she doesn't love having Tourette syndrome. She has, however, "made friends with it" to get by, and that's working for her.
