in 2017, she was a 15-year-old who was coming off her first brush with success in the form of her single “Ocean Eyes” and getting ready to record a debut album. In 2018, she revisited the footage from the first interview, and already so much had changed about her life. She was getting ready to releaseand when she revisited the interview, she spoke frankly about some of the stress and anxiety she was feeling in the run-up. That video ultimately garnered more than 57 million views.
When she sat down for the third installment in the series on October 18 this year, which you can watch above, she had the best-selling album of the year, 40 million social media followers, and had cemented her status as a bona fide phenomenon. “Y’all been asking for it, so here we are,” Eilish said at the beginning of the interview. She also thought back to where she was in her life when she sat down for the second interview in 2018. “Back then I thought it was the biggest I was ever gonna be, and I thought it was the most I was ever gonna be recognized, and it was the most anyone was gonna know me. It was the most money that I would have, the most clothes I’d have, the most shoes that I’d have, and what’s crazy [is] it wasn’t.
“Success is not how well people know you, it’s how you’re looked at,” she continued. “I can’t believe people care so much about me.” In 2018, she said she might be safe to go Trader Joe’s, but in 2019, she said she tried and it wasn’t a success. In 2017, the most famous person in her phone was her “homie”whom she has texted with, for being nice even though he doesn’t have to be.
“The most important thing right now probably would be maintaining my happiness, which I’ve been experiencing for the first time in many years lately,” she said. She added that she’s getting used to the attention. “I like being famous. It’s very weird, but it’s very cool.”