What is hypermobility? All about Billie Eilish's hip injury at the age of 13 that ended her dancing dreams

Billie Eilish, a singer who's well-known for her active enthusiasm in her live shows and concerts, suffers from hypermobility. According to the Cleveland Clinic, hypermobility, clinically called Joint Hypermobility Syndrome, is a genetic condition wherein a person has an unusually flexible range of movement in their joints.

The bad guy singer was first diagnosed with the syndrome following a severe growth plate injury in her hip that she incurred at 13. The injury ended her dancing career, which she was passionate about from the age of 8. Billie Eilish was an avid student at the Revolution Dance Center in Montrose for years before beginning her career in music.

It was at the request of her dancing instructor that the singer-songwriter decided to record the first song that brought her fame, Ocean Eyes. Eilish initially had no intentions for the song besides performing her next dance recital to it.

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Billie Eilish confessed music replaced dancing for her after a hip injury at 13

Opening up about her hip injury in a 2020 Vogue interview, Billie Eilish recalled how the injury came right after she had recorded Ocean Eyes with her brother, thereby ending her dancing ambitions at 13. The songstress further said:

"I got injured right after we made 'Ocean Eyes,' so music kind of replaced dancing."

Billie Eilish also shared feeling alienated in her own skin in the years that followed her hip injury and subsequent lower body injuries. It took several misdiagnoses before she discovered from her movement coach at present, Kristina Canizaires, that she suffered from hypermobility.

In her 2021 documentary, Billie Eilish: The World's A Little Blurry, Eilish opened up about the injury that ended her dancing ambitions, saying:

"I used to dance like 12 hours a week. And then I got injured. I tore my growth plate in my hip, the bone separated from the muscle. It was the most depressing year of my life. I just laid in bed; I couldn't move."

The Cleveland Clinic notes that, while hypermobility is not a curable condition, taking medications and strengthening your muscles can help manage the pain that accompanies it.

In her Vogue interview, Billie Eilish recalled how she had a distraught relationship with her body growing up, saying:

"Going through my teenage years of hating myself and all that stupid s***, a lot of it came from my anger toward my body, and how mad I was at how much pain it's caused me, and how much I've lost because of things that happened to it."

Hypermobility also made the songstress resistant to treatments including "certain kinds of massages and chiropractors," her mother, Maggie Baird, disclosed to Vogue. The Bellyache singer also revealed how she ultimately made peace with her body, sharing:

"I felt like my body was gaslighting me for years. I had to go through a process of being like 'My body is actually me.' And it's not out to get me. Once I realized we were in it together, my life just got a lot better, you know?"

In a 2021 Elle interview, the singer-songwriter revealed that she was finally in a "good place in her life and her relationship with her body," compared to her adolescent years when she struggled with disordered eating and complex issues with food.

Billie Eilish revealed how she was in a "horrible" relationship with her body, when she used to starve herself, further revealing:

"I remember taking a pill that told me that it would make me lose weight and it only made me pee the bed - when I was 12. It's just crazy. I can't even believe... I thought that I would be the only one dealing with my hatred for my body, but I guess the internet also hates my body. So that's great... The internet hates women."

Eilish's interview with Elle came roughly a year after the singer released a short film titled Not My Responsibility, which is a commentary on body shaming and the double standards placed upon women's appearance.