Why does Billie Eilish never smile in photos? 

Billie Eilish, the globally recognized superstar, is rarely known for doing things that are conventional. From her constantly changing hair colors to her oversized clothes, nothing about the singer-songwriter reflects convention.

The same is true for her photographers. You'd rarely find one where she is smiling, and it is for a good reason. In a 2017 Harper's Bazaar interview - which was published a little after her debut EP, Don't Smile at Me, came out - Billie Eilish revealed that she avoids smiling because of the social norms surrounding it, which takes away one's control over the action, further saying:

"But you know how when you're walking down the street and somebody smiles at you? You're forced to smile back, that's a polite response. It's like you have no control over it. If I don't smile back you're gonna think I'm horrible. Maybe I am for thinking this, but whatever. And if you don't smile at me, we're good. You can go on with your day."

This strong feeling influenced the title of her first EP, which was released on August 11, 2017. Billie Eilish released a track from her EP each week before its official release—a process that involved "a lot of work," according to the singer.

---

Billie Eilish said smiling makes her feel "weak and powerless"

In her Harper's Bazaar interview, Billie Eilish also opened up about how smiling made her feel, giving the world a deeper insight into why she didn't simply smile in her photos. The singer-songwriter, who was 15 at the time, said:

"I hate smiling. It makes me feel weak and powerless and small. I've always been like that; I don't smile in any pictures. If you look at my Instagram, I have a resting b**** face and I guess I just look sad all the time."

Elsewhere in the interview, Eilish shared that the title of her EP Don't Smile at Me was also influenced by a trend popularized by emo artists who use long sentences as titles for their albums and songs despite them being completely unrelated to the lyrics or the meaning they convey. The Grammy winner further said:

"I think it's really cool when artists have song titles or album names that are a really conversational sentence. Like Spooky Black is one of my favorite artists. He has songs that are called, 'Take the Blame So I don't Have to,' that is so cool and I've never forgotten that... So 'Don't Smile at Me' is abstract and you really have to think about it."

While the interview is about seven years old, looking back at all three of her albums released after 2017, it makes perfect sense why Billie Eilish has stuck to that format when choosing her album titles.

---

Eilish revealed she likes to look "memorable"

Besides the fact that Billie Eilish hates smiling, her non-smiling pictures take a step away from convention, which could also be an outcome of the singer-songwriter's desire to be "different". In a 2017 PaperMag interview, when Eilish was asked what made people think of her as pop's next It Girl, the then-15-year-old responded:

"I'm really different from a lot of people, and I kind of try to be. I don't like to follow the rules at all. If somebody tells me to do something, I'll always do the complete opposite of what they tell me to do."

Billie then explained how her trait of not following rules was also reflected in the way she dressed. It made her look more "memorable," which is something the singer-songwriter strove for. Here's what the Ocean Eyes singer had to say about it:

"If somebody starts wearing something a certain way, I'll wear the complete opposite of that. I've always worn what I wanted to and always said what I wanted to say. I'm super, super out there. I try to dress this much above crazy. I like to be remembered, so I like to look memorable."

Seven years later, Billie Eilish has given her fans many reasons - beyond her non-smiling photographs and different looks - to remember and idolize her. Be it her chart-breaking hits - one after another - or her efforts toward pressing global issues like climate change awareness and animal rights.