The singer/songwriter was diagnosed when she was 11 years old
Billie Eilish is a GRAMMY award-winning singer, a fashion icon, a dedicated advocate and a person with Tourette syndrome -- and she says her diagnosis is a part of what makes her, her.
Opening up to David Letterman on season 4 of his Netflix series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, the "Happier Than Ever" singer shared details on her neurological disorder.
"I'm very happy to talk about it," Billie assured after she experienced a tic on-stage during the interview. “If you film me for long enough, you’re gonna see lots of tics,” she said.
The "Bad Guy" singer says she experiences physical tics that have just become synonymous with who she is because they are so frequent.
Billie told Letterman, "I never don't tic at all, because the main tics that I do constantly, all day long, are like, I wiggle my ear back and forth and raise my eyebrow and click my jaw ... and flex my arm here and flex this arm, flex these muscles. These are things you would never notice if you're just having a conversation with me, but for me, they're very exhausting."
The 20-year-old singer says that the tics tend to subside when she is focusing on something and moving around, which is why she doesn't have tics on stage while performing. “When I’m moving around, I’m not even ticcing at all,” she explained.
While it's clear Billie's Tourette syndrome has not stopped her from achieving success, she does say that before being famous she felt more alone in her diagnosis.
“What’s funny is so many people have it that you would never know,” Eilish said. “A couple artists came forward and said, ‘I’ve actually always had Tourette’s.’"
David Letterman's series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction is available for streaming on Netflix.
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