In the public eye, girls and women with strong perspectives are hated. If you're a girl with an opinion, people just hate you. There are still people who are afraid of successful women, and that's so lame.
My brother had written 'Ocean Eyes,' and we recorded it, basing all of the production around contemporary and lyrical dance. I think of most songs that way - if you can't dance to a song, it's not a song.
I go through a lot of depression, and I know other people do, too, but I have an outlet that so many people don't. If you have that inside of you and can't get it out, what do you do?
I don't see myself as a pop artist. Like, when you hear 'pop,' you're like, 'Oh, bubblegum, jumpy little girly stuff,' and I feel like, 'Uh-uh. That's not me.'
I love to watch videos, and I've always liked to film and take pictures. I have an eye for really weird things that nobody thinks about. I used to make little movies about myself and then edit them on iMovie.
Sometimes it's flattering when people copy you, but sometimes it gets to a breaking point.
I listen to music all day every day. I can't not listen to music. It's kind of scary how much I listen to music, but it's what I love, and it's all I care about, so I'm good with it.
I feel like I write so that people can think of it as theirs. If my song is exactly about your life right now, then it is - I don't even want to say that it's mine, because it's yours.
All of the Vines that were acted & setup & had nice cameras, those weren't the good Vines. The good Vines were, like, a random little kid in the middle of a forest, like, yelling.
What makes a song last is real content from a mind that is thinking a little bit harder about certain things. A lot of artists don't really think that hard.
If you write in the same way over and over again, like, in the same place with the same techniques and with the same people, you're sort of writing the same song over and over again.
I'm pretty sure I don't have any songs that are about how much I love someone. They're all either about, like, 'I hate you,' or 'You make me hate me.'
I used to write random little stupid things when I was five, but then the first song I really wrote was one called 'Fingers Crossed,' which is on SoundCloud.
I just really want to get music out and tour and go places I've never been, and just do more videos. I love photography and videography, and so I really want to direct videos when I can.
Writing a song is so personal. You have to have trust in someone you're working with; otherwise, you're not gonna come out with something that's really you.
I'm trying to show everybody that I'm a girl, and I'm five foot four, and you can do anything you want, no matter your gender. It's your world, too!
I'm super self-critical, which I think is good, because then I get exactly what I want. I'm critical of other people, too - I try not to be, though.
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.
Time is kind of an amazing thing because you can do so much with it. I think people underestimate time... I don't want to just sit on my phone for hours.
People think you have to go through something to write about it, and you absolutely do not. You can write about, like, a shoe. It's a story.
I don't know how to function without music. When I'm not making it, I'm listening to it. It gives me courage and takes care of my mind.
I'm not going to say I'm cool, because I don't really feel that. I just don't care at all, and I guess that's what people think is cool.
If I'm inspired to make a certain kind of song, I'm going to make that kind of song, no matter if it's what they know me as or think I am.
Words are more powerful than some noises. Noises won't last long. Lyrics are so important, and people don't realise that.
Getting recognized is insane. It just blows my mind. Like, someone who you don't know at all can just be like, 'Oh my God - are you Billie?'
I think everybody deserves an equal amount of appreciation whether how old they are, but I mean, I'm cool with the praise. I'm good.
I grew up on the Beatles; I love Linkin Park and Green Day. I heard hip-hop for the first time at 11 and realized what I was missing.
I'm gonna make what I want to make, and other people are gonna like what they're gonna like. It doesn't really matter.
People have so much going on in their heads. I'm like, If you could write a song, you'd feel so much better!
My whole life, I've sung and listened to music, and since the beginning, I've had iTunes and used Apple Music for streaming.
If I'm in a bad mood, or if I'm uncomfortable, it's probably what I'm wearing that's making me feel that way.
I feel like I might be a designer or stylist - or a director because I have always been super interested in cameras and editing.
I don't really get nervous that much, or if I do, only I know. It's all inside me. I am good at hiding everything.
Pretty much my whole life, I've been a performer and have loved singing and writing songs in my room for my own ears.
If I make music and people hate it, you know, whatever. I'll die someday, and one day, they will too.
I think it's really cool when artists have song titles or album names that are a really conversational sentence.
You can write a song about being in love with someone, but you don't have to be in love with anyone.
I've always been a singer. I never really decided I was gonna be a singer. It just kind of - I just sung a lot.
We uploaded 'Ocean Eyes' to SoundCloud, and it started getting a lot of plays pretty much immediately.
What inspires me about rap is that it's written in an almost poetic way. I just think it's so cool.
Pirate was going to be my middle name, but then my uncle had a problem with it because pirates are bad.
I really like hip-hop and rap; that's my main influence. I really wanna be more of a hip-hop artist.
I used to make little movies when I was younger. I'd make my friends be in them and then edit them.
I don't even call them fans. I don't like that. They're literally just a part of my life; they're a part of my family. I don't think of them as on a lower level than me. I don't think I'm anything but equal to all of them. So yeah, they're basically all of my siblings.
I play piano and ukulele, and I taught myself those things just because I wanted to play them.
When I do have free time, I spend it with friends, or I spend it at home writing or making something.
It's really fun to put yourself into a character - into shoes you wouldn't normally be in.
There are alway going to be bad things. But you can write it down and make a song out of it.
I had a period in my life where I decided that I would never be bored again and that, if I had any free time at all, I would make plans, and I would always be doing things. It actually was great for a year or so, but then I lost all of my friends.
I have so many designs and video ideas and lyrics in my head, so I always try to be productive.
In real life, I'm a really smiley person. I smile when I talk and I laugh.
It's rare for anyone to value the opinions of a teenage girl.
I always wanted to be a Vine star. I wasn't, thank God.
I've always liked being busy. If I have nothing to do for a week, it just makes me mad.
Sexism is everywhere, bro. I don't know if it's ever not somewhere.
Smiling makes me feel weak and not in control and not powerful and small.
When I was four, I wrote a song about falling into a black hole.
Aside from singing, I'm also a dancer. I've been dancing since I was 8.
Some artists just ruin their voices because they don't know any better.
I've always done whatever I want and always been exactly who I am.
I like to be in control of how I look and how I feel and how I act.
I've been in the Los Angeles Children's Chorus since I was 8.
I love people talking about me; I love anybody just looking at me.
I always wear the kind of stuff that makes you overheat and die.
Clothing & fashion are kind of my security blanket, almost.
Lyrics are so important, but they're really underrated.
People are terrified of me, and I want them to be.
It's really fun to be on stage in front of people.
I'm a really particular person. I want it my way.
I don't think a song should be put in a category.
If it's good music, it's good music.
I really wanted to be a model when I was little. I loved photography, and I loved being on camera. But I was short and chubby, so I couldn't. Anyway, being an artist is way more interesting than just being a model because it's about you and what you want to be. You're not being treated like a clothes hanger.
I never thought a career as a musician was possible.
When I write, I try to become different characters.
I always want to create and do things, or draw.
Writing music is just like writing a book.
Nothing really scares me, to be honest.
I love movement. I love moshing.
I hate the idea of genres.
I wrote my first song at 12 and remember someone asking, 'What were you going through at 12 that you could write about?' I get what you're saying, but 11, 12, 13 were the hardest years of my life. You learn everything. You learn how horrible things feel.
I find a lot of inspiration through visuals. When I was 12, I saw Aurora's 'Runaway' music video. Something inside me clicked, like, 'That is what I want to do, no matter whether it goes anywhere or not.'
I felt like, for so many years - and I still even feel it - as a girl, you can't really expect to go on stage and dress like a boy and jump around and scream with the audience and mosh and stuff, and every time that happens, I feel really proud.
I really love Linkin Park, and I loved Chester Bennington, and it is horrible what happened to him. I grew up listening to him because my dad would make these mixtapes with a lot of different artists - Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne, The Beatles, Sarah McLachlan, I just really loved Linkin Park, and their production is really sick.
Me and my brother get along super well. We're, like, best friends. So we'll stay up until, like, five just talking because we get along and, you know, it's cool. And he respects my opinions, and I respect his, even if we don't have the same opinions, but a lot of the time we do.
I work with my brother Finneas, and he produces all of my music in his little bedroom in our house. We actually tried renting out a studio for a month when we were producing 'Don't Smile at Me,' but it was really hard there, and we ended up just doing it at home anyway.
I'm a really artistic person, and so, with the live stuff, there's a lot that I think is really cool. Beyonce and Rihanna have all these dancers. So with the live costumes and video costumes, I'd really like to have my vision. The way that I want people to dress is very specific. I love fashion.
Being an artist doesn't just mean you have a song. That doesn't make you an artist. The word 'artist' means so many different things, and I feel like to be a real one, you really have to do it all. The people that I think of as artists - Tyler the Creator, Childish Gambino, Kanye West - are doing the most.
I don't want people at my shows to come out and say, 'I just saw a cool show.' I want them to say, 'I had fun at the show.' I want it to be a collaborative thing and be part of the audience and have them be part of me. I try to interact with everyone there and have them be equal to me because they are.
'Bellyache' is totally fictional. I like writing about things that aren't real. The song is about not trusting anyone and then putting trust in yourself and realizing that you don't know what you are doing, either. Or realizing that things you do with a group of people that you think are cool in the moment are ultimately all on you.
