Billie Eilish’s much anticipated movie, Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour Live in 3D, co-directed with James Cameron, comes out today. My daughter Lyyli, 13, is a big fan, but one of her friends, June, is, their classmates agree, Billie Eilish’s number one fan. Like, June’s whole room is covered with homages to Billie. So is her school cubby. She even has Billie sheets! They could not possibly wait for today. So last week, Lyyli, June, and another friend, Winnie, trekked over an hour north to an early screening of the movie in Albany, New York, thanks to June’s very kind mom.
The film got rave reviews from this trio: “Phenomenal!” “The most amazing thing!” “There are no words!” They say they cried the entire time. For young teens, this is a good thing.
It’s not just that they love Billie’s excellent music or think she is “divalicious” and “so funny.” They also think she is a good person. This matters to them. The movie didn’t have an environmental focus, but Billie’s tour did. And her fans, even a bunch of 12- and 13-year-olds in upstate New York, are well aware that Billie Eilish is a climate advocate. They may not know the exact details, like how much the tour captured on film raised for climate action and community organizations through ticket sales ($13.3 million according to a robust sustainability section on Billie’s website). They may not be fully aware that the pop star is actively trying to redefine what’s possible for sustainable touring on a global scale. But they intrinsically understand that, as they collectively put it, “She cares for everyone and the earth. She cares about us.”
In fact, climate action was intentionally built into every show on the Hit Me Hard and Soft tour—from how fans traveled to shows, to what they wore and ate at venues, to efforts backstage. “The results are unprecedented,” boasts her website. This intention trickles down to her young fans.
Lyyli, who did not attend a live show, was aware that “at her concerts, she has refill water bottle stations so people don’t use too much plastic,” she says. Billie’s website claims that this resulted in 135,260 single-use bottles avoided and prevented 2.84 tons of plastic waste.
June, the mega-fan, knows Billie is really interested in vegan food because it is less resource intensive. June even took a pledge and ate one plant-based meal a day for 30 days. According to Billie’s website, June was in good company; so did 36,036 other fans. With this tour, Billie Eilish says she not only delivered 7.7 million plant-based meal equivalents, she also rescued 5 million pounds of food from landfills.
The young movie goers appreciate that Billie Eilish takes a stand for what she believes in. “If you’re going to use your platform, you should use it for good. She is making the world safer for kids like us,” says my daughter.
She and her friends are somehow all aware that Billie’s mother, Maggie Baird, also works on environmental causes—mostly through food. Billie, it’s been reported, got filmmaker James Cameron’s pitch for this unusual collaboration from her mom, an activist who founded the nonprofit organization Support + Feed. Her mom’s work involves distributing plant-based meals to unhoused communities and others facing food insecurity while also lowering carbon footprint. “She’s just like me! We have the same birthday and our moms both work in environmental causes,” says Lyyli.
Billie explains her approach to Elle magazine, “I was raised like this. When you have this insane platform that you can use to advocate for people, but you’re not advocating for people because you don’t want to be controversial?… Yeah, you’re probably gonna have to deal with some problems, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.”
Asked if they would also work with their own mothers one day, the girls nodded. My child sees her fate and apparently accepts it, saying: “That’s probably going to happen to me no matter what.” Just like Billie and Maggie.