Billie Eilish announced as PETA’s 2021 Person of the Year

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has announced that Billie Eilish has been chosen as its 2021 Person of the Year.

Eilish was chosen due to her work developing leather-free footwear, and for getting designers such as Oscar de la Renta to go fur free. Previous honourees include Joaquin Phoenix, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey and Anjelica Huston.

In addition to her promotion regarding responsible and vegan materials, Eilish also released an Air Jordan shoe collection in collaboration with Nike. Eilish noted on her Instagram that the shoes were “100 percent vegan leather with over 20 percent recycled material.”

Her first perfume contained no animal derived ingredients, and when Oscar de la Renta dressed her for the Met ball, she agreed to partner with them only on the basis that the brand would ban fur from its future products.

The dress itself was a vegan, silk free gown, as the Met Gala’s co-chair she implemented exclusively vegan meals for the first time ever.

Eilish has been vegan since she was 12, saying “I learned about the dairy industry and the meat industry…I just can’t go on in my life knowing what’s going on in the animal world and not doing anything about it.”

“Billie Eilish is making sure that the party’s over for meaty, milky meals as well as for leather, fur and silk,” said PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is happier than ever to celebrate her for seizing every opportunity to point out that vegan fashion and foods are kinder to the animals and the planet we share with them.”