When thinking back to our childhoods, some things that automatically come to most of our minds are wearing leggings under jean shorts, begging our parents to buy us the latest Justice T-shirts, and watching old Disney shows with our favorite stars, specifically Selena Gomez.
Gomez was the childhood star of the early 2000s. She appeared in all of our favorites like Wizards of Waverly Place, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Ramona and Beezus, and so much more. In addition to her popularity in the film industry, Gomez was known to be Justin Bieber’s “star crossed lover” throughout this time as well — giving fans even more reason to love her. The couple was spotted everywhere together, from IHOP to award shows.
However, over the past few years Gomez has been laying low and taking a break from her typical celebrity lifestyle. She has released new music, but her songs have taken a much darker turn in comparison to her old vibe. “Lose You to Love Me” reaches a different target audience in 2020 than “Come and Get It,” which was released in 2013. From finding a deeper meaning in her music to deleting all social media apps off her phone, Gomez has taken the past few years to focus on her mental health and wellbeing, and has only recently opened up as to why she had been staying off the grid.
In the beginning of 2015, Gomez told her fans about her struggles with lupus, a chronic illness that she needed to be treated for with chemotherapy. In 2017, she received a kidney transplant due to the autoimmune disease. Not only did this illness cause Gomez extreme physical side effects, but it took a huge toll on her mental health. It caused her to have severe weight gain, which trolls on the internet hammered her for. Additionally throughout this time, Gomez was struggling with depression and bipolar disorder which was caused by lupus.
But it wasn’t until recently that she shared these struggles with the world. This led to Gomez having panic attacks before shows, and almost losing her sanity because no one could truly understand what she was going through; it is not common to find another celebrity with lupus in the mainstream media.
Although some fans may be curious as to why it took Gomez so long to open up about her battles with her mental health, for others, including myself, the answer to that is easy. It is because times are different, and today’s society is more motivated and open to spreading mental health awareness.
In today’s world, influencers are using their platforms to educate their audiences about mental health disorders, and they’re inspiring others to do the same. The body positivity movement on social media is so powerful that people have begun to become annoyed with the praise that “fat” or “overweight” people receive. But when Gomez was beginning to go through this crisis, society was not as accepting. In 2017 when the Netflix show Gomez was executive producer on, “13 Reasons Why,” was released, she got completely slammed by people on the Internet. Critics said that she was giving kids “the wrong idea” when it comes to suicide, when all she was doing was trying to raise awareness and normalize the topic. When “13 Reasons Why” first came out, schools were appalled at its graphic nature and raw, unfiltered script. Many schools sent emails to parents advising them to keep an eye on their children and make sure that they didn’t watch the show, fearing that it would lead to more suicides. This surely must have hurt Gomez, as the last thing that someone who’s struggling with depression wants to do is rub off on others as well.
Now that we’re aware of what Gomez has been going through for the past few years, a connection may be made between her own experience with deteriorating mental health and her passion for producing “13 Reasons Why”. Did Gomez choose to be heavily involved in producing the series because of her own struggles? If so, the criticism that she received for the show definitely did not make it any easier on her, and it may have even contributed to her pulling away from the public eye in the past couple of years.
2021 Selena is a completely different person. She’s back and better than ever. Since returning to the public eye, she has been praised for opening up about her bipolar disorder and depression and has even talked about her weight gain due to lupus. She has received love and support from her fans. She was able to talk about the body shaming comments on her Instagram posts that contributed to her staying off of social media for the past couple of years and was completely open and honest, something that has never been easy for her to do. Just like she was an inspiration to us back in 2010 with her pigtails, Sketcher sneakers and glitter bows, Selena Gomez continues to inspire us all, even in the midst of a pandemic, to open up about our struggles. If Selena does it, then it has to be the cool thing to do, right?