Selena Gomez can't believe she was her own biggest body shamer
Anyone who has sat down to watch Selena Gomez’s new documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me came away with the realisation that being Selena Gomez comes with an immense amount of pressure. Sadly, even when things looked picture perfect from the outside, Gomez was still harshly critiquing herself behind closed doors.
A particularly vulnerable scene shows the singer emotional following a rehearsal for her 2015/2016 'Revival' tour (which was cut short due to Gomez entering a facility), with much of the stress in the clip stemming from how she felt about her body. "I wanna have the body to wear it proudly,” she shared in the footage. “I want the booty that I don't have. My body is very young. [It’s about] making sure I look like a woman and not like a 12-year-old boy."
Harsh, we know. But the truth is, most of us are often harsh in the ways we speak about our bodies. And Gomez is as saddened by hearing that kind of self-talk as we are. "The things I was watching from 2016, 2017, 2018; I can’t believe I was that girl," she explained in a conversation with Vulture. "That breaks my heart. I’m grateful to be on the other side, but when I watched, for example, the first part of the film where I discuss my body [I was] completely upset with myself."
"I couldn’t believe the things I was aspiring to be – which really aren’t possible unless you have a lot of money and you’re willing to spend it to do that to yourself," she elaborated. "It really broke my heart. That’s not the feeling I want to give anyone. I hope I don’t. So watching it was a bit shocking and upsetting."
Gomez on the 'Revival' tour
Gomez has, however, shown immense growth in the way she speaks about her body, with it no doubt having a valuable ripple effect on women worldwide. Her ‘real stomachs are back’ TikTok is iconic, after all.
She showcased her kinder approach in a 2021 Vogue video that had her revisit her 2015 Met Gala gown. “I fluctuate a lot with my weight and I remember this night specifically, I didn’t feel good about my body," she shared. "So what was really amazing was that I actually got a chance to work on the dress that fit my body."
"I had such a beautiful time shaping this dress. I think that we came together and built something really beautiful and that fit me really well. That was one of the moments where I was like, I don’t have to be that 19-year-old body shape anymore because I’m not."
That's more like it! And as painful as it must be to watch back footage of yourself putting your body down, the progress she's made is truly incredible, and that's something to be very proud of.
Main image credit: Getty Images
Gomez isn't the only celeb who's spoken about struggling with body image; Lili Reinhart has also shared her experience...
Delaney began her career in the Australian beauty media industry in 2015, landing amidst the glossy world of women’s lifestyle magazines (or more literally, in their beauty cupboards). Since then, she has gone on to write across a multitude of beloved Australian media brands, including OK!, NW, InStyle, and Harper’s BAZAAR. She’s covered every side of beauty content, from directing beauty editorial shoots to rounding up the best glossy serums for golden hour skin. Having spent nearly a decade immersed in the beauty realm, Delaney’s knowledge of beauty is as extensive as her collection of tinted lip oils (read: extremely extensive). Delaney is currently the Digital Managing Editor of BEAUTYcrew, and her beauty wisdom also appears across beautyheaven, ELLE and Marie Claire. She enjoys channelling her personal hobby (testing beauty products) into her professional work (talking about testing beauty products), and considers perfecting the art of a cat eye in a moving car her life’s greatest accomplishment.
