The Rare Beauty of Selena Gomez
In the two decades since she debuted her acting chops on PBS’ Barney & Friends, the amazing, brave and versatile Selena Gomez has actually tried to let go of every kind of disguise and be the same person in public and private. Even after Bloomsberg recently announced her as a self-made billionaire (with a net worth of USD$1.3 billion), joining the ranks of other industry heavyweights, her demeanor hasn’t faltered. She’s still herself, every step of the way. Every trail she has paved for herself in a miraculously accomplished life has been nothing but impressive.
Whether it’s a red carpet event, starring alongside Steve Martin and Meryl Streep in Only Murders in the Building, or being filmed in a behind-the-scenes look into her life in Apple TV’s My Mind & Me, Selena is just undeniably herself.
Very gutsy for someone who, thanks to the wonder of social media, has the eye-watering responsibility of being the most followed woman on earth.
Her acting achievements alone have so many awards attached to it, and her fame is immense. She’s one of the most followed people on Instagram, Twitter, Spotify and Tik Tok and has topped three consecutive times on numerous Billboard charts with over a billion downloads on her songs, as of this year. She’s a powerhouse, for sure—and deserves her billionaire fame and status.
Born in small-town Grand Prairie, Texas, in 1992, to a Mexican father and Italian-Texan mother, Selina grew up charming, wise-beyond-her-years, and a very confident young girl. Her parents were young when they had Selena—both 16, still in college, and quite ill-equipped to raise a child together. Naive, some would say. Reportedly, when they were trying to find a name for their new daughter, they chose Selena based on the name of a Tejano singer, whose hit song was apparently playing when the consummation was taking place. Lovely.
After the divorce of her parents, when Selena was just aged five, she remained with her mum, Mandy, and her grandparents. Working three jobs at once (at places like Starbucks and all-American eatery, Dave and Busters), Mandy tried her hardest to keep herself together for her daughter. Mandy even searched the seated areas in Starbucks after her shifts to find change so they had enough money for their ramen dinners.
It was Mandy’s strength and love and inner beauty that really made a lasting impact on Selena.
‘She was so cool,’ Selena told Rolling Stone in 2022. ‘She was like Drew Barrymore in the 90’s, with her short hair and butterfly clips. She would make her own clothes. I was like, “Mom, I want to do what you want to do.” And she’s like, “Okay, well, maybe we can put you in theater classes.”’
It was quite early on in her life that she did, in fact, catch that buzzy acting bug, thanks in part to her mum’s intense passion for creating. As side jobs to make ends meet, Mandy often appeared in TV advertisements, music videos and theatre productions whilst also playing a key role in the stage management.
‘She went to one of my rehearsals with me and sat through the whole thing, not moving,’ Mandy told The New York Times in 2017. ‘On the way home, she was quiet, and then she goes, “You know that might be funnier if you did it this way…” And I thought, ‘Oh, no. She’s going to be an actor.’
Lo and behold—and as mothers usually are—Mandy was right. In 2002, Selena got her first taste of screen-time, on the children’s television series, Barney & Friends. This was Selena’s introduction into popular culture too, straight from the get-go.
In 2022, 20 years later, when Gomez made her debut as host of Saturday Night Live, in her opening monologue she even cited the big purple dinosaur as one of her biggest inspirations, and referred to him as a Hollywood icon. She even ended the monologue with a sing-along of the famous ‘I Love You’ song, where she got the entire audience to sing along. Bless.
Her mother had spotted an open casting call audition for the show online. While excited, Selena spent her ninth birthday auditioning for the show. She sat in line with 1400 other children before being picked as one of the cast members. Obviously she got the role of Gianna. That was her start at stardom, for sure.
Over the two-season tenure on Barney, Gomez also got some bit-part roles in films, such as Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and Texas Ranger: Trial By Fire, to name but a few.
Whilst talking to iHeartRadio’s, ‘The Box’ in 2019, Gomez said that her time on the show was like playing in Charlie’s Chocolate Factory, with all the colourful and fun sets. And it was all a learning experience for the young Selena.
‘I was very shy when I was little,’ she told PEOPLE magazine in 2008. ‘I didn’t know what ‘camera right’ was. I didn’t know what blocking was. I learned everything from Barney.’
Getting booted off the show after two seasons (for simply being too old), Gomez (who had gotten quite a bit of attention from possible agents and prospectors) jumped straight into a guest-role in Disney Channel’s The Suite Life With Jack and Cody, where she played Gwen, Cody’s short-term girlfriend. Selena’s first kiss ever was on-screen with Dylan Sprouse, who played Zack. Girls would’ve swooned at that chance!
It’s awkward, because in a 2020 interview with singer and TV host, Kelly Clarkson, Gomez admitted that it was ‘one of the worst days of [her] life’. She said to Clarkson that in her youth she much preferred his twin brother, Cole. That news spread like wildfire, with even the British tabloid, The Daily Mail brandishing the star as having been a ‘trouble-maker’, or a ‘diva’ on set. If you were to visit Selena’s bedroom when she was that age, the fact that she had a massive poster of Cole Sprouse on her wall must say something overlooked by the press.
In 2007, Gomez was given a recurring role alongside another well-known child star, Miley Cyrus, on Disney’s Hannah Montana, as pop-star Mikayla, who inspired her to sort out not just small roles, but big ones too. Growing up in the public eye had its downfalls, however, and the young Gomez started feeling the overwhelming pressure of needing to perform.
Selena, with a rare bravery, tightened her bootstraps and looked further for a big role that she could really sink her teeth into. It was actually with the help of her new friend, Miley Cyrus, that she auditioned and landed her big TV role as Alex Russo, aspiring teenage wizard, who spends her days training magic alongside her brother. Her role on this show made her an instant teenage idol, for sure. Like, we’re talking ‘cult-status’.
‘Acting has, and will always be, my heart,’ Gomez told The Hollywood Reporter this year whilst doing publicity for the fourth season of Only Murders in the Building. ‘There’s so much that I want to do and that I haven’t even scratched the surface of, and it’s exciting to me.’
Back in her Disney days, the Los Angeles Times’ Mary McNamara described her portrayal of Alex as ‘sweet and sassy’. Through her tenure at Waverly Place the series won numerous awards and accolades, making the young Selena one of the 10 most highest-paid children’s TV stars of all time. As of this year, rumors have been spreading like wildfire that Gomez may actually be reuniting on Disney’s remake of The Wizards of Waverly Place, returning as Alex! Watch this space.
‘It is an absolute honor to bring back something that was so important to me and crucial to why I’m here today,’ Gomez said to Teen Vogue in 2020.
What with the pressures of this immense undertaking, and still continuing to feel the impact of her fame, Selena’s next big undertaking was in music—another component to her billionaire status.
In an interview with Jocelyn Vena of MTV News in 2008, Gomez said: ‘I basically want to make music that is fun and that parents and kids can jump around to and have a good time to. I will be singing, and I’m learning drums and playing electric guitar.’
She was initially inspired to start up her band, Selena Gomez & The Scene, by Hayley William’s from Tennessee-based rock group, Paramore. Her record producers at the time, Hollywood Records, wanted her to go for a solo career, as she already had a fan base from her days on Waverly Place, but Selena stucks to her guns and made sure to start the band, just as she had envisioned.
The band started together well, releasing their debut album, Kiss & Tell in 2009. The album’s first single, ‘Falling Down’, was premiered as being a hit track of The Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, which is the second most watched Disney Channel film of all time, beside High School Musical.
Gomez’s music career (both with the band and in her solo career) has offered her resounding success, helping her reach that billionaire status. She’s released three solo studio albums, one compilation album and three EPs, including 2021’s super-successful Revelación. Gomez has also released 36 singles, including six as a featured artist!
Her work has been met with great success, including 3.6 million albums sold.
‘The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve learned that I have to open myself up to all opportunities. Maybe I’ll get burned and not meet the right people, but I won’t know until I do it.’
It was around the time that Selena Gomez & The Scene disbanded that she got her hands on a book from a friend, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Using her ever-growing list of contacts, the young Gomez fought for the book to be adapted into a feature-length film, with little to no traction. She had planned on playing the role of Hannah Baker, a student at Liberty High who leaves behind a set of tapes after killing herself, that detail her many reasons. Netflix then sought out Gomez, filing it away as a TV series, and named Gomez not as an actor on the show, but as an executive producer.
What with everything that was going on at the time, Gomez cut her losses and went on to star in bigger and bigger roles, like The Muppets in 2011, Spring Breakers in 2012 and Girl Rising in 2013, The Dead Won’t Die in 2019 and Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, which she’s starred in 2021 to the present day, with the fourth season coming soon.
Her acting portfolio grew. Her music portfolio grew. Her charity work grew. That’s how you do it. That’s how you gain billionaire status. Hard work, determination.
Over the years, tackling her acting with gusto (and several awards under her belt) and her music gaining more and more fans in the background, Selena took bigger and bigger projects that tested her to the limit. She pushed herself more and more for that triple threat status. It’d be remiss not to mention the giving and charitable nature of the woman too. Gomez is a leading voice on mental health, and gender, racial, and LGBT equality. She’s been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2009.
As well as being an award-winning actress, musician, and all-round talented artist, Gomez is also a highly skillful business woman with a little project Rare Beauty that she holds dear to her heart.
When asked by Entertainment Tonight at the 62nd New York Film Festival premiere of her new musical-drama film, Emilia Pérez at Alice Tully Hall year about her very recent arrival on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, the always graceful, naturally beautiful and hugely talented Gomez gave a response that will go down in history.
She looked at the interviewer, then the camera (maintaining a warm, loving look on her face). There was even a jovial eye-roll and a chuckle, as though merely brushing off the self-made billionaire crown she has recently been bequeathed in, guised with a it’s-not-that-big-of-a-deal mood.
She was courteous, yes, as always, and said she was ‘very grateful’ (who wouldn’t be, now having a net worth of USD$1.3 billion!) Then, the kicker…‘I personally think it’s distasteful to talk about money,’ she continued. ‘I really am giving all the credit to the people who buy the products. They’re the ones that made this dream of mine come true. So I’m really, really honored and just happy.’ What a boss response to a question that is on everyone’s mind right now!
Thanks to her dazzling award-winning screen career on TV and film, her Billboard-topping music (with several Grammy awards and 3.7 million albums sold worldwide to-boot), her huge social media following (with millions of Instagram, Facebook, X, and Tik Tok followers) and make-up brand, Rare Beauty, its no surprise that the star is as big as she is. And she’s worked for it, every step of the way. Alongside her Rare Beauty cosmetic company, she founded the Rare Impact Fund, a cause that she strives in spreading awareness of mental health and wellbeing. Just like everyone else, she’s had her ups and downs, and uses her natural warmth to reach-out to her fans on a human level.
‘I have my days like everyone else,’ she told Vanity Fair, ‘but I’m no victim. I just survived a lot. There isn’t a part of me that wants anyone to feel sorry for me.’
So, you’ve got to give it to the interviewer who asked her about her billionaire status. But Selena’s not bothered about money. She’s just doing what she’s doing to stay happy. Her superstar status, in all honesty, needs little to no proper introduction. Everyone knows her. Everyone girl wants to be her. She doesn’t need a whole razzmatazz set-up to capture an audience. Gomez is by far-and-wide one of the most recognizable people on the planet, and a key component to the global pop culture experience. And she’s not slowing to take a break.
‘I can remember about seven times when our car got stuck on the highway because we’d run out of gas money,’ Gomez told Elle in 2012, recounting her time growing up in poverty. Rising stars have got to start somewhere, and usually it’s at the very bottom so they can hustle as hard as they can, and rise to the top.
That top position is, admittedly, a seat at the illustrious billionaires table (where she is the youngest self-made member of the club), alongside the likes of Jay-Z, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and Bruce Springsteen. Well, she’s got there all by herself. Just drive and determination.
According to Bloomberg reports, the majority of her vast USD$1.3 billion wealth—an estimated 81 percent—has been amassed through her Rare Beauty brand, a project that ‘breaks down the unrealistic standards of beauty’ by offering a huge range of cruelty-free and vegan friendly products that allows anyone who wears it to feel beautiful on the outside and on the inside.
Founded in 2019, the Rare Beauty cosmetic campaign was inspired most by Gomez’s coinciding creative endeavor, her third studio dance-pop album, Rare, which came out in 2020 alongside the campaign.
An indisputable cosmetic line. A best-seller in Sephora; if you know you know. For World Mental Health Day this year, actually, Rare Beauty is partnering up with Sephora to donate 100 percent of its revenue to mental health education and service around the globe.
No surprises that, according to Billboard, Rare Beauty is the fastest-growing celebrity beauty brand on social media. It’s all about putting on that natural beauty and being rare and brave.
‘Being rare is about being comfortable with yourself. I’ve stopped trying to be perfect. I just want to be me. I think Rare Beauty can be more than a beauty brand. I want us all to stop comparing ourselves to each other and start embracing our uniqueness. You’re not defined by a photo, a like, or a comment. Rare Beauty isn’t about how other people see you. It’s about how you see yourself.’
