Growing up in the public eye, Selena Gomez has had much of her life publicized. Everything from her relationship with Justin Bieber to her 2013 diagnosis with lupus, an autoimmune disease, has been plastered all over the Internet.
In an interview on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Gomez said that this past year has been hard for her as she is trying to find out who she really is. Even through disease, breakups and rumors, the most shocking thing Gomez has had to deal with recently is body shaming.
While Gomez was on vacation in Mexico, she said she was photographed in a bathing suit and received a lot of negative comments, basically saying that she was fat. “It was weird because it’s not just, ‘Oh, she’s fat.’” Gomez said. “It’s like, ‘She’s a mess. She’s gone off the deep end.’ I’m like, because I’m on vacation wearing a bathing suit?”
Gomez isn’t the only one that deals with this.
All celebrities have had their fair share of societal judgment and some don’t handle it well. Gomez, however, handled it with grace. Her new album, Revival, is all about embracing herself and loving exactly who she is. One of the songs on the album called “Kill Em With Kindness” is about how she deals with all the hate that is thrown her way.
According to the NYC Girl’s Project, over 80 percent of 10-year-old girls are afraid of being fat. These aren’t celebrity girls; these are girls just like you and me who are having body issues at 10 years old.
The study also found that by middle school, 40 to 70 percent of girls are dissatisfied with two or more parts of their body. Many people are quick to blame the fashion and entertainment industries for producing an unattainable body image for younger girls. While that may be true, it is everyday people who shame celebrities like Gomez when they gain a few pounds and show off their bodies.
Is this what we should be teaching younger girls? That because a woman’s body weight fluctuates it means she deserves to be ridiculed?
We should lead by example. We need to start teaching younger girls about their bodies and start teaching them how to love themselves for every single pound they weigh. Gomez is doing just that with the platform she has been given.
In a radio interview on On Air with Ryan Seacrest, Gomez said, “I feel very empowered and confident in where I am.”
Even though many horrible things have been said about her, she is choosing to rise above it with her album. This is something that we should look up to because no matter what gender or sexual orientation you identify with, everyone faces body issues at some point. That’s just the world we live in. Being strong, independent and confident with yourself takes time. The reality is that you are never going to change some people’s opinions about you, so why not change the opinions you have about yourself?
DeGeneres said something to Gomez in the interview that really stuck with me, “You can always have the last word if you choose to.”
This couldn’t be truer. No matter if you’re being bullied or discouraged, you can always choose to come out of it stronger, healthier and happier.
“There’s more of me to love and I’m happy with myself,” Gomez said. “I didn’t want them to win.”
So listen to her new album Revival and be happy with exactly who you are just as Gomez is being happy with who she is. As she said, “The next day, it wasn’t about how I gained weight, it was about how I embraced it. And that’s just my kind of approach.”