In a lot of ways, Selena Gomez sounds like many 25-year-old women. She loves “queso and chips” at Chili’s, idolizes Meryl Streep “because of her elegance and . . . how she carries herself,” and is extremely proud of her Mexican heritage but “still need[s] to learn Spanish.”
But Gomez also has 133 million followers on Instagram, loves designer shoes and bags, dates Justin Bieber and got a kidney transplant last year.
She is also the cover interview for the March issue of Harper’s Bazaar (on newsstands Feb. 20), where she speaks fairly candidly on a number of topics but just as pointedly doesn’t address others (the Bieb, #MeToo).
While she doesn’t specifically mention her kidney transplant, necessitated by complications from lupus, she does touch on her past issues with “depression and anxiety.” And while she is optimistic about 2018, she knows that the battle will be one that she’s “gonna have to face for the rest of my life.”
Staying grounded when talking about social media, she says her Instagram relationship is “complex.”
On the one hand it’s empowering because “it’s my words and my voice and my truth.” But the weight given to social media by her peers concerns her. “The only thing that worries me is how much value people our age place on social media. It’s an incredible platform, but in a lot of ways it’s given young people, myself included, a false representation of what’s important.”
She also praises the ability of technology to bring people together, because “thanks to the internet, no matter who you are, you know you’re not alone.”
Gomez also knows that fans are eager for her next album, that “has been forever in the making.” But she’s not going to rush it. “If that takes 10 years, then it takes 10 years. I don’t care. Right now I just want to be super intentional with all of the things I’m doing.”
