Since rising to stardom, Selena Gomez has candidly discussed her journey with self-love and body positivity.
“Being in the public eye from such an early age certainly comes with a lot of pressure. It’s hard to feel comfortable when you feel like everyone is watching, judging and commenting on the way you look,” she told Glamour UK in December 2022. “Self-confidence is still something I work on daily, but when I stopped trying to conform to society’s unrealistic standards of beauty, my perspective entirely shifted.”
During a 2019 appearance on the “Giving Back Generation” podcast, Gomez explained that her weight fluctuates as a result of her health issues, such as lupus, kidney problems and high blood pressure.
After her health struggles were mocked on shows such as The Good Fight and Peacock’s Saved by the Bell reboot, Gomez and her fans took to Twitter to fight back.
“I am not sure how writing jokes about organ transplants for television shows has become a thing but sadly it has apparently,” Gomez wrote via Twitter in August 2021. “I hope in the next writer’s room when one of these tasteless jokes are presented it’s called out immediately and doesn’t make it on air.”
She added: “My fans always have my back. LOVE YOU.”
Keep scrolling to see more of Gomez’s most inspiring quotes about body positivity:
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Finding Inspiration
“I was getting a lot of hate for my body and ‘you’re gaining weight’ [commentary] and so I was in Mexico and I was just feeling all of this stuff and I would be lying to you if I said it didn’t kind of hurt my feelings, but I kind of channeled that into my music,” the “Heart Wants What It Wants” singer told Extra TV in 2015 about dealing with cyberbullying.
Gomez noted that Revival tracks “Survivors,” “Kill Em With Kindness” and “Rise” were her attempts to address the negativity she faced online. “It’s all geared towards me trying to be heard,” she stated, calling the album “the best thing that I’ve ever done in my whole career” at the time.
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Taking Back Control
In 2015, the Spring Breakers actress shut down speculation about her weight gain after a trip to Mexico. “I love being happy with me yall #theresmoretolove,” she wrote via Instagram.
That same month, Gomez got honest about her decision to address the criticism. “The reason why I did that is because I didn’t want [the trolls] to win. ‘Cause then, the next day, it wasn’t about how I gained weight,” she said during an interview with Ryan Seacrest in 2015. “It was about how I embraced it. And that’s just kind of my approach.”
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Putting Herself First
During an interview with Glamour UK in February 2022, the Critics’ Choice award nominee detailed her journey with body positivity. “It took me a long time to realize that I only wanted to be myself – that what made me unique was also what made me beautiful,” she shared.
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Choosing Happiness
“So I be trying to stay skinny, but I went to Jack in the Box and I got four tacos, three egg rolls, onion rings and a spicy chicken sandwich,” Gomez said via TikTok in April 2022. “But honestly, I don’t care about my weight because people bitch about it anyway.”
She continued: “‘You’re too small,’ ‘you’re too big,’ ‘that doesn’t fit.’ ‘Meh meh meh meh.’ Bitch, I am perfect the way I am.”
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Learning to Listen to Herself
In June 2022, the Selena + Chef star recalled a challenging experience that affected her body image.
“I actually did an album cover and I was really ashamed after I did it. I had to work through those feelings because I realized it was attached to something deep that was going on,” she explained during a roundtable interview for The Hollywood Reporter. “And it was a choice that I wasn’t necessarily happy that I made, but I think that I’ve done my best, at least I try to be myself.”
Gomez, who was seemingly referring to her 2015 album Revival, noted that she didn’t feel comfortable at the time. “And I’m not an overly sexual person,” she added. “Sometimes I like to feel sexy, but that doesn’t mean it’s for somebody else. It can be for me.”
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A Perfect Beach Body
Gomez uploaded a TikTok of her lounging in a colorful swimsuit on a yacht in August 2022. “Suck it in,” she lip-synced in the clip. “I’m not sucking s—t in. Real stomachs is coming the f—k back, OK?”
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Enjoying Herself
After attending the 2023 Golden Globes with sister Gracie, Gomez fired back at body-shamers via Instagram Live.
“I’m a little bit big right now because I enjoyed myself during the holidays,” she said. “I mean, come on, right?”
Gomez appeared to declare that the sister duo doesn’t “care” as they listened to Miley Cyrus‘ “Do My Thang.”
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Ignoring Comparisons
Gomez reflected on her body evolution while comparing 2013 and 2023 swimsuit pics of herself via her Instagram Story. “Today, I realized I will never look like this again,” she captioned the older bikini pic. While sharing the more recent snap of herself, she wrote, “I’m not perfect but I am proud to be who I am … sometimes I forget it’s OK to be me.”