Selena Gomez on Her Evolving Approach to Beauty: “It Doesn’t Matter How I Look – It’s How I Feel”

Image Source: Rare Beauty

Selena Gomez would like to make one thing clear: she is not just a headline. She’s more than what you see online, or merely The One Who Dated Him. Her ever-evolving journey to feeling beautiful in her skin has been just that – a journey – and that’s precisely what she wants to celebrate (and destigmatize) with her new cosmetics brand, Rare Beauty.

“I’ve been working since I was 7, so my relationship with makeup has constantly evolved,” Gomez told POPSUGAR. “Through that, there have been moments where maybe I don’t feel my best. Maybe I’m self-critical, maybe I compare myself to other people. That’s the standard I wanted to break with this beauty line.”

Gomez has been vocal about the intersection of mental health and beauty in her own life – a reality she admits only started to shift “a few years ago,” when she began therapy and started having check-ins with herself. It’s also why she’s created the Rare Impact Fund in conjunction with the launch, which will aim to raise $100 million for mental health services throughout the next 10 years.

“I’ve been open about my struggles with anxiety and depression, very publicly,” she said, adding that the time she’s taken for herself to heal reflects in how much happier she is today. “I can transform when I wear makeup because it’s such a crucial part of my life. In film or TV, it creates a character. In music, it can be the whole point of a music video – your eyes, how you’re capturing them. It’s art, in many ways. But once I started getting to the point where I felt like didn’t need [makeup] to feel [beautiful], that was good. And that it was still OK if I did.”

In the end, the journey to self-love has been a process that Gomez is learning leans far less on the physical. “I feel most beautiful when I’m with the people I love – that’s when your guard can be completely down. It doesn’t matter how I look; it’s how I feel.”