Selena Gomez, power without makeup

She sees the day when the desire for elsewhere wavers. The only things that escape from Grand Prairie to proudly cross the borders are the F-8 Crusaders, the A-7 Corsair II and other fighter planes that are manufactured there. At the origin of this city on the outskirts of Dallas, dozens of hectares sold off to a slave owner for a herd of cattle and a broken wagon. So much for potential. One hundred and thirty years later, it is the postcard of a certain America: a cinema, 22 churches… And the cult of getting by. The future actress was born there under the seal of improvisation.

The mother, Amanda, 16, and Ricardo, the father, 17, entrust the baby to the grandparents during high school hours. Selena will reveal: “It was difficult for me. My parents were children, so we all grew up together.” She is 5 years old when the couple explodes. She discovers the strength of a woman: Amanda, who raises her alone, accumulates three small jobs, begs for alms to put gas in the car and macaroni and cheese on the plates. Above all, this theater fanatic transmits the joy of acting to a little girl withdrawn into herself. They start to dream.

A first role at 10 years old

Hope is carried to regional stages. Through castings, luck awakens. Selena lands her first job at 10: a role in “Barney & Friends”, “L’île aux enfants” made in the USA. For the solitary schoolgirl, film sets and imaginary worlds become a refuge. Soon, the supreme kingdom of baby stars calls her: Disney Channel, the destiny machine that has shaped Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, her idol. A whole generation will grow old watching her earn her stripes, from the series “Hannah Montana” to “Wizards of Waverly Place”.

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Unmissable rendezvous of a youth babysat by TV. With her natural mischief and her carefully strangled voice, her mixed beauty, mixed with Italy and Mexico, the princess of entertainment becomes essential. And ambitious. Why settle for a small screen aura? She made her film debut in “A Cinderella Story 2”, extended the fairy tale by releasing three albums with the modestly titled group Selena Gomez and the Scene. While Britney Spears, trashy angel, continues to sink, she asserts herself as a clean and professional darling, a darling without a story or dark side. Even if it means stripping away her image of Miss Smooth with the sulphurous “Spring Breakers”, a thriller mixing sex, alcohol and drugs. Or on the arm of the enfant terrible of pop, Justin Bieber.

Like her, he experienced the vertigo of celebrity before that of puberty. They form the “Jelena”, a surprise-party version of “Brangelina”, triggering tears and hysteria with each appearance, each revealed breakup, each official reconciliation. With the Canadian singer, the revelation of the year becomes the new social phenomenon to dissect. His first two solo albums take first place on the Billboard charts. In 2016, as she embarks on a sold-out world tour, nothing seems to be able to slow down her race as a hurried star. And yet. In the middle of the “Revival Tour”, to everyone’s surprise, Selena Gomez cancels all her shows with a cry from the heart: behind the “good life”, she struggles. Suffering is her shadow.

Fans discover the hidden side of Selena. She is 23 years old and has been battling lupus for months. A chronic autoimmune disease and the Latin name given to the wolf. The disease is eating away at her from the inside. The cells that are supposed to defend her from infections and diseases are turning against her body, attacking her joints and leaving her nerves raw. The documentary “My Mind & Me”, which followed her for six years, shows her bedridden, a blank stare where all the shades of black emerge. She struggles to get up. Especially since the medications make her tremble and reality wavers. Panic attacks, nagging anxiety, depressive episodes: the exhausted singer is the plaything of dark thoughts. A voice in her head relentlessly puts her down, another suggests a way out. Unrecognizable, she goes to the psychiatric hospital and the axe falls in three syllables: bipolar; the roller coaster of psychosis. This is why she gets excited and suddenly becomes desperate.

Selena Gomez hesitates to share this diagnosis with her fans. For a short while only. She no longer cares about being at the top: she will be the icon of ups and downs. With her friend Taylor Swift, she reinvents the codes of popularity and changes dimension by playing the unfiltered beauty. Taylor touched the public by sharing her diary; Selena will shake up America by opening her health record to them. Without avoiding anything. Neither her kidney transplant in 2017, nor her relapses. X-ray of a hyperstar.

The artist makes his business a manifesto

At 20, the UNICEF ambassador admitted to being concerned about “the issue of stray dogs”. A few years later, she is the queen of those called “underdogs”, priestess of the battered around the world. How many wounded souls will tell her? The second she dared to speak, they were no longer alone. Selena Gomez is changing the narrative of idols and the definition of “power women”. No more simulacra of perfection ready to explode in mid-flight. She imposes herself as a woman of flaws and battles. Even when she goes into business, the artist makes her business a manifesto, a reflection of her struggles. In 2020, she created Rare Beauty, her makeup line. Like a logical continuation. And like Kylie Jenner, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez. Selena Gomez, for her part, denies having founded “yet another brand of eyeshadow”.

Her leitmotif: helping clients face everyday struggles and accept themselves. A philosophy summed up by her final tirade of “My Mind & Me”: “I am at peace. I am angry. I am sad. I am confident. I am full of doubts. I am under construction. I am up to it.” There is no doubt about it. Not only has her brand propelled her to the head of a fortune estimated at $1.3 billion according to Bloomberg, but the it girl named Louis Vuitton’s muse in 2016 knows how to combine devilish beauty with divine goodness.

A branch of her company, philanthropic, is dedicated to mental health and invisible ailments. She would have started to tame her own. In “Emilia Perez”, the musical comedy by Jacques Audiard, she plays the wife of a cartel leader who discovers herself in adversity. A role of composition but not really. It earned her the honors of the Croisette last May, with her partners Zoe Saldana and the transgender actress Karla Sofia Gascon. The fans applauded the clearing in the life of a tormented woman, in a relationship for a few months with the producer Benny Blanco, her “light”, more teddy bear than bad boy.

In early September, Selena Gomez took transparency and courage up a notch in an interview with “Vanity Fair”: she who had promised herself to start a family before the age of 35 will not be able to carry a child. Her health problems would put her life and that of a baby in danger. “I had to grieve,” she confided. Demonstration of resilience: “It made me very grateful for the other possibilities offered to those who are dying to be mothers. I am one of them. I can’t wait to find out what that journey will be like, but it will be a little different. At the end of the day, I don’t care. It will be mine. It will be my baby.” In the name of love, the tornado from Texas continues her quest: to make teenagers dance and waltz taboos.