Growing up Gomez: Selena Gomez is leaving the kiddie shows behind and moving on to more adult pursuits
By Dennis Hensley
On her new album, When the Sun Goes Down, Selena Gomez sings about self-acceptance (“Who Says”), infatuation (“Whiplash,” which Britney Spears co-wrote) and taming a misbehaving guy (“That’s More Like It,” co-written by Katy Perry). Yet when asked which track reveals the most about her, Gomez ditches the hearts and flowers and goes right for the jugular. “‘Bang Bang Bang’ is probably the most personal,” she says, referring to a snarky kiss-off anthem directed toward an ex, in which she coos put-downs like, “My new boy used to be a model…he looks way better than you” and “When I’m out having fun, you’re gonna be the one that’s broken.”
OK, so it’s not “You Oughta Know,” but for a sweet, self-described nervous girl from Grand Prairie, Texas, who came up through the Disney Channel School of Stardom as a regular on the series Wizards of Waverly Place and in TV movies like Princess Protection Program, it seems downright edgy. Is that what she intended? “A little bit,” says Gomez, laughing off the suggestion that she’s tapping into her inner Alanis. “This album’s a lot more personal. I had a little bit more control over it, which is nice.” For the cover image, Gomez serves up full ’20s screen siren in pearls and marabou. “I always do the same long dresses and flowy hair,” says the singer, who turned 19 in July, “so I wanted to do something different.”
Playing with her image is but one part of Gomez’s grand plan to navigate the perilous road between child and adult stardom, where for every Jodie Foster triumph there are a dozen Lindsay Lohan flame-outs. “I think Shia LaBeouf has made a really good transition,” says Gomez. “He came from the Disney Channel and he’s doing really well.” A major step in her evolution was saying goodbye to Wizards in May after four seasons. “On the last morning, I cried before I even put my makeup on,” she says. “But I wasn’t depressed. It was a good feeling.”
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This summer, Gomez released her most grown-up movie yet, Monte Carlo, co-starring Leighton Meester, and took the spotlight as co-host of the MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto. “That was the best awards show I’ve ever been to,” she says. “I still talk about it.”
Then there’s her well-documented romance with Ontario-born pop phenomenon Justin Bieber. Though Gomez is determined to keep the details of their relationship under wraps, she will share her favourite Bieber Canadianism. “He says ‘Eh?’ a lot,” she says with a laugh. “And ‘Lookit.’ He says that’s a Canadian thing too, but I don’t know.”
Gomez and Bieber are regular targets of the paparazzi, even caught shopping together at an Armani Exchange store in New York. But for Gomez, retail therapy sessions like that are rare. “I have to be in the mood to go shopping,” she says. “I can’t stand shopping for jeans—I hate having to try them on. But I can shop for shoes for days.” Her current favourites are a pair of soft-pink heels that she got on sale.
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She does, however, collect interesting pieces on her travels. “I like to find things that are kind of original or things that I can make original, in random places,” she says. “When we were making Monte Carlo, I went to this flea market in Italy and got some cute, flowy dresses and these really soft shorts. Other than that, I didn’t do too much shopping. Leighton Meester, though—Leighton did a lot of shopping in Paris. She was so funny. She’s probably more of a shopper than I am.” Gomez’s elegant Dolce & Gabbana or Giambattista Valli red-carpet looks frequently make best-dressed lists, but she claims she isn’t in it for the accolades. “I don’t go out of my way to dress for other people,” she says. “I definitely dress for myself.”
Gomez may be a red-carpet sophisticate, but until recently, she’d still get giddy when she heard one of her songs in public. “I was in L.A. at a Starbucks when I heard one on the radio. I was in the drive-through, and I screamed and called my mom and I was crying. It was a huge moment for me,” she says. “The server probably thought I was an emotional teenager going through something.”
See all posts related to Selena Gomez »
Check out Selena Gomez on the October issue of FASHION Magazine »
(Image: “Son sólo amigos” by Audrey Pilato)
, infatuation (“Whiplash,” which Britney Spears co-wrote) and taming a misbehaving guy (“That’s More Like It,” co-written by Katy Perry). Yet when asked which track reveals the most about her, Gomez ditches the hearts and flowers and goes right for the jugular. “‘Bang Bang Bang’ is probably the most personal,” she says, referring to a snarky kiss-off anthem directed toward an ex, in which she coos put-downs like, “My new boy used to be a model…he looks way better than you” and “When I’m out having fun, you’re gonna be the one that’s broken.”
OK, so it’s not “You Oughta Know,” but for a sweet, self-described nervous girl from Grand Prairie, Texas, who came up through the Disney Channel School of Stardom as a regular on the series Wizards of Waverly Place and in TV movies like Princess Protection Program, it seems downright edgy. Is that what she intended? “A little bit,” says Gomez, laughing off the suggestion that she’s tapping into her inner Alanis. “This album’s a lot more personal. I had a little bit more control over it, which is nice.” For the cover image, Gomez serves up full ’20s screen siren in pearls and marabou. “I always do the same long dresses and flowy hair,” says the singer, who turned 19 in July, “so I wanted to do something different.”
Playing with her image is but one part of Gomez’s grand plan to navigate the perilous road between child and adult stardom, where for every Jodie Foster triumph there are a dozen Lindsay Lohan flame-outs. “I think Shia LaBeouf has made a really good transition,” says Gomez. “He came from the Disney Channel and he’s doing really well.” A major step in her evolution was saying goodbye to Wizards in May after four seasons. “On the last morning, I cried before I even put my makeup on,” she says. “But I wasn’t depressed. It was a good feeling.”
See all posts related to Selena Gomez »
[caption id="attachment_56415" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Left: Photography by Jag Gundu/Stringer. Right: Photography by Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic."][/caption]
This summer, Gomez released her most grown-up movie yet, Monte Carlo, co-starring Leighton Meester, and took the spotlight as co-host of the MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto. “That was the best awards show I’ve ever been to,” she says. “I still talk about it.”
Then there’s her well-documented romance with Ontario-born pop phenomenon Justin Bieber. Though Gomez is determined to keep the details of their relationship under wraps, she will share her favourite Bieber Canadianism. “He says ‘Eh?’ a lot,” she says with a laugh. “And ‘Lookit.’ He says that’s a Canadian thing too, but I don’t know.”
Gomez and Bieber are regular targets of the paparazzi, even caught shopping together at an Armani Exchange store in New York. But for Gomez, retail therapy sessions like that are rare. “I have to be in the mood to go shopping,” she says. “I can’t stand shopping for jeans—I hate having to try them on. But I can shop for shoes for days.” Her current favourites are a pair of soft-pink heels that she got on sale.
See all posts related to Selena Gomez »
[caption id="attachment_56416" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Left: “Son sólo amigos” by Audrey Pilato. Right: FASHION Magazine October 2011."][/caption]
She does, however, collect interesting pieces on her travels. “I like to find things that are kind of original or things that I can make original, in random places,” she says. “When we were making Monte Carlo, I went to this flea market in Italy and got some cute, flowy dresses and these really soft shorts. Other than that, I didn’t do too much shopping. Leighton Meester, though—Leighton did a lot of shopping in Paris. She was so funny. She’s probably more of a shopper than I am.” Gomez’s elegant Dolce & Gabbana or Giambattista Valli red-carpet looks frequently make best-dressed lists, but she claims she isn’t in it for the accolades. “I don’t go out of my way to dress for other people,” she says. “I definitely dress for myself.”
Gomez may be a red-carpet sophisticate, but until recently, she’d still get giddy when she heard one of her songs in public. “I was in L.A. at a Starbucks when I heard one on the radio. I was in the drive-through, and I screamed and called my mom and I was crying. It was a huge moment for me,” she says. “The server probably thought I was an emotional teenager going through something.”
See all posts related to Selena Gomez »
Check out Selena Gomez on the October issue of FASHION Magazine »
(Image: “Son sólo amigos” by Audrey Pilato)
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