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Amaya Henry

Review: Selena Gomez's "My Mind and Me"

By: AMAYA HENRY/ ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Poster for Selena Gomez's "My Mind and Me." (Photo: @selenagomez on Instagram)

My Mind & Me is a documentary that follows musician and actress Selena Gomez on her mental and physical health journey.


While Gomez has always been transparent on social media, in this documentary she peels back another layer and becomes more vulnerable than we’ve ever seen. She provides insight into what it feels like to be Selena Gomez. From personal journal entries to emotional breakdowns — we see it all.


At the start of the documentary, viewers are taken back to her 2016 Revival Tour. We see her struggle with body image and not feeling like she is good enough on stage. Although her friends and associates reassured her, she still had feelings of inadequacy.


These feelings also tied into her performance anxiety, which was part of the reason she ended the tour early. She also expressed that panic attacks and depression were additional factors that brought her tour to an untimely end.


Her former assistant, Theresa Mingus, said that Gomez told her that she did not want to be alive anymore and when she looked in her eyes there was “nothing there” and “pitch black.” Similarly, Gomez’s close friend Raquelle Stevens said that the voices in Gomez’s head kept getting louder and louder, eventually triggering a psychotic break.


On top of this mental battle, Gomez was also fighting a physical one. Her physical health had begun to decline, as her battle with lupus — an inflammatory disease caused by the immune system attacking its own tissues and organs — intensified. Her longtime friend and actress Francia Raisa turned out to be a match and underwent a kidney transplant to save Gomez’s life.


However, in regards to Raisa and Gomez’s friendship, there has been some controversy. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Gomez stated, “My only friend in the industry really is Taylor [Swift], so I remember feeling like I didn't belong.”


Since Gomez didn’t specify what “industry” she was referring to, people are debating whether or not this statement was a dig at Raisa, who is an actress.


When this story was shared in a post on the E! Instagram page, Raisa appeared taken aback, commenting, “Interesting.” Gomez then responded to a TikTok discussing this and said, “Sorry I didn’t mention every person I know,” further adding to the drama.

Selena Gomez and Francia Raisa. (Photo: @selenagomez on Instagram)

While there are still rumors circulating about the current state of their friendship, some of Gomez’s friends that she grew up with were also featured in the film. When Gomez returned back to her hometown, Grand Prairie, Texas, she got to see some familiar faces and places.


From meeting her neighbors to seeing the middle school that she attended, viewers got to learn about where this star’s life began. Her neighbors and family spoke fondly of memories of the past and how their lives had changed so much since then.


A life-changing moment for Gomez was when she went to Kenya to visit WE College, which she helped fund in collaboration with WE Charity. During this trip, she had heartfelt conversations with the women that attended the school, listening to their stories, as well as asking and answering questions.


Later in the documentary, Gomez states that she was glad that she was able to go and have those meaningful conversations and that she knows she’s making an impact, but expresses a concern that it could be interpreted as performative, since she was filming what she was doing.


The theme of Gomez finding her calling was explored throughout the documentary. She discusses how she believes that God gave her the platform that she has for a purpose, but she’s still trying to figure out how to enhance this gift to the best of her ability.


Although Gomez never directly touches on her experience with Disney, when an interviewer brushed over meaningful answers that Selena gave to her questions, Gomez stated, “I feel like a product. It was like making me angry. You know what it is? It made me feel like Disney,” allowing the audience to infer that her experience with Disney was not always smooth sailing.


Through the documentary we see a side of Gomez that we have never seen before. Many view her as Alex Russo from “Wizards of Waverly Place” or Justin Bieber’s ex-girlfriend, but she is so much more than that.


While her life may look simple and easy on the surface, it is more complex. People like to glamorize fame and believe that famous people live simple and carefree lives, which is usually far from the truth. At the end of the day, Selena is a human, living life and learning about herself as she goes, much like you and me.


This documentary proves that there is so much more to a person than what meets the eye. At the beginning of the film Gomez adds to this point, saying, “Everything I ever wished for … I’ve had and done all of it, but it has killed me because there is always Selena.”

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