Selena Gomez is done being painted as a victim.
The actress/singer, 28, opened up to Rolling Stone about her new chapter in her life, including an emotional new album, Rare, and a new makeup line, Rare Beauty.
“I wanted people to take away that this was a journey and that it was completely closed,” she told the magazine about the new record, which dropped in January. “I don’t want people to see me as just sad and hurt. I didn’t want that anymore.”
“I wanted people to know that I experienced something real,” she added, “and that part of me is over.”
But Rare didn’t come so easily amid her battle with the autoimmune disease lupus, which included panic attacks, anxiety and depression.
“I didn’t say, ‘I want to do an album’ — it was more just me going in, experimenting and writing with the people I feel comfortable writing with. This was probably three years ago. I didn’t feel inspired by much, so I would just kind of drift in and out,” she explained. “I went away for a little bit. When I came back… I don’t know if something came over me. I heard a song called ‘Rare,’ and that was the moment I knew that my album was starting and that this was going to be the name of the album before I even recorded it.”
Gomez also got candid about her lupus battle on Instagram on Thursday, showing off the scar from her kidney transplant.
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“When I got my kidney transplant, I remember it being very difficult at first showing my scar,” she wrote. “I didn’t want it to be in photos, so I wore things that would cover it up. Now, more than ever, I feel confident in who I am and what I went through… and I’m proud of that.”
Read more from Gomez in Rolling Stone.
