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“The world breaks everyone and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
A quote by famous writer Ernest Hemingway, but taken to heart by our pop princess Selena Gomez. The 26-year-old singer, actress and producer, also the second most followed personality on social media platform Instagram (very recently dethroned by Cristiano Ronaldo) has fought many battles, still emerging stronger than ever.

Gomez was born in Texas to Ricardo Gomez and stage actress Amanda Cornett. They were divorced when Gomez was just five-years-old and she was often looked after by her grandparents and hence had a rather close relationship with them. Influenced by watching her mother prepare for stage productions, Gomez gained an interest in pursuing a career in the entertainment industry.

She primarily featured in a children’s show, “Barney & Friends”, which she credits for the perfect kick-start to her acting career. She later auditioned for a role in the famous Disney series “Wizards of Waverly place”, ultimately winning the role of Alex Russo. Having a rather charming voice, she recorded several songs for various animated movies and also starred in the movie “Another Cinderella Story”, which garnered a huge success. At the tender age of 16, she was signed on for a recording contract and formed her own production company in the year 2008. Hoping to achieve a successful crossover in music, Gomez formed a pop-rock band titled “Selena Gomez & the Scene”. They released three studio albums with some fairly good responses from critics and sold over 66,000 copies each.

In 2013, she released her first solo album ‘Stars Dance’ which went on to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart; it sold 97,000 copies in its first week. She embarked on her Stars Dance Tour on August 2013, though she cancelled the Australian and Asian leg, claiming that she did the same to spend time with her family but her life took a strange turn from then. In Jan 2014, she was admitted to a treatment center in Arizona, and in 2015, it was confirmed that she had been diagnosed with a severe condition of Lupus, a disease in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the healthy tissues in multiple parts of the body. She had to undergo chemotherapy for several weeks, which greatly affected her mental stability. Many assumed her admission was related to substance abuse issues, to which she said, “I wanted so badly to say, ‘You guys have no idea. I’m in chemotherapy.’ I locked myself away until I was confident and comfortable again. ”

She released her second album ‘Revival’ on October 9, 2015. It received a positive reaction from everyone and debuted at number one on Billboard 200. But life threw a curveball again. In 2016, halfway through her Revival tour, she checked back into another facility for a 90-day treatment for anxiety and depression, the side effects of Lupus. She was noticeably absent from social media for quite some time after that.

Again, in the summer of 2017, due to complications from Lupus, Gomez was required to undergo a kidney transplant, to which her best friend Francia came as a blessing and selflessly donated her kidney for the procedure. During the transplant, she broke an artery and an emergency surgery was conducted. In early 2018, she checked into treatment for two weeks and since then has been in and out, due to anxiety, low white blood cell count which sent her spiraling into depression time and again.

It is rightly said, tough times never last, but tough people do. Within such a short span Gomez has suffered tremendously, but has continued doing what she loves, writing and singing songs, which are adored by many, producing famous TV series like ’13 reasons why’ and acting in various movies, but along with it, always keeping in mind her mental and physical health.

“You are not what happened to you, you are what you chose to become after what happened to you.” – Selena Gomez.