“The unnecessary hate and comparisons went away once I put my phone down.”
Selena Gomez is one of the most-followed people on Instagram. But the account’s popularity didn’t exempt her from the toxicity that many users experience on social media.
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The singer, actor, advocate, and entrepreneur intentionally stepped back from her social networking profiles a few years ago, handing over the passwords to an assistant who’s managed them on her behalf since.
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While Selena retains creative control over the content we see on her Instagram page, she’s no longer tempted to scroll through her feed. The Grammy nominee — whose record Revelación is up for Best Latin Pop Album — spoke candidly about distancing herself from social media and why doing so “was the best decision [she] ever made” in a new interview with InStyle.
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“At one point, Instagram became my whole world. It was really dangerous,” she said. “In my early 20s, I felt like I wasn’t pretty enough. There was a whole period in my life when I thought I needed makeup and never wanted to be seen without it.”
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“The older I got, the more I evolved and realized that I needed to take control of what I was feeling … I wanted to be able to look in the mirror and feel confident to be who I am,” the Rare Beauty founder explained.
“Taking a break from social media was the best decision that I’ve ever made for my mental health,” Selena added, noting the ways Instagram contributed to negative self-talk that dissipated once she stopped using it.
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“I created a system where I still don’t have my passwords. And the unnecessary hate and comparisons went away once I put my phone down,” she said. “I’ll have moments where that weird feeling will come back, but now I have a much better relationship with myself.”
Selena touched on a range of topics in the recent interview, including her plans to help change narratives surrounding mental health through education and how the pandemic affected her wellness journey. You can check it out in full here.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/emilymaeczachor/selena-gomez-spoke-candidly-about-choosing-to-step-back
