Selena Gomez Gets Real About Being Body Shamed Online: I Was 'Crying My Eyes Out'

Selena Gomez is getting real about how being body shamed online has impacted her mental health.

In a recent episode of the Apple TV+ docuseries Dear…, the 30-year-old actress, singer, and mental health advocate spoke candidly about how it feels when strangers on social media comment on her body. Gomez has lupus, an incurable autoimmune disease, and the medicine she takes to manage her symptoms causes her weight to “constantly fluctuate.” It’s nobody’s business, of course, but people on the internet have taken it upon themselves to criticize her appearance.

“Obviously, people just ran with it,” she recalled. “It was like they couldn’t wait to find a thing to bring me down. I was being shamed for gaining weight because of my lupus.”

In the past, the Only Murders in the Building star often said that these demeaning comments didn’t faze her. But that wasn’t the case behind closed doors, she revealed: “I lied. I would go online and I would post a picture of myself, and I would say, ‘It doesn’t matter. I’m not accepting what you’re saying.’ All the while, being in the room posting and crying my eyes out because nobody deserves to hear those things.”

“Though I was posting these things saying it doesn’t bother me, because I didn’t want it to bother other people who are experiencing the same thing — getting shamed for what they look like, who they are, who they love,” Gomez continued. “I just think it’s so unfair. I don’t think that anybody deserves to feel less than.”

This should go without saying, but it is never okay to body shame anyone, including celebrities. It’s especially egregious in case of someone like Gomez, who takes medication to combat a chronic illness. Simply put, it’s impossible to gauge a person’s health by looking at their body. Anyone who insists otherwise is parroting the toxic, image-obsessed parlance of diet culture.