Selena Gomez is one of the most followed people on Instagram, with over 310 million followers. Yet, she hasn’t logged onto the platform, or even the internet, in over four years.
The 29-year-old singer/actress stopped by Good Morning America on Monday to talk about her mental wellness journey, which she says took a huge turn for the better when she quit using social media. “I haven’t been on the internet in four and a half years,” she told GMA. “It has changed my life completely.”
She described how while she may assist in creating the content for her social media, she herself is not the one who hits the post button. “I am happier, I am more present, I connect more with people,” she explained. “It makes me feel normal.”
Gomez has previously been open about her struggles with her bipolar disorder and anxiety, which she says were only worsened by life under the spotlight. In order to become healthier meant she needed to remove herself as much as possible from that lifestyle. “I can’t believe that I’m where I am mentally, just because of how I took the necessary steps in order to kind of remove myself from that… because it’s just not normal,” Gomez said of fame.
Meant to destigmatize and democratize mental health resources, her new mental health resource site Wondermind, was created by Gomez, her mother Mandy Teefy, and businesswoman Daniella Pierson. The site offers a newsletter and promises a future podcast, as well as psychological practices and tools people can use to practice “mental fitness.”
“If I’m known for anything, I hope it’s simply just for the way I care about people,” Selena Gomez said. “I really really want people to be understood and seen and heard. Those days where I don’t want to get out of bed, if I had something like Wondermind – even if it took me a minute to get into – it’s just there, and there’s something really comforting about that.”
Check out Wondermind here: https://www.wondermind.com/
