Last week, at least 380 million people had their eyes on Selena Gomez’s Instagram account. She surpassed Kylie Jenner and once again reclaimed the title of most followed woman on Instagram. 

This marks the 16th Guinness World Record the global star has broken. Gomez has received acclaim for her music, acting, entrepreneurship and philanthropy in a career that spans decades. 

She’d previously broken the record for most followers on Instagram in 2016. This time, however, Gomez managed to break the record despite not even having the app downloaded on any of her personal devices. 

In an interview with Instyle, Gomez revealed that she’d decided to step away from her Instagram account in order to preserve her peace of mind. 

“I have problems with depression and anxiety, and I found it difficult for me to be me,” she told the publication. “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.”

Gomez does not shy away from speaking openly about her mental health journey. In 2020, she revealed that she’d been diagnosed as bipolar. Along with this, Gomez also deals with Lupus, a lifelong autoimmune disease. 

She spoke candidly of all of this in her Apple TV+ documentary, My Mind and Me, wherein fans got an intimate look at Gomez’s journey of building a healthy relationship with her mind. 

“It makes me proud I’m actually talking about things that matter,” she revealed in an interview with Rollingstone. “Not sitting here just talking about my brand and ‘I look great, and I have this and this.’ There’s already enough of that.” 

After a sunny vacation to Mexico at the top of the year, social media users began to make comments on photos of Gomez in a two-piece bathing suit captured by paparazzi. A side effect of the medication needed to treat Gomez’s Lupus is weight gain. 

Gomez addressed these comments on a TikTok live, stating “I would much rather be happy and take care of myself and my medications are important and I believe that they are what help me.” 

Not too long ago, Alexis Johnson, a junior Psychology Major deleted her personal social media accounts. “I thought it was time to just stop scrolling and stop the comparison that was always happening especially as far as unrealistic goals that I kept seeing,” she began. 

“She’s a very real person,” Johnson said of Gomez. “She’s somebody we’ve all grown up with and she’s somebody that we all wanna keep up with no matter what. She’s such a great person.” 

“She’s in her thirties- yeah she’s not gonna look the same as when she played Alex Russo,” Nyana King, a Sophomore Paralegal Studies Major said.

“Keyboard warriors! What do you look like?” King pointed. “A lot of people I follow like Selena Gomez. They like her music, they like her as a person. My friends use Rare Beauty, I use Rare Beauty.” 

Stephanie Garcia is currently studying Biology and hardly uses Instagram now. When Garcia began dealing with her mental health struggles, her parents had to educate themselves on how to help her. 

“Your parents have to help you and you can also help yourself. But if you don’t know how to reach those resources and if they don’t know, who can help you?” she said.  

“How other people see you still affects how you feel, even though we can all say it shouldn’t… it does,” she continued. 

Gomez’s advocacy for mental health awareness extends beyond interviews and documentaries. Alongside the launch of her cosmetic company, Rare Beauty, was the Rare Impact Fund. Proceeds from all sales are donated to this fund and is used to provide mental health services to underserved communities. 

Gomez is also a co-founder of Wondermind, a mental fitness newsletter which provides free subscriptions and access to mental health content regularly. 

Last year, Gomez visited The White House for the Mental Health Youth Action Forum. This was the first step to her end goal of making mental health services more accessible for students throughout the country. 

A record-breaking pop star who aims to spread positivity and acceptance throughout the internet is now the most followed woman on Instagram. On TikTok last week, she sent out a message to her fans ahead of another break from social media. 

“I’m very happy. I’m so blessed. I have the best friends, the best fans in the whole world. I just couldn’t be happier,” Gomez said. “I’m good. I love who I am. I’m big. I’m not. I don’t care.”