Why Selena Gomez’s Documentary ‘My Mind & Me’ Is Completely Unlike Any Other Pop Star Documentary

While many celebrity documentaries are used to paint the star in a dazzling light, Selena’s documentary does nearly the opposite – revealing some of her lowest moments in her struggles with mental health. Selena has been known to speak out about mental health struggles in the past, using platforms like social media and concerts to reach large audiences, but My Mind & Me is her most honest and profound undertaking yet. 

The Film’s Focus

While it appears like she has it all – the fame, money, and talent – the reality is that Selena Gomez has endured years of emotional and physical pain, from undergoing a kidney transplant, to being placed in a mental hospital for bipolar disorder, to her public breakup with Justin Bieber. My Mind & Me recounts bits and pieces of this history. However, its focus is on showing viewers what the paparazzi could not capture on camera – like the meddlesome media, the film does not necessarily show Selena at her best. Instead, it depicts, in detail, her debilitating, tumultuous, and heart-wrenching struggle with mental illness.

“Even when I’m on stage in front of a crowd, I’ll always find the one person who doesn’t like me and believe them.” – Selena Gomez

Initial feedback indicates viewers’ shock at how many details the new film leaves out, however. While Selena’s body image struggles are alluded to in the film when she tries on costumes and hates what she sees in the mirror, this is by no means the film’s focus. Furthermore, the singer never directly mentions her breakup with Justin Bieber. In conversation about her hit single “Lose You to Love Me,” Selena notes that heartbreak forced her to learn how to find value in herself, but she avoids discussing the breakup explicitly. Selena’s struggles with Lupus are also shown momentarily throughout the film, when she goes to the doctor or gets her blood pressure taken, but she doesn’t dive into her experience with the autoimmune disease nearly as much as she could have.

Why? Because the film’s main focus is her mental health battle. My Mind & Me highlights the pervasiveness of Selena’s anxiety, depression, and bipolar struggles. From her relationships to her career, the film showcases how mental illness touches every aspect of her life. Although the childhood Disney star has been through a great deal of hardship, the film’s focus on mental health shows viewers that this battle is the most difficult of them all. 

The film’s secondary focus is her passion for philanthropy and connecting with others – both of which became a type of coping mechanism for Selena through her recovery. She is shown on a transformative trip to Kenya, where she bonds with many young people over mental health journeys and learns to practice gratitude for what she has and how far she has come. In an interview near the end of the documentary, Selena tells a reporter that her future goals are to devote her life to philanthropy and continue to destigmatize mental health – aspirations for which she has been applauded in film reviews.

A Celebration of Authenticity

One of the media’s ugliest purposes is to taint celebrities’ reputations – making gossip out of their real-life struggles. However, oftentimes, a celebrity documentary can be used to uncover truths and reverse negative public opinion. With the star having almost full control of what’s included and excluded from the documentary, these films almost always tell a different story than the media. Selena Gomez’s My Mind & Me instead leans into the negative speculation that the paparazzi reported on and depicts how her struggle is even harder than the news once showed. 

However, the documentary’s portrayal of Selena is not inherently negative or positive – it’s refreshingly real. And part of that real portrayal is portraying her in all of her unfiltered emotional states – from her anxiety about whether John Janick will regret signing her to her smiling face of joy when she connects with the young women in Kenya about appreciating life for all that it is. One of the film’s opening scenes depicts Selena sobbing backstage after rehearsing for her 2016 Revival tour, which was later canceled due to her worsening anxiety and depression. Selena, wrought with self-doubt, questions when she will ever be good enough. This scene set the tone for the remainder of the documentary, showing countless moments where Selena, head in hands, asks herself whether she will ever live up to what everyone wants her to be. 

“I think my past and my mistakes – that’s what drives me into depression.” – Selena Gomez

While some sources of her self-doubt, anxiety, and depression are due to her celebrity lifestyle, and of course, her emotions are exacerbated by living in the spotlight, many of the feelings Selena experiences are relatable to her fans. Nearly anyone can resonate with feeling lost, sad, purposeless, heartbroken, or insecure at points in their life. Throughout the film, there are moments where it is nearly impossible not to feel sad for Selena – as she struggles to get out of bed, when she’s being pricked with IVs or when she’s filmed running away from paparazzi. However, there are also moments when it’s hard not to feel frustrated by her – when she’s overly blunt in interviews, or even borderline disrespectful and ungrateful to her team. The conflicting conglomeration of emotions leaves some viewers unsure whether to root for her or not. 

My Mind & Me’s greatest success is how it humanizes Selena. Through the portrayal of all of these emotions, it becomes abundantly clear that Selena Gomez is a human, who makes mistakes and has rough days like everyone else – and this portrayal, being human, is the ultimate element of relatability. Whether you leave the film celebrating Selena or resenting her, it’s indisputable that the documentary depicts her as purely and wholly human. 

Unpacking the Troubled Child Star Trope

Selena’s tragic fight with mental health in My Mind & Me brings to light broader issues of how celebrities, especially child stars, are treated in the industry and by the press. Stars like Demi Lovato, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and more have also struggled with mental health problems like anxiety, depression, and addiction in their adult lives. These stars also all became famous at a young age, barely remembering their lives before the paparazzi waited outside their bedroom windows.

The complete lack of privacy, combined with the industry’s obscenely high expectations, has done serious damage to dozens of stars for decades. Business Insider notes that as a child actor and minor, business decisions are left up to adults who may or may not have the star’s best interest at heart. The sad truth is that childhood stars are inevitably forced to face adult problems such as handling money, demanding work schedules, and living up to others’ expectations at far too young of an age. It’s possible that the intense pressures predispose them to mental health struggles like anxiety and depression, but this has not yet been proven as a fact.

“My whole life since I was a kid, I’ve been working…the only thing I want is to be a mom. I don’t wanna be super famous. I just feel stuck, and I just wanna move forward.” – Selena Gomez

My Mind & Me does not try to claim that Selena’s mental health struggles are a product of her fame, but it does allude to the fact that the pressures of celebrity life could amplify some of her problems. During one of the early scenes, Selena shares that as a kid, she loved acting because it was like “an escape from reality.” Some speculate that it is this practice of escaping life and pretending to be someone that they’re not which contributes to stars’ fractured sense of self. Regardless of how long she’s struggled, Selena expresses her desire to get better and stay healthy.

Closing Thoughts

My Mind & Me is a complex and honest film about Selena Gomez’s mental health struggles, which portrays her in the most relatable way possible: as a human. Selena’s fans have shown overwhelming praise for her courage to speak out about mental health stigmas. However, others have criticized her for being ungrateful for her life of fame and fortune. Because the film leaves out so many details of her celebrity life, its intentional focus on her mental health struggle and philanthropic efforts shape many people’s changing perception of Selena Gomez. 

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