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Selena Gomez is revealing what it’s like to show up for events when you’re not feeling your best, something celebrities are subjected to all the time.
For the 2015 Met Gala, the 28-year-old wore a gorgeous white Vera Wang dress--but as she looked back at photos from the night for an episode of Vogue’s Life in Looks video series, she remembered just how badly she was struggling with her body image at the time.
“I fluctuate a lot with my weight,” she said, “and I remember this night specifically I didn‘t feel good about my body.”
Regardless, the singer and actress still appreciated that she was able to craft the dress with Wang herself.
“What was really amazing was that I actually got a chance to work on the dress that fit my body,” she told Vogue. “I had such a beautiful time shaping this dress. I think that we came together and built something really beautiful and something that fit me really well.”
Gomez went on to explain that the experience--which happened when she was 22--helped her gain a new appreciation for her body.
“That was one of the moments where I was like, I don‘t have to be that 19-year-old body shape anymore because I’m not,” she said.
As the “Baila Conmigo” singer went through 15 looks from 2007 to 2021, she also commented on her transforming body at the 2019 premiere of The Dead Don‘t Die. Luckily, the way she remembers the experience isn’t completely negative.
“This was also a moment in my life where I had fluctuated in weight, and I‘m very honest with the people on my team, so I didn’t want to wear anything tight, and then I tried this dress on and I felt so beautiful,” she said. “And it definitely highlighted this area [her chest] a lot. But I felt like a Barbie doll.”
This isn’t Selena’s first time speaking on issues surrounding the perception of her body, whether that be her own or some unkind words from others. Luckily, she’s learning how to love herself one day at a time.
“I used to look at myself and feel not pretty enough, but I think it‘s natural for people to feel that way sometimes,” she told PEOPLE last year. “You feel like you have to look a certain way or be a certain way, but that’s not the case. This is a way for me to be a part of a beauty community and say, ‘I’m practicing, and I’m learning, and you can too.’”