Selena Gomez Admits 'Sometimes I Get Triggered' About Disney Past: 'I Don't Want To Be Who I Was'

Selena Gomez is looking back on her life at Disney and the person she used to be.

While talking to Vanity Fair for the 2023 Hollywood Issue, the Wizards of Waverly Place actress admitted that although she "definitely feels free of" her Disney past, she sometimes gets set off when parts of the chapters of her life she closed are brought back to light.

"Sometimes I get triggered. It's not that I’m ashamed of my past, it’s just that I’ve worked so hard to find my own way," she told the publication after rising to fame as a young Disney star. "I don’t want to be who I was. I want to be who I am."

The Only Murders in the Building actress explained that as a star on Disney, she would refrain from speaking her mind.

"I wasn’t a wild child by any means," she clarified, "but I was on Disney, so I had to make sure not to say ‘What the hell?’ in front of anyone."

Gomez candidly pointed out she was also putting pressure "on myself to be the best role model I could be. Now I think being the best role model is being honest, even with the ugly and complicated parts of yourself."

The actress has been opening up about her mental health struggles more in recent years — especially in her Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me, which is now available to stream on Apple TV+ — explaining that while she once feared being so vulnerable with the public, it has been nothing short of freeing.

“Now I don’t feel like I’m lying to people,” Gomez explained. “It’s not that I was lying…I was scared of what people would think or that people wouldn’t hire me. Now I don’t think that way. I understand that if it doesn’t feel good to me, then I need to step back and evaluate. Is this friendship giving me something? Is this project a really good one?”

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Variety reported on Gomez's Disney remarks.