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On January 22, 1992, a worldwide phenomenon was born in the small town of Grand Prairie, Texas. Selena Marie Gomez is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television producer. In 2001, her acting career started with her debut on seasons seven and eight on Barney & Friends as Giana. However, in 2007, she received wider recognition when she played Alex Russo on the Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place, that aired until 2012. In 2009, she started her singing career with her band, Selena Gomez & the Scene. Despite their success, the group later split in 2012 when Selena started focusing on her solo career. Her solo career was an even bigger success, and it continues to climb today. Throughout her career, she has been a part of UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund), had a clothing line, produced a hit Netflix original, Thirteen Reasons Why, acted in movies and has had a solo career.

During an interview, Gomez told Maxine Shen of the New York Post, “I don’t really like to rest too much…. I do constantly like to work. I believe that it keeps me going and makes me happy.”1 However, her career was put on hold in the year 2016, when she shared that she had been diagnosed with Lupus.2 While she had first been diagnosed in 2013, she wanted to keep it a secret from the public. During an interview, she was asked what made her come out and share her having the disease, she responded, “I waited for the right time to talk about it because I am in a great place, and I’m very healthy. I’m not trying to be loud about it: It was time to use my platform to help.”3 


Picture of the areas on your body that Systemic Lupus affects | December 22, 2019 | Courtesy of Wikimedia

“Lupus, an autoimmune disease, is caused by vascular inflammation (vasculitis) that results in significant damage to a number of different body systems and organs, including the joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, and brain.”4 Selena was diagnosed with the form of the disease most commonly meant by lupus, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). SLE is most common in people between the ages of fifteen and forty-five. The causes of lupus, a complex disease, are not understood. It is difficult to diagnose because its symptoms are easy to confuse with those of many other disorders. Also, there is no distinct symptom profile that applies to every patient with lupus. However, what is known is that lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease in which the body’s immune system turns against its own tissues, producing autoantibodies, which are “protein molecules that target the person’s own cells, tissues, or organs, causing inflammation and tissue damage.”5 In lupus, the autoantibodies damage the blood vessels in such vital organs as the kidneys.6


Post-surgery picture of Selena Gomez and Francia Raisa | September 14, 2017 | Courtesy of Selena Gomez

After traveling the world over the last few months for her 2016 Revival Tour, Selena Gomez announced that she’d be taking a break to take care of herself. The Revival Tour lasted from May 6, 2016 to August 13, 2016. During an interview with People Magazine, Selena stated, “I want to be proactive and focus on maintaining my health and happiness and have decided that the best way forward is to take some time off. Thank you to all my fans for your support. You know how special you are to me, but I need to face this head on to ensure I am doing everything possible to be my best. I know I am not alone by sharing this, I hope others will be encouraged to address their own issues.”7 In 2013, Selena had started her treatment with chemotherapy. In 2014 and 2016, she went to rehabilitation centers to try to improve her condition. However, nothing was working, Selena was getting worse. She was weeks away from starting dialysis before she had found a kidney donor. She was told that she’d have to wait between seven and ten years for a new kidney. Upon hearing the news, many of her family members got tested, but none were a match. It was not until her friend and roommate, Francia Raisa, got tested that she found a positive match. Without hesitation, Francia offered to give Selena her kidney.


SLE can occur in both males and females of all ages, but 90% of patients are women. The majority of these women are in their childbearing years. One of the symptoms that SLE contains is edema. Edema is where extra fluid that your kidneys cannot remove that causes swelling in body parts like your legs, ankles, or around your eyes. Recommendations for improving general health to avoid flares include decreasing sun exposure, getting enough sleep, eating a healthy diet, decreasing stress, and exercising regularly. However, if none of these work, your kidneys will eventually fail and you’ll need to either get a transplant or try dialysis until you can get a new kidney. It is unusual for lupus to come back in the new kidney. Lupus patients with new kidneys do as well as any other patients with transplanted kidneys. Once the new kidney is transplanted, most people will be rid of Lupus.8


Selena Gomez’s scar post-surgery | September 14, 2017 | Courtesy of Selena Gomez

During the summer of 2017, Selena and Francia underwent a successful surgery that saved Selena’s life.9 “There aren’t words to describe how I can possibly thank my beautiful friend. She gave me the ultimate gift and sacrifice by donating her kidney to me,” said Gomez.10 On Instagram, Selena posted a picture of the scar left by the surgery. Following the surgery, Selena’s body would experience changes, including this visible one. During an interview for Billboard Magazine, Selena was asked “Do you feel comfortable with your scar?” She answered, “I do. I didn’t, but I do now. It was really hard in the beginning. I remember looking at myself in the mirror completely naked and thinking about all the things that I used to [complain] about and just asking, “Why?” When I look at my body now, I just see life. There are a million things I can do — lasers and creams and all that stuff — but I’m OK with it. I feel like I’m wonderfully made.”11 

Months after the transplant, Selena is recovering well and feeling healthier than she has in a while, a close friend of hers shared with the media, “She’s really bounced back more quickly than everyone expected.”12 Selena stated that as soon as she got the new kidney, her arthritis went away. The doctors had also told her that the chances of her Lupus returning would be between three and five percent. “My blood pressure is better. My energy and my life has been better,”  Selena explained.13

Since she came out with having Lupus, she is using her platform to bring awareness to the disease.  “I just really hope we can help somebody,” said Selena.14 By fighting this fight in the public life she advocates and relates to those going through the same thing. Selena said while tearing up, “I don’t think what we went through was easy. I don’t think it was fun. And I just hope this inspires people to know there are really good people in the world.”15

Although Selena Gomez, had to take a break from fame, her fans had never left her side. She has announced that she is releasing her new album, SG2, in January 2020. While she was on The Tonight Show, she told Jimmy Fallon, “It took me four years now to even feel at a good place with this album, and it’s just because I had such huge moments that happened in my life personally that ‘how was I going to capture that?’ and ‘how was I actually going to feel good about what I was saying?’ So I just kept going, and I’m relieved.”16 The last time she released an album was Revival in October of 2015. Her hit song, “Lose You to Love Me,” released October 23, 2019, has had over 39 million streams.17 Selena did not let her diagnosis with Lupus stop her. She knew the steps that she had to take in order to be 100% again. She has now come back into the spotlight better than ever and  is ready to defeat any obstacle that comes her way.

 

 

 

  1. A. Petruso, Newsmakers 2011 Cumulation (Detroit, Michigan: Gale, 2011).
  2. Pernilla Cedenheim, Melody Chiu, and Patrick Gomez, “Selena Gomez: Saved by a Friend’s Gift,” People, October 2, 2017.
  3. Diana Pearl, “What Selena Gomez Has Said About Dealing with her Health in the Public Eye,People, November 21, 2017.
  4. Rebecca J Frey, U.X.L. Encyclopedias of Diseases and Disorders (Detroit, Michigan: U.X.L., 2009).
  5. Rebecca J Frey, U.X.L. Encyclopedias of Diseases and Disorders (Detroit, Michigan: U.X.L., 2009).
  6. Rebecca J Frey, U.X.L. Encyclopedias of Diseases and Disorders (Detroit, Michigan: U.X.L., 2009).
  7. Melody Chiu, “Selena Gomez Taking Time off  after dealing with ‘Anxiety Panic Attacks and Depression’ due to her Lupus Diagnosis,” People, August 30, 2016, https://people.com/celebrity/selena-gomez-taking-a-break-after-lupus-complications/.
  8. Hayley Mitchell Haugen, Perspectives on Diseases and Disorders (Detroit, Michigan: Greenhaven Press, 2010).
  9. Pernilla Cedenheim, Melody Chiu, and Patrick Gomez, “Selena Gomez: Saved by a Friend’s Gift,” People, October 2, 2017.
  10. Pernilla Cedenheim, Melody Chiu, and Patrick Gomez, “Selena Gomez: Saved by a Friend’s Gift,” People, October 2, 2017.
  11. Brooke Mazurek, “Woman of the Year: Selena Gomez,” Billboard, December 9, 2017.
  12. Melody Chiu, “Selena Gomez is taking ‘Great Care’ of herself after Kidney Transplant,” People, September 20, 2017, https://people.com/music/selena-gomez-kidney-transplant-inside-her-recovery/
  13. Tina Smithers Peckham, “Selena Gomez and Francia Raisa Speak Out About the Kidney Transplant Surgery and the ‘Brutal’ Recovery” E News, October 30, 2017, https://www.etonline.com/selena-gomez-and-francia-raisa-speak-out-about-kidney-transplant-surgery-and-brutal-recovery-90084.
  14. Tina Smithers Peckham, “Selena Gomez and Francia Raisa Speak Out About the Kidney Transplant Surgery and the ‘Brutal’ Recovery” E News, October 30, 2017, https://www.etonline.com/selena-gomez-and-francia-raisa-speak-out-about-kidney-transplant-surgery-and-brutal-recovery-90084.
  15. Tina Smithers Peckham, “Selena Gomez and Francia Raisa Speak Out About the Kidney Transplant Surgery and the ‘Brutal’ Recovery” E News, October 30, 2017, https://www.etonline.com/selena-gomez-and-francia-raisa-speak-out-about-kidney-transplant-surgery-and-brutal-recovery-90084.
  16. Alyssa Bailey, “Selena Gomez Finally Announced her Album Release Date,” Elle, November 21, 2019, https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a29870938/selena-gomez-sg2-album-release-date/.
  17. Hugh McIntyre, “Selena Gomez Hits No. 1 for the First Time with New Single ‘Lose You To Love Me,’” Forbes, November 4, 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2019/11/04/selena-gomez-hits-no-1-for-the-first-time-with-new-single-lose-you-to-love-me/#74e9b5122273

Recent Comments

77 comments

  • Brendan Brown

    I have always loved Selena Gomez, she was my first celebirty crush. I admire her work ethic, I think she is blessed to be doing something she loves so much that she doesnt want to stop working. I respect Selena for the ways she has handled her stardom and personal life.

  • Alejandra Hernandez

    I have loved Selena Gomez ever since I first saw her on Wizards of Waverly Place, back on her Disney Channel days. Now days, I still listen to her music and I keep up with her life through Instagram. I remember back in 2016 when she got really sick and had to abruptly cancel her tour, it was so sad to seer her like that. Then when she got the transplant it was even more scary to know that she had gone though something like that and suffer a lot in the process. But thankfully she is okay now, before reading this article I had no idea that her lupus had gone away, I thought that lupus was the kind of disease you are stuck with for the rest of your life. Thank you for making such an informative article on Selena, she is really an inspiration and is great to have more people know her story.

  • Alexandria Wicker

    Selena has always been a huge inspiration to me as a person and as a musician. She carries herself in such a beautiful way. I also like how she isn’t private about her battle with Lupus. I feel like when artists speak up about the challenges in their lives, it really helps normal people like us who might be struggle with similar things. I also find it very inspiring that her illness never stopped her. She continued to do what she does best, which is entertainment, and she did it with a smile on her face. Selena, in my opinion, is an amazing woman for young girls to look up to. Her vulnerability to the media shows that it is okay to have rough times and that even people with as much fame as her, still go through rough patches.I really enjoyed reading this article.

  • Angel Velarde

    I only knew few things about Selena before reading the article. What people tend to see if her famous side. We like to know how her love life is without his ex boyfriend, Justin Bieber, the material she is working on, the series she produced, and her acting skills. However, we always disregard the human side of Selena and that is what the article exposed. Selena showed that, like any human, she is vulnerable to any terrible diseases. What makes her different is that she uses her position to spread awareness about her illness and to promote body positivity when embracing her scars. Many artists like her should take advantage of their position to spread positive messages across their followers.

  • Aracely Beltran

    Such an inspiring story! I did not even know Selena Gomez was from Texas! Lupus is such a scary chronic disease so I find her so brave. All these amazingly strong women inspire all of us who are facing our personal battles to keep going. Thanks to this article I am not going to see her the same, now all I am going to see is someone strong and powerful!

  • Micheala Whitfield

    I adore everything about her personality and the way she carries herself. She is a true artisit. When you have to put personnel things into the public eye, you have to have the courage to back up what you express. In such a high level of fame and especially with the way information gets out, feeling good about what you do is the best factor when going through a career. If you have a doubt and don’t feel good about what you express then its not going to work for you. I also like how she kept to herself about her Lupus until she was 100% ready to be open about it. I couldn’t imagine what she had went through. I enjoyed reading this article.

  • Stephen Talik

    You did a good job explaining a disease I had never heard of before. I hadn’t heard of her battles with Lupis, it reminds me a lot of Avril Lavigne’s struggles with Lyme Disease. I remember her on Disney with Wizards of Waverly Place, but I hadn’t known why she had largely dropped off the map for awhile until now.

  • Andrea Degollado

    I grew up watching Wizards of Waverly Place, and listening to Selena Gomez and am a huge fan.This is a great descriptive article on Selena Gomez, it trly highlights what she went through and her surgery. I have always admired Selena Gomez, and just like the article highlights, she is always conscious that health comes before the fame and fortune and that is how shes always been. Great article.

  • Estefanie Santiago Roman

    A very descriptive article of Selena Gomez and her journey of recovering from Lupus. I have never been a huge fan of hers but I had heard something about her and getting a transplant. It was quite amazing to read about how she kept it a secret from the public which is something that is not always easy for celebrities. Overall this article does a great job of explaining medical terms while also depicting what she was going through.

  • Anthony Coronado

    A great article, while it is more of a biography of Selena Gomez’s life. Quickly transitions to the diagnosis of lupus, and how it affected her from 2013 to 2017. I am saddened to say the miracle of finding a match is incredibly rare and as of short notice is probably by the success and influence of Selena Gomez. While to others in need of a kidney match wait times are years to find a donor in hopes to be a viable match.

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