Samiha Choudhury – Staff Writer 

snc5436@psu.edu

On November 4, 2022, Selena Gomez released her documentary, Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me. This documentary was released to show Selena’s perspective and her journey throughout the past few years. Selena shares how she dealt with a very public breakup, her ongoing struggles with depression and anxiety, along with being diagnosed with Lupus, a disease that occurs when your body’s immune system attacks your own tissues and organs. 

The documentary was released in an attempt to show how being in the public eye has played a role in Selena’s life as she experienced all these drastic changes in her life. Selena mentioned earlier on in the documentary how hard it was early on in her career to prove herself to be more than “just a Disney kid” and for people to take her seriously.

This took a heavy toll on her mental health as she struggled to feel good enough for people to sign her under their record labels. Selena also briefly mentions her very public breakup with Justin Bieber and how it was “the best thing to happen” to her. According to Selena, this breakup allowed her to find her self worth and confidence. 

Despite all these heartbreaking experiences, fans could not help but realize the odd behavior of Raquelle Stevens, Selena’s long term friend. Fans noticed Raquelle completely ignoring Selena throughout the documentary and consistently texting on her phone when Selena was struggling. At one point, fans thought Raquelle was nearly laughing at Selena when she was talking about her struggles with finding self worth. But of course, there are two sides to every story. 

Many fans also disagree that Raquelle acted strangely, claiming that others do not know what it is like to deal with someone with bipolar disorder and Raquelle probably means no harm as she is with Selena all the time. I believe that as fans, we really do not know the whole story and the background of Raquelle and Selena’s friendship so we should not assume what Raquelle’s intentions were based on a few appearances in the documentary.