How Selena Gomez's personal brand made her a billionaire

Gotta keep an eye out for selenerrrr 👀

You may have heard that she’s the latest celebrity to achieve billionaire status.

Despite having a very successful career as an actress and singer, the 32-year-old has built her empire through a mix of businesses, each of which leverage her talent and hundreds of millions of adoring fans.

Turns out, that's a pretty effective strategy. Because it's turned her into a multi-faceted businesswoman and one of America's youngest female self-made billionaires.

Many celebrities revel in their fame and stop there. But Selena is an excellent example of using a successful personal brand to build wealth in other areas. Over the last several years, she's used her influence and expertise to do good and create good business.

Real and Rare.

From running out of gas, to Barney and Disney actress, to beauty billionaire – Selena's story is one of perseverance and authenticity. So much so, that authenticity has become a major pillar of her personal brand and a driving force for her.

She has long advocated for the importance of being open about mental health. Selena has struggled with anxiety and depression for many years, particularly after the stress of her kidney transplant.

'Authenticity is, for me, not minding being myself anymore,'  Selena told the Dream It Real Podcast. The star's struggles have never been a secret. She has consistently been open with her fans about her diagnosis of lupus and bipolar disorder. She also speaks regularly on her mental health struggles and body image issues.

'I think it's less scary when you talk about it. So that's some sense of freedom that I gained once I did,' Selena told WION.

'That's when I suddenly became so obsessed with making sure that everybody I knew understood that sharing your emotions [was] great,' Selena said. '

Her braveness and willingness to tell her story has always been a defining factor of her personal brand.

And this level of transparency has made her highly relatable to her audience, particularly young women. It has played a major role in building a strong emotional connection with her fans. And this translates into brand loyalty whenever she ventures into business.

'It's important for me to be authentic and to connect to something,' she said in reference to her business interests, as well as her acting and singing career. 'Otherwise, it seems a bit pointless to me. It requires a lot of hard work. But the payoff is amazing.'

A $1.3 billion payoff would feel amazing, yes.

Because this is what the star is now worth, thanks in the most part to Rare Beauty, Selena's beauty brand, which is responsible for $1.1 billion of her net worth.

Launched in 2020, Rare was an instant smash hit.

After her Soft Pinch Liquid Blush became viral on TikTok, the makeup brand moved 3.1 million units. This earned the company around $70 million in revenue.

But the brand didn't just do well because her products are genuinely really fricken good. It was an instant success because Selena's fans absolutely adore her for who she is.

Her strength is her honesty. And this is a huge force behind her success.

In 2022 Selena released Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, a documentary on her struggles with mental illness.

Time after time, we've seen celebrities release vanity projects under the guise of 'real, raw and authentic me.' However, this stereotype was shattered within the first five minutes of the doco. In the documentary, we witness the mental anguish that cause Gomez to cancel her 2016 Revival tour early.

Seeing footage of her checking herself into a treatment facility is raw and heartbreaking. And the cameras do not stop rolling. The next hour-plus provides one of the least sugar-coated explorations of mental illness one is likely to witness on film.

The documentary is so raw, Selena almost didn’t sign off on its release. She said it felt like she was ''sacrificing herself a little bit for a greater purpose.' However, she forged ahead.

She is now the founder of mental-health platform Wondermind, which was created to help users get 'mentally fit.'

According to her LinkedIn bio, Selena is, 'A global artist who continues to impact her audience with frank and authentic conversations.'

If her net worth is anything to go by, I’d say that’s the whole damn truth.

-Sophie, Writer