Selena Gomez opens up about how authenticity and internal struggles led to 'Rare'

No amount of pressure, personal controversy or stardom has ever stopped Selena Gomez from staying true to herself when it comes to her work. In fact, according to the singer, authenticity is a driving force for her.

Speaking at the virtual Teen Vogue Summit on Saturday, Selena opened up about her own journey towards self-awareness and how she's funnelled that growth into music like her new album, 'Rare,'and other projects, like her beauty line and HBO cooking show, "Selena & Chef."

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The 28-year-old said, "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."

With her latest album ‘Rare’, Selena looked deep into her own, internal struggles to find inspiration for new music.

"The whole theme of my last album was a lot of self-discovery," she explained. "A lot of being OK being alone and being vulnerable, being OK with not looking like everything else, like everyone else."

'Rare'was the product of the self-work Selena spent much of the past few years doing, both with and without professional help.

Speaking about her commitment to being open about her mental health challenges, she explained how discussing those issues gave her a whole new perspective on them.

"I think it's less scary when you talk about it. So that's some sense of freedom that I gained once I did," she said.

"I think I had a moment where I felt different. Like, 'Why do I react this way? Why do I feel the way I do and nobody else does?' and I had to figure that out. I didn't want just to stay in this place of confusion."

"My journey personally has been all about my timing; when I felt like it was working, that's when I suddenly became so obsessed with making sure that everybody I knew understood that sharing your emotions [was] great," Selena said. "How I'm a huge advocate for therapy. How I feel like there are support groups for everybody, and it's OK … there's no way that people aren't feeling a certain way, whether they're figuring that out on their own or not, we all need each other."

The former Disney star is all set to return to the small screen next year alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short in Hulu's ‘Only Murders in the Building,’ which Selena's also executive producing.