Selena Gomez is opening up about the changes her body has endured over the years.
In two consecutive Instagram stories posted Jan. 22, Gomez posted before-and-after photos of herself sporting a bathing suit. The images appeared to be taken by paparazzi.
Alongside the first image, an older photo of the singer in a string bikini, Gomez wrote, “Today I realized I will never look like this again…”
The second picture she shared on her story was more recent and also showed her in a swimsuit. But instead of a bikini, she was wearing a two piece that covered more of her body.
“I’m not perfect but I’m proud to be who I am,” she wrote on the second photo. “Sometimes I forget it’s ok to be me.”
The actor and singer has previously opened up about her feelings about her body. She’s even taken the time to reply to social media users commenting on her body, but through it all, she said she’s still struggled with feeling confident.
“I would go online and I would post a picture of myself and I would say, ‘It doesn’t matter. I’m not accepting what you’re saying,’” she said of negative comments about her body in an episode of Apple TV+’s “Dear…” “All the while, being in the room posting and crying my eyes out because nobody deserves to hear those things.”
Gomez, 31, has also shared in the past that her weight has fluctuated due to her health issues. She’s been diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease, and bipolar disorder.
“My weight would constantly fluctuate because I would be on certain medications. And obviously, people just ran with it,” she said in the episode. “It was like they couldn’t wait to find a thing to bring me down. I was being shamed for gaining weight because of my lupus.”
In 2021, Gomez shared another time where she wrestled with her body image — at the 2015 Met Gala, where she wore a white Vera Wang gown.
“I fluctuate a lot with my weight and I remember this night specifically. I didn’t feel good about my body,” she told Vogue.
“I had such a beautiful time shaping this dress. I think that we came together and built something really beautiful and something that fit me really well,” she said. “That was one of the moments where I was like, I don’t have to be that 19-year-old body shape anymore, because I’m not.”
