Entertainment

Selena Gomez Is Getting Her Career Back on Track

by Kadeen Griffiths

Don't get me wrong. I am a huge fan of Selena Gomez. I mean, when you are the kind of celebrity who can break down crying while receiving a Young Humanitarian Award and talking to fans about the importance of believing in yourself, then you are the kind of celebrity I will love until the end of days. However, Gomez's on-off relationship with Justin Bieber utterly defined her 2014, especially when combined with the fact that she was neither producing new music nor starring in any big films. To have a woman like the former Disney star so strongly defined by the man in her life was a truly dark point in her career, but between "The Heart Wants What It Wants" providing closure, the album For You providing a taste of what she was once beloved for, and the fact that Gomez is slated to star alongside Paul Rudd in The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, it seems like Gomez is back and we were wrong to ever doubt her.

The film is an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Jonathan Evison. It follows the story of Ben (Rudd) who takes care of a teen named Trevor, who is sick with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Gomez will be cast as Dot, Trevor's love interest who is completely unbothered by his illness when the two meet. According to Deadline, Dot is a "sassy young woman who hitches a ride with the pair during a road trip, and whose forwardness and lack of embarrassment about Trevor’s condition causes him to develop a crush on her."

Gomez's casting in the film is exciting for more reasons than one. It represents a career resurgence for the actress, who is coming off of an incredibly troubled year. She voluntarily checked into rehab in January 2014 for exhaustion and emotional trauma, then spent most of the rest of her year on a roller coaster of a relationship with her equally troubled now-ex-boyfriend Bieber. Every time it seemed like Gomez was alone and working on her own personal health and happiness, she would next be seen in the company of Bieber once more, because, well, "There's a million reasons why I should give you up, but the heart wants what it wants."

As she herself said while accepting her Young Humanitarian Award at We Day California in March 2014, "Until recently, I had given in to that pressure. I lost sight of who I was. I listened to opinions of people and I tried to change who I am because I thought that others would accept me for it. And I realized I don’t know how to be anything but myself." It certainly seemed like, between then and now, Gomez lost her way once more. But now she's found it again and her upcoming movie role is further proof of that. She is working on her new album, she is starring in films again, and she's returning to doing what makes her happy and furthering her own career. Selena Gomez is happy you guys. And she didn't need Bieber for that.

It's not that I'm trying to blame Bieber as being the sole cause of Gomez's 2014 unhappiness, but it's clear — especially from her song about him — that he was a contributing factor. Walking away from him for the final time seems to have given Gomez the perspective and strength that she needs to get back to work, which is all any fan can hope for. This is an optimistic start to the New Year for the former Disney star, one that I'd love to see continue throughout 2015. If anyone deserves to have their own version of the McConaissance, it's Gomez.