Selena Gomez Posts Powerful Then-and-Now Swimsuit Photos With a Message About Her Changing Body

Like most people in this world, Selena Gomez has seen her body change and her weight fluctuate over the years—which she reflected on in a relatable, body positive Instagram post.

On January 22, the Only Murders in the Building star posted a pair of pictures to her IG Stories. The first was an old paparazzi snap of Gomez in a zebra-print string bikini. “Today I realized I will never look like this again,” she wrote in block text over the image. In the second, more recent, picture, Gomez is climbing up the ladder of a boat after a swim. She wears a black and white bathing suit and looks over her shoulder at the camera. The text overlay on this picture reads, “I’m not perfect but I am proud to be who I am. Sometimes I forget it’s okay to be me.”

While the way Gomez’s body has fluctuated over the years is incredibly normal, the amount of body-shaming she gets on the internet definitely isn’t. When pictures of Gomez in a black-and-white bathing suit minding her own business on vacation first hit the internet a year ago, for instance, the body-shamers went wild in the comments and it was, frankly, appalling. So appalling, that it’s something she felt to the need to address, as she’s done on several occasions.

In a December 2022 interview with Glamour, Selena Gomez said, “From the time I can remember, I’ve always felt like I had to be perfect or look a certain way. It took me a long time to realize that I only wanted to be myself—that what made me unique was also what made me beautiful.”