My lord, how awful is this Selena Gomez editorial? Selena covers the March issue of W Magazine and the editorial was done by Steven Klein. I like Klein’s work usually, but this is a mess. Selena is a very pretty young woman, and they made her look like a half-dead mannequin. I don’t get the makeup, nor do I understand the filters used to make her look so ghastly. Fortunately, the profile is really, really good. I’ve long believed that of all the younger child-stars-turned-adult-celebrities, Selena is one of the few to have a couple of brain cells to rub together. Even when she was still a kid, she always came across as intelligent, gracious and interesting. And I’ll add one more descriptor: she’s actually pretty funny. I chuckled a few times reading this piece, especially when she talked about Justin Bieber. Some highlights:

Moving away from child stardom: “Once Disney was over, I was like: Oh, sh-t. I didn’t know what I wanted to be. I had to learn to be myself.”

The attention she got when she was with Justin Bieber: “At first I didn’t care. To me it was: I’m 18, I have a boyfriend, we look cute together, we like that. Then I got my heart broken and I cared. Because people had no idea what was going on, but everywhere it was a million different things. I was kind of in a corner, banging my head against the wall. I didn’t know where to go.”

Firing her momager: “I was like, ‘Mom, I gotta figure it out on my own.’  It was the kid-going-to-college moment in my mind.”

Her acting career: “I know that I can go into a room and convince someone that I can be a character. I’ll cut my hair, I’ll shave it, I’ll dye it. I’d go there in order for people to let Selena go.”

She doesn’t want to make a Miley Cyrus-esque transition to adult stardom: “Every single girl has done it completely differently. Obviously, she wouldn’t want to be doing what I’m doing, and I wouldn’t want to be doing what she’s doing. But I’m a fan of her music—I don’t know if she’d say that about me.”

Whether she’s in a feud with Miley: “We never feuded. We both liked the same guy when we were 16. It was just a Hilary Duff–Lindsay Lohan thing: ‘Oh, my God, we like the same boy!’ We are now completely settled in our own lives.”

Whether she’s still invested in Bieber’s drama: “I’m so exhausted. I honestly am so done. I care about his health and well-being. But I can’t do it anymore.”

Her social media prowess: “I’m utilizing social media right now because of my age and because, to be honest, everybody else in the world was talking about me, so I wanted a f–king say. I honestly had to, because I didn’t really expect my life to be as public as it was. Is this going to destroy me or make me? I still have to make that choice on a daily basis… In a few years, I’ll give all of it up.”

She loves fast food: “Yesss! I love Chili’s. Taylor and I eat here all the time…I had to learn to like fancy food.”

Her fans are comfortable around her: “Yeah. They feel like they know me. I guess it is [peculiar]. But I don’t mind it, because I don’t know any better.”

[From W Magazine]

I like that she’s blasé about any alleged beef with Miley Cyrus. I would assume that Selena and Miley probably don’t get along that well, but Selena takes more of a live-and-let-ratchet approach. As for Selena’s acting career… why did she make it all about her hair? It’s like The Jennifer Aniston School of Acting. Besides, Selena’s hair is very profitable – she’s the celebrity hair of Pantene and her hair has earned a $3 million contract. As for Bieber… I’m glad that she’s done. Please, no more sad songs about the Biebs.

Photos courtesy of Steven Klein/W Magazine.