For the past couple years I have been listening to a lot of Selena Gomez’s music (particularly her latest album, Revival) and following her career and life in the spotlight. With everything she has gone through in her life, especially in recent years, she has inspired me and taught me many things about life. Here are some of the life lessons I have learned from Selena Gomez:

Love yourself first.  After her very public relationship and breakup with Justin Bieber, Selena was open about her struggle with self acceptance and self-love during the relationship and after the breakup. In a 2014 interview with Ryan Seacrest, Selena stated, “I learned how to love myself first. And not just in a relationship, just my everyday life.”

Kill people with kindness.  Selena has had her fair share of dealing with mean people and bullies, whether it was online or in person. She constantly tries to not let it bother her and tries to teach her fans/followers to be kind.

In a song released on her Revival album she says, “Your lies are bullets, your mouth’s a gun, and no war in anger was ever won.” I interpret this as her saying that our words are powerful and can either affect people in a positive way or in a negative way. I think she is also saying that fighting anger with anger never works.

Stay strong.   Another thing that I really admire about Selena Gomez is how open she is about her struggles with mental health. She was diagnosed with lupus a few years ago and had to cancel her world tour in 2016 to deal with the side effects. She revealed that she had been dealing with panic attacks and depression as side effects.

Selena took a few months for herself and stayed out of the public eye. Her first public appearance was to the American Music Awards where she won Favorite Rock/Pop Female Artist. In her acceptance speech Selena opened up about her struggles that she was dealing with at the time. "I think it's safe to say that a lot of you know a lot of my life whether I liked it or not and I had to stop. Because I had everything, and I was absolutely broken.” My favorite part of the speech was when she gave hope to people who are struggling. She said, “If you are broken you do not have to stay broken.”

Girl power.  Throughout the years of Selena Gomez’s career we have seen that she has maintained a lot of friendships with other women in the industry. One of her most high profile friendships is with Taylor Swift. The female friend group that they have, were dubbed “squad goals” quite frequently in 2016. Selena has been outspoken about how important it is to be surrounded by positive people.

You can get through heartbreak.  Selena’s relationship and painful heartbreak with Justin Bieber was made very public in 2013 and 2014. But she also wanted to empower girls who may be going through a similar situation. In the 2014 interview with Ryan Seacrest Selena stated, “I made some decisions that weren’t great as well, and so did he and that’s why we went through all that to only make us better...it’s something that I feel like girls need to hear, and it’s something I’m willing to share with people." Seeing Selena recover from the breakup and remain happy and strong gives hope to a lot of people, particularly young girls, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that whatever their feelings are, they are valid and real.

Over the past few years Selena Gomez has gone through so many changes and learned so many lessons. She was very open about those lessons with her fans. Watching her be strong through facing adversity has inspired me and impacted my life deeply.