Selena talks about her life and some of the hardships she’s encountered in her career to a crowd of 16,000 youth at the first-ever We Day in California. She told the crowd to never ever give up on their dreams, and to be confident in their goals. Selena Marie Gomez is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television producer.

《Trust yourself》-Selena Gomez

Hi, guys, how are you? So good to see you guys, so you guys having a good night?

I have to say that it’s such an honour to be here, it is, I’m so happy to be here, I’m like a nerd and brought
my own speech but I hope it’s OK that I take this opportunity to really just spend with you guys and tell
you a little bit about my story.

I’m not an activist, I haven’t changed the world or led a campaign, I’m here to just tell you my path, so
that you hopefully can take something away from it, because I don’t like being honest with — this is a
truth — I don’t like being honest with press and interviews, I like being honest with you, directly, which is
each and every one of you.

Because I feel like I can and I’m just going to start with the basics, so I’m 21 and my mom had, my mom
had me when she was 16. And I’m from Grand Prairie, Texas, and she worked four jobs and completely
dedicated her life into making mine better. So, to me, she is the definition of a strong woman. And I love
her so much. Because she’s taught me those values so much. Thank you.

I have been acting my entire life and I have known since I was first on Barney, you know that purple
dinosaur, he’s great. You guys are so motivated, I feel like I can say anything! When I was eleven, the
point being is that when I was seven I wanted to be an actress and I wanted to live my dream. And when I
was eleven I had a casting director tell that I wasn’t strong enough to carry my own show. And I’m sure all
of you have been told that you don’t have what it takes and you may not be good enough and you don’t
have enough people supporting you and you’ve been told all of these things when deep down it’s all you
want to do. You want to be a part of something great. You want to make something great. And it does
more than not the wind out of you and crushes you when people try to tell you that you’re not good
enough. And it almost did for me but there was my mom next to me stronger than ever and she said the
most important thing is to always trust in myself. If I have, if I’m doing something because I love it, I
should do it because I love it and I believe that I can do it. So she told me to keep going, thank you, she
told me and she taught me to turn the other cheek and let the credits, the critics be critics, and let us just
trust ourselves. So for me, thank you, two years later, I got my own show and the first thought, the first
thought wasn’t oh man, that girl when I was eleven said that I wouldn’t carry my own show and I did, I mean, I thought about that for a little bit, but I thought about what my mom said. My mom is like you have to trust yourself and I realized that if I didn’t believe that I could do it, I wouldn’t be able to be here.
And I have, I’m going to say I live a very blessed life, I have so much to be thankful for and a lot of you are
big part of inspiring me because I don’t think you get it and maybe you’re not old enough, but you inspire
me to be better and we should inspire each other to be better. I’m surrounded by people who are
supposed to guide me and some of them have and others haven’t. They pressure me, there’s so much
pressure, you’ve got to be sexy, you’ve got to be cute, you’ve got to be nice, you’ve got to be all these
things!

And I’m sure you can all relate, you all have pressure that you have to deal with every day. I’m sure at
school, at work, with friends, with parents, with family, parents, I know, sometimes with mine, they tell
me what to wear, how to look, what I should say, how I should be. 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.

And all I really want you to know is that you are changing the world, I’m not changing the world, you’re
changing the world and that’s amazing! Please, please just be kind to each other and love and inspire
people because let’s do it! Let’s do it, let’s change the game, let’s change the game!
The most important thing is that we learn and we continue to learn from each other. Please stay true to
yourself, please just remain who you are and know that we have each other’s back, all of us have each
other’s back.

I’d be lying if I said that I never tried to make myself better by giving in, because I have, but I’ve learned
from my actions, and for all of the things I’ve done I’m proudest of that I’ve learnt from my mistakes. I
want you to know what it’s like that I know what it’s like. Figuring out what types of friends you have, you
are who you surround yourself with. So I just want to say I hope I can inspire each and every one of you to
just trust in yourselves, to love and to be loved, and thank you for allowing me to come up and ramble
and talk to you guys because this is such a beautiful thing you’re doing. Be proud of yourselves. This is
great!

Exercise Day 3 - Friday, November 5