Seriously Selena

Icon. Multi-million-dollar brand. Single and happy about it. Selena Gomez just grew up pretty fast. Justin who?

- Monica Corcoran Harel

‘Are those real?’ is not a question you should ask any woman, much less a pop star who happens to have the number-one album in America. But the unflappable Selena Gomez laughs and says, ‘Not exactly. They’re mostly real.’ Mostly real? Of course, we’re talking about the impossibly long, full eyelashes that frame her espresso-brown eyes. ‘I stopped doing lash extensions a while ago, but there are a few left,’ she admits, perched on the outdoor banquette of a laid-back cafe in suburban San Fernando Valley, LA. But while those lashes may not be 100 per cent her own, everything else about Gomez feels authentic.

Moments ago, she arrived bang on time and greeted me with a decidedly un-Hollywood embrace – rather than just grazing my shoulders, she really hugged me (‘Be right back,’ she said, ‘I have to tinkle’). Dressed in a black silk Stella McCartney shirt, black jeans from Urban Outfitters and patent-leather Topshop bootie, with her lustrous, raven-coloured hair gathered in a messy topknot, she could pass for a teenager. But, even with no make-up, the inconspicuous starlet is spotted by a few high-school girls, who point and giggle. ‘I feel like I look 16 sometimes, which is a bummer because I would love to date older guys,’ she tells me, sounding more like a confidante than a celebrity (we’ll talk more about her single life later).