It’s only August, but Wizards of Waverly Place star Selena Gomez already knows what she wants for Christmas.
"I really want to get Rosetta Stone, because I really need to learn my language," the 18-year-old dished to Latina.com while she was in New York City promoting her new film Ramona & Beezus. Gomez—who is Italian on her mother's side and Mexican on her father's side—loves her fellow Latinos, but admits she occasionally experiences trepidation at Latin awards shows because she’s not entirely confident in her language skills.
"I practice [Spanish], but I can understand it better than I can speak it,” explains Selena. “So in a lot of my interviews that I did recently, they would speak to me in Spanish and I would answer back in English. They were like, 'You pick it up so easily,' but I don’t want to say it in Spanish because I’d be embarrassed if I mess something up."
Like Jessica Alba, and other A-list Latinas before her, Gomez says she doesn’t think you have to speak Spanish fluently to be a "real" Latina. "At first I did," she admits, "but then I started to see all these people that accepted me regardless of the fact that I didn’t speak it."
"I really want to get Rosetta Stone, because I really need to learn my language," the 18-year-old dished to Latina.com while she was in New York City promoting her new film Ramona & Beezus. Gomez—who is Italian on her mother's side and Mexican on her father's side—loves her fellow Latinos, but admits she occasionally experiences trepidation at Latin awards shows because she’s not entirely confident in her language skills.
"I practice [Spanish], but I can understand it better than I can speak it,” explains Selena. “So in a lot of my interviews that I did recently, they would speak to me in Spanish and I would answer back in English. They were like, 'You pick it up so easily,' but I don’t want to say it in Spanish because I’d be embarrassed if I mess something up."
Like Jessica Alba, and other A-list Latinas before her, Gomez says she doesn’t think you have to speak Spanish fluently to be a "real" Latina. "At first I did," she admits, "but then I started to see all these people that accepted me regardless of the fact that I didn’t speak it."
This reminds me of the Kelly Clarkson fat shaming they did on Faux, er, Fox News.
Selena said in May 2014:
"I'm surrounded by people who are supposed to guide me, and some of them have and others haven't. They pressure me[...] you gotta be sexy, you gotta be cute, you gotta be nice. You gotta be all these things.
You all have pressure that you have to deal with every day I'm sure with school, with work, with friends, with parents, with family. ... They tell me what to wear, how to look, what I should say, how I should be.
Until recently, I had given into 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."
Selena said in May 2014:
"I'm surrounded by people who are supposed to guide me, and some of them have and others haven't. They pressure me[...] you gotta be sexy, you gotta be cute, you gotta be nice. You gotta be all these things.
You all have pressure that you have to deal with every day I'm sure with school, with work, with friends, with parents, with family. ... They tell me what to wear, how to look, what I should say, how I should be.
Until recently, I had given into 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."