Selena Gomez
© Lauren GreenfieldSelena Gomez is the latest to emerge from Disney’s tween superstar creation machine. With Disney’s synergistic multiplatform approach, those who pop out of the Disney Channel blue screen, emerge not just as television actors and actresses, but as pop stars, clothing designers and if the strategy is successful, brands in their own right.
Selena Gomez rose to fame playing Alex Russo in the Disney channel sitcom The Wizards of Waverly Place. At the young age of 18, Gomez also headlines a band, Selena Gomez & The Scene whose single “Round and Round” was one of the top 15 iTunes downloads of the summer and who will soon be releasing their second album. Gomez has also starred in two feature length movies and launched a clothing line, due to hit 1,327 Kmart stores. In between all this, Gomez spends her time in meetings, in interviews, on television chat shows and in meet and greets, plugging all her various projects. Though Disney publicly espouses a go-slow approach to breeding its stars, keeping up this multiplatform stardom is, in reality, a nonstop job. Gomez says: “I don’t look at my schedule because I would freak out. It looks like a lot on paper. And it really is a lot. But it’s a whole lot of what I love.”
The key element of maintaining the brand of a Disney channel superstar is keeping in touch with the fans. Gomez communicates constantly with her fans via Twitter and Facebook, erasing the line between her official appearances and her personal life. Gomez has 5 million Facebook friends and over 2.3 million followers on Twitter: Thank you so much for all of the amazing birthday wishes!!! Every year gets better and better because of yall! I love you all so much! – Twitter, July 22, 10:08 AM
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