How did Selena Gomez become a billionaire?

Multi-talented artist Selena Gomez has officially reached billionaire status, joining the ranks of fellow artists Taylor Swift and Rihanna with an astounding 10-figure fortune. According to Bloomberg’s 2024 Billionaires Index, the 32-year-old singer’s net worth has reached $1.3 billion as of Sept. 2024.

Gomez started her career as a child actress, starring in the children’s show Barney & Friends when she was just 9 years old. She also had small roles in a few movies and TV shows on the Disney Channel before bagging the lead role of Alex Russo in The Wizards of Waverly Place, which ran for four seasons from 2007 to 2012. Gomez’s most recent role is Mabel Mora in the Hulu show Only Murders in the Building, and she is reportedly paid $700,000 per episode.

Apart from acting, Gomez also explored the world of music and has released three studio albums — Stars Dance (2013), Revival (2015), and Rare (2020) — all of which were a huge success worldwide. Gomez amassed a fortune from her acting and singing career alone, but she also has other ventures that helped cement her status as a self-made billionaire.

Selena Gomez’s diverse income sources

Selena Gomez is also known as a social media queen, ranking third as the most followed person on the platform with 425 million followers. This means that she gets paid a substantial amount for sponsored posts, and per a report from the 2024 Instagram Rich List, that amount is a whopping $2.5 million per post. Furthermore, she’s worked huge brands, such as Puma, Louis Vuitton, and Coach just to name a few, that offered contracts amounting to millions of dollars.

While Gomez has a diverse income portfolio, the majority of her fortune is attributed to the success of her cosmetics line, Rare Beauty, which accounts for more than 80 percent of her wealth. Gomez founded the company in 2020 with the goal of promoting self-acceptance. Furthermore, as a strong advocate for mental health, the actress has integrated the focus into her brand. “I feel that there’s a strong connection between how we talk about beauty and mental health, and I think we should discuss both. My hope is that with Rare Beauty, we can have open conversations around beauty and change the industry together,” she said in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar.

In March 2024, there were speculations that Gomez would be selling Rare Beauty after she consulted financial advisers about offers from various entities to invest or purchase the company, which has been valued at $2 billion. Gomez put the rumors to rest, however, when she said in an interview with TIME, “I don’t have any plans on that, genuinely,” adding that she is working on developing more products to be released in the next few years.