SELENA MAKES HER MARK
Transplant-scar reveal
Selena Gomez is finally comfortable in her skin.
The 28-year-old pop star donned a blue swimsuit for a new Instagram post Thursday in which she bravely showed the world for the first time the scar left behind on her inner thigh by her 2017 kidney transplant.
“When I got my kidney transplant, I remember it being very difficult at first showing my scar. I didn’t want it to be in photos, so I wore things that would cover it up,” Gomez captioned the pic.
“Now, more than ever, I feel confident in who I am and what I went through . . . and I’m proud of that,” she wrote.
The “Wolves” singer first revealed in September of 2017 that she underwent the operation after the autoimmune disease lupus caused her kidneys to fail.
She said her longtime friend and roommate, Francia Raisa, gave her “the ultimate gift and sacrifice” by donating the organ.
At the time, she posted an Instagram photo of herself holding hands with Raisa in side-by-side hospital beds.
Raisa later said in an interview that Gomez “could have died” after breaking an artery postsurgery, and that doctors had to “get a vein from her leg and build a new artery to keep my kidney in place.”
That was just one of the complications Gomez suffered during her transplant ordeal.
The new organ had unexpectedly twisted around inside her body, which required a second six-hour surgery, Gomez told the “Today” Show in October 2017.
In her Instagram post on Thursday, Gomez also included a shoutout to her friend Theresa Mingus’ swimsuit line, La’Mariette, for championing body diversity.
“Congratulations on what you’re doing for women, launching @lamariette whose message is just that . . . all bodies are beautiful,” she wrote.
It’s not the first time the singer has inspired Mingus’ designs. When her friend’s brand first launched last year under the name Krahs, Gomez designed a high-waisted bikini specifically for the purpose of covering up another kidney-transplant scar, on her stomach. It quickly became the company’s best-selling design.
Gomez, who first gained fame as a teen starring in the Disney sitcom “Wizards of Waverly Place,” revealed in April that, in addition to her kidney problems, she has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
She said during a livestream with fellow singer and child star Miley Cyrus that she felt “equal parts terrified and relieved” to clue her fans in about her situation.
“Terrified because the veil was lifted, but relieved that I finally had the knowledge of why I had suffered with various depressions and anxieties for so many years,” she explained.