Selena Gomez Thinks Fans Want Her to Still Look Like She Did in 2016: ‘People Want to Freeze Me in Time’

Long before she had a cosmetics empire of her own, Selena Gomez was one of pop culture’s favorite beauty queens. But in a new interview, the star said that she thinks people would rather “freeze” her to look like she did a decade ago than embrace her current style.

“I’ve got to be honest, the 2016 throwbacks are fun, but people get really intense,” the singer-actress told People in a cover story published Wednesday (Sept. 16). “I think people want to freeze me in time to that period of my life.”

The topic arose after Gomez was asked about her iconic smoky eye that she frequently wore 10 years ago. In the past couple of years, fans have enjoyed recirculating photos and videos of the Only Murders in the Building star’s best looks from that era, which she now says “was such a hectic period of my life.”

“Of course I had to rock a smoky eye,” she added. “I was trying to be cool! I think people always want me to look the way I did, and that’s just not going to happen.”

It’s true that Gomez had a memorable year in 2016. She was fresh off the release of her Billboard 200-topping album Revival, which dropped the prior October and featured Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits “Hands to Myself” and “Same Old Love.”

Gomez was also the most followed person on Instagram at just 23 years old that year, and she appeared in The Fundamentals of Caring.

Fast forward to 2026, and Gomez has a thriving beauty business, Rare Beauty, and is happily married to producer Benny Blanco, with whom she’s approaching the couple’s one-year wedding anniversary.

“We’re still in the honeymoon stage,” she told People. “It just feels so wonderful to have a partner that genuinely listens and meets you right where you are, whatever that mood or day looks like. I need him, and I love him. He is a very joyful human: fun, spontaneous and he loves to talk.”