Selena Gomez Fires Back Over Claims She Got Instagram Followers From Justin Bieber


Selena Gomez appears to be firing back at Vanity Fair and thanking her fans for their support after the magazine suggested that she became the most-followed person on Instagram thanks to her tumultuous past relationship with Justin Bieber.

Gomez looked to indirectly take aim at the magazine in an Instagram post this week, where Selena noted that it’s not how many followers that’s important, but how she uses her platform.

Posting a clip of herself blowing her fans a kiss that was originally posted to a friend’s Snapchat, Selena sweetly thanked her millions of followers after a number of her most dedicated fans publicly slammed the magazine on social media following what they described as “sexist” claims regarding Selena’s popularity directly stemming from her past relationship with Bieber.

“Not from my snap but if you want hilarious snaps follow @hungvanngo THANK YOU guys for all the love! So appreciative,” Selena wrote alongside the clip, adding, “ALSO: just know that I’m fully aware being most followed isn’t important. It’s how you use your platform. Not how big it is.”

Although Gomez didn’t explicitly mention Vanity Fair magazine in her newest Instagram post, her message about becoming the newly-crowned Queen of Instagram comes just days after Selena’s fans took serious aim at the publication after they claimed Selena’s past romance with Justin Bieber was one of the biggest factors in her Instagram popularity.

Selena’s fans were left seething earlier this week after a Vanity Fair writer wrote in a new article that Selena was most popularly known as “the ex-girlfriend of Justin Bieber” when investigating how she rose to the top when it comes to Instagram followers, which also included factors like her friendship with Taylor Swift and her “relatable content.”

The writer then claimed that one of the biggest factors in Selena’s social media fame, which currently includes more than 70 million Instagram followers, was down to what they described as being “The ‘Justin’ Factor.”

“Due to her on-again, off-again relationship (currently off) with Justin Bieber, there is also a very, very intense gossip and intrigue factor with Gomez,” the Vanity Fair article read, acknowledging that everything Selena posts “basically, ends up interpreted as some kind of commentary on her relationship with Bieber.”

A number of Gomez’s fans were left less than thrilled be the magazine’s claims and opted to call out the article on social media for suggesting that her four-year on/off romance with Bieber played a role in her rise to become Instagram’s most-followed celebrity, with some even noting that the magazine was “sexist” for even making the suggestion.

“If Justin was the most followed person and you did this article on him, you wouldn’t have mentioned a “Selena factor”??? Sexist,” Twitter user @revivaIsel wrote on the 140-character site earlier this week.

Fellow Selena Gomez fan @stilinsgarrix also blasted Vanity Fair for their seemingly misogynistic claims, tweeting out to the magazine on March 16, “Selena is famous for herself. It’s 2016 you all should stop these sexist articles.”

Other Selena Gomez fans also took to social media to call for Vanity Fair to delete the article using the hashtag “#SelenaGomezMadeSelenaGomezFamous.”

“Selena did this on her own #respectselena @VanityFair delete your sexist article,” Selena fan @bizzlesmamacita wrote on March 17, while @selenasrevival noted on the social media site, “When will the media understand that women don’t need men to become successful? #SelenaGomezMadeSelenaGomezFamous.”

What do you think of claims that Selena Gomez became the most followed person on Instagram because of her past relationship with Justin Bieber? Do you think Selena’s fans were right to call out Vanity Fair?

[Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images]

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