Selena Gomez shared with the magazine, “I wanted to make an album—I didn’t want to make just a million singles—and I wanted it to be rich with emotion. The titles of the songs speak to where I am in my life: One is called ‘Kill Em With Kindness’; another one is called ‘Rise,’ which is about life, about everything I’ve been through; another one is called ‘Survivors.’ And the album title came out of a moment I had in Mexico. I had taken a few of the producers there because I wanted to remove everybody from their environment in L.A. While we were away, I was getting criticized [by the media] because I had gained weight. I was really bummed when I found out all that stuff was going on, and that’s when I was like, ‘I’m so tired of feeling like I’m being pulled down by something.’ ‘Revival’ is the first song on the album, and the first lines are, ‘I feel like I’ve awakened—the chains around me are finally breaking.’” Gomez also offered some advice for girls growing up with social media-“It’s not real. None of it is real, not even the comments. It’s especially hard for women and girls, who think they have to look like those pictures; that breaks my heart. I know I post pictures when I feel good or look good in an outfit, but in reality, I’m not going to be posing like that as I’m walking down the street, and you can Google horrible pictures of me. You can find them everywhere. I don’t care. Social media is a place to have fun and put your perspective online.”
