The rivalry to stay on top in the beauty business is no joke…<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
Words by Lydia Spencer-Elliot<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2214975001.jpg” alt=”Selena Gomez” title_text=”2025 Disney Upfront” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Selena Gomez is thriving: The singer recently released a serious contender for song of the summer \u201cBluest Flame\u201d, complete with backing vocals by Brat icon Charli XCX from her new album I Said I Love You First \u2014 her first studio record since 2020. Obviously, TikTok loves it.<\/p>\n In her private life, she\u2019s happily engaged and loved-up with producer Benny Blanco, who she started dating in 2023: \u201cI\u2019ve never been loved this way,\u201d she said of their romance. Cute.<\/p>\n One teeny weeny fly in the ointment of this all-round-winning-at-life scenario came last month, though, when Forbes seemingly revoked Gomez\u2019s billionaire status. For background, in 2024, Bloomberg had reported Gomez\u2019s net worth to be around $1.3billion (\u00a3961.2m). But when Forbes looked at the figures in May, the number had dwindled significantly \u2014 to $700m (\u00a3517.5m) Hardly pocket change, but something had apparently gone awry. So, what went wrong?<\/p>\n Gomez is, inarguably, a very wealthy woman \u2014 among the wealthiest self-made female entrepreneurs, in fact. This accolade is thanks to an admirable multi hyphen career that covers Disney stardom, (Wizards of Waverly Place) numerous albums, (Stars Dance, Revival, and Rare) and her makeup line Rare Beauty, which has been valued at $1.3billion by Forbes and generated $367m (\u00a3271.3m) in revenue in 2023. Away from Rare, Gomez has also earned an estimated $90m (\u00a366.5) from her music, tours, brand deals, and TV shows, like Disney\u2019s hit Only Murders in the Building. Oh, and lest we forget she was in the Oscar-nominated musical crime drama Emilia P\u00e9rez. Busy woman.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, there appeared to be financial trouble afoot last month, when Forbes reported the mental health startup Wondermind, founded by Gomez in 2021, alongside her mother Mandy Teefey and former partner Daniela Pierson, owed tens of thousands of dollars in outstanding debt, which the company claims have since been settled. Additionally, a source alleged to MailOnline that nine of the businesses employees had been fired with just two weeks severance pay, leaving only four employees at the company.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-107546144.jpg” alt=”Selena Gomez and mother” title_text=”2010 Hollywood Style Awards With The Palazzo Las Vegas, Klipsch, FRS Healthy Energy – Cocktails” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Wondermind, described on its website as \u201cthe world\u2019s first mental fitness ecosystem\u201d, raised $5m (\u00a33.6m) during its Series A (one step higher than seed) funding round in 2021, when the business was valued at $100m (\u00a373.9m) but struggled to secure further funding. Subsequently, one former Wondermind employee told People that Teefey had revealed she and Gomez had personally invested $8m (\u00a35.9m) to the endeavor by mid-2023.<\/p>\n Although Gomez is \u201cnot involved in the day-to-day operations\u201d at Wondermind, the source claimed she has \u201cinvested millions of dollars over the years into [the business] to support her mother and their shared passion for mental health.\u201d Regardless of this significant money injection, Forbes reported that Wondermind owes freelancers and vendors \u201ctens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of dollars.\u201d Yikes.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Wondermind told Forbes last month that the company had experienced \u201cgrowing pains\u201d but that their financial situation had been \u201crectified\u201d with changed implemented to make sure employees would get paid on time in the future and business could continue as normal. \u201cIn the coming days we will be transitioning into a new chapter for Wondermind,\u201d the statement said, \u201cand continuing our important work in mental fitness that helps hundreds of thousands of people.\u201d<\/p>\n Gomez isn\u2019t the only modern it-girl to have built a lucrative beauty empire. Everyone is vying to be the Elon Musk of skincare and Jeff Bezos of blush.<\/p>\n Former model Hailey Bieber just sold Rhode to e.l.f beauty for $1m (\u00a3739,705). Meanwhile, reality TV legend Kylie Jenner was declared by Forbes as the youngest self-made billionaire in 2019 due to the success of Kylie Cosmetics. That is, until she wasn\u2019t. Forbes also rescinded Jenner\u2019s billionaire status \u2014 just a year after handing it to her, claiming she had \u201cbeen inflating the size and success of her business for years\u201d.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Jenner responded to the Forbes article on X, formerly Twitter, noting that she never claimed to be a billionaire. ‘What am I even waking up to,’ she tweeted. ‘I thought this was a reputable site… all I see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. I’ve never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there ever. Period.’<\/p>\n In another tweet, Jenner rebuked the claim that she forged tax returns. Quoting the original Forbes article, she said,’ “Even creating tax returns that were likely forged” that’s your proof? So you just THOUGHT they were forged? Like actually what am I reading.’<\/p>\n Insiders claim that Jenner was humiliated by the whole ordeal, with Gomez now similarly perturbed by the ongoing commentary around her wealth. The latter is often pitted against Bieber, given their shared romantic history with singer Justin Bieber, so it can’t be easy seeing Hailey hailed as winning the beauty billionaire race while discourse whirls online about your own fortune. That said, we can’t imagine she’s too put out – new music, a thriving beauty company and a wedding on the way? She’s living better than most of us!<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photos: <\/b>\u00a0<\/b>Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s reportedly led to tension with her celebrity peers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-news"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10459"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10467,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10459\/revisions\/10467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘Everyone is vying to be the jeff bezos of blush.’<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]