Selena Gomez may be over her TikTok drama with Kylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber, but fans are not. In the last week, fans have rallied behind the actress, causing Gomez to gain about 10.5 million (!!!) Instagram followers.
On February 22, the day Gomez dethroned Jenner as Instagram’s most followed woman, Gomez had 380,644,778 followers. On March 1, as of 12 P.M. EST, she has 391,143,710 followers, having gained 10,498,932 followers. In the words of Gomez herself, “look at her now.” That’s the force of TikTok’s #teamselena, a hashtag with over 269.6 million views.
Selena Gomez’s Instagram follower count at 12 P.M. EST, March 1, 2023.
Selena Gomez’s follower count at 6:25 P.M. EST, February 22, 2023.
Jenner, meanwhile, has lost about half a million followers. The Daily Mail claimed she actually lost an estimated 1 million. But while it appears on her profile that she has 1 million fewer followers than before (379 million to 380 million previously), the math is a little more generous when you look at exact follower counts.
When Jenner became Instagram’s second most followed woman, she was at 380,425,729 followers. She now has 379,938,969 followers, so practically 380 million still. That’s an exact difference of 486,760 followers. So yes, Jenner has lost followers but not a staggering million of them.
Kylie Jenner’s Instagram follower count at 12 P.M., March 1, 2023
Kylie Jenner’s follower count at 6:25 P.M. EST, February 22, 2023.
When Jenner and Hailey Bieber were accused of throwing shade at Gomez’s self-described over-laminated eyebrows on their Instagram Stories, in the tip-of-the-iceberg TikTok incident that has set off an avalanche of fans pouring over years of questionable potential “mean girl bullying” interactions, Gomez and Jenner shut the drama down.
Jenner denied taking a shot at Gomez’s brows, writing, “This is reaching. No shade towards Selena ever and I didn’t see her eyebrow posts! U guys are making something out of nothing. This is silly.”
Gomez joined in the debunking, commenting, “Agreed @kyliejenner. It’s all unnecessary. I’m a fan of Kylie!”
View full post on InstagramGomez briefly quit TikTok following all the fan and media attention her additional TikTok comments regarding the bullying received. While she has since reactivated her account and been active on Instagram, she told fans before leaving TikTok that she was too old for this drama.
“I’m very happy, I’m so blessed, I have the best friends, the best fans in the whole world, and I just couldn’t be happier,” Gomez said. “And I’m good. I love the way I am. I don’t care, I’m big, I’m not—I don’t care. I love who I am. And yeah, I’m gonna be taking a second from social media, because this is a little silly. And I’m 30, I’m too old for this, so. But I love you guys so much! And I will see you guys sooner than later, I just… I’m just gonna just take a break from everything.”
Alyssa Bailey
Senior News and Strategy Editor
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
