Selena Gomez wants fans to look at her now.
Given the Disney Channel alum’s style and aesthetic during the mid-2010s—at which point she was the most-followed user on Instagram—is constantly recirculated, she reflected on how it feels to have such a spotlight on her youth.
“I always make this joke where I think people want to freeze me in time to that period of my life,” she told People in an interview published Sept. 16. “I don’t know…maybe it was probably more interesting because I’m now chilling, which is great. But it was such a hectic period in my life…of course I had to rock a smoky eye. I was trying to be cool!”
And Gomez acknowledged that it can be difficult to have old photos of herself be the standard to who she is now.
“I think people always want me to look the way I did,” she admitted, “and that’s just not going to happen.”
Although Gomez was nodding toward her tendency to do more glammed up looks in her 20s—whereas now she is “really connecting with just natural beauty”—she also emphasized she isn’t afraid of getting older.