Team Hailey vs. Team Selena
The controversy we LIVE for.
by ALI ROSENBERG ★ FEBRUARY 27, 2023
As a diehard Justin Bieber fan, I battle with the idea daily of who I root for, the infamous Jeleana or Jailey. Over the past couple of years, my Tiktok algorithm has been absolutely populated with fan edits of Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. There’s really no right or wrong answer for which you stan, as both couples are completely iconic
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez started dating in 2011, causing the Beliebers to go crazy, as we all wanted to be One Less Lonely Girl. Their relationship quickly became the ideal model for a ‘first love’ and the relationship we all wish we had. They were the IT couple.
Credit: Vogue
Unfortunately, the couple ended up splitting in November of 2012, and rather than telling the public, they spent years writing songs about each other like “Come and Get it,” “Sorry,” “Lose You to Love Me,” and “Love Yourself.” We stan artists who could make good music stemming from a breakup.
From 2012 to 2018, there was a lot of back and forth between Hailey Baldwin (who started as a Justin superfan) and Selena Gomez, as Justin seemed to be going through the motions to find who would essentially become Mrs. Bieber. In 2018, Justin and Hailey suddenly announced their engagement, leaving fans immediately confused, attacking Hailey for stealing Selena’s man when they had previously appeared to be friends.
Credit: Elle
The lines between the end of Jelena and the start of Jailey are extremely blurred, which is why the debate is so controversial. But with Jailey getting married in late 2019, no one can argue with the fact that their wedding was absolutely beautiful and their relationship is genuine.
Credit: Insider
With the media searching for anything to make a story, there have been stories of arguments between the couple and Justin ‘screaming’ at Hailey, but no one really knows if any of that is true. The sadness surrounding the whole situation really lies in the fact that with the media continually pushing Jelena, Hailey and Selena are forced to be pinned against each other. However, in reality, they’re two completely different people and powerful women, to say the least.
Late last year, Hailey went on Alexandra Cooper’s podcast “Call Her Daddy” to address the whole Jelena situation publically for the first time ever. Hailey expressed that the rumors the media tried to project regarding her relationship with Justin are false and that they are unbothered by all the drama surrounding Selena. She also shared that she doesn’t understand why Selena and she are compared to one another, as their relationships are unrelated.
Now that Justin has entered this new stage in his life and music career, he has written an abundance of songs relating to his relationship with Hailey, including “2 Much,” “Hailey,” “Off My Face,” and “Loved By You.” In my opinion, I think that Justin just appears healthier and in a better mental state with Hailey, and that’s the most important thing.
It’s also very important to take a look at both sides of the story. In Selena’s documentary that she recently released titled Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me, she was extremely open about her mental health struggles and how the root of some of her challenges was Justin being in a new relationship. However, she never insinuated or suggested that people leave Hailey hate comments because of it.
Credit: Apple
In fact, Hailey and Selena posed together for a cute photo op at the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles to shut down rumors that they had tension. This, of course, sent the internet into a frenzy as people had never expected something so iconic, and this picture blew up practically everywhere.
Recently, Selena had taken to social media to show that she had over-laminated her eyebrows, and Kylie Jenner and Hailey Bieber seemed to mock her hours later on their Instagram stories, uploading pictures of their eyebrows. To put it mildly, the relationship between Hailey and Selena is undoubtedly confusing, and it has not been confirmed whether their posts were related to Selena.
Credit: Cultura Colectiva
Nonetheless, we all love both Hailey Bieber and Selena Gomez and hope for the best for the two of them. It’s important that we keep in mind on social media that tearing someone down is never okay, what the media portrays is almost never 100% the truth, so making assumptions is simply unjust.
Cover Photo Credit: Pinterest