Selena Gomez Speaks on 13 Reasons Why Controversy
13 Reasons Why, a novel by Jay Asher was given new life by Selena Gomez and a team of brilliant minds who recently turned it into a television series. The series hit Netflix at the end of March and has earned mixed reviews since it’s debut. There seem to be some people in the grey area, but most are very much one side or the other.
“I just wanted it to come across in a way that kids would be frightened but confused — in a way that they would talk about it because it’s something that’s happening all the time.”
She also said that staying true to the book was important and she made sure that they did so.
“We stayed very true to the book and that’s initially what [author] Jay Asher created, was a beautifully tragic, complicated yet suspenseful story. And I think that’s what we wanted to do.”
13 Reasons Why follows the story of Hannah Baker’s life, more specifically, her death. Hannah commits suicide and leaves behind a box of tapes that explains why she did it, more importantly, how she got to the point where suicide seemed to be her only option. She deals with some extremely painful situations through the television series, as do those around her, and they all seemed to handle the brunt end of it themselves.
Hannah is subjected to assault, both mentally, physically, and sexually, and then abandoned. Her friends turn on her and strangers believe the awful rumors told by those friends about her. The one boy who loves her and knows her truth doesn’t know how to love her enough to save her. Or maybe he did, he just didn’t know how to say it.
The entire situation is heartbreaking, but unfortunately, it’s not something that never happens. The things Hannah experiences happen too often to many young adults today – and the series is finally opening the necessary doors to start the hard conversations.
Despite the controversy, Selena is in a great place right now and she feels that what she did was right, so do many fans across the world.
“13 Reasons Why’ was a really big moment for me, just because we had the book for seven years and we worked so hard on it. I’m in a really happy place. It’s been good.“
‘…but I knew him’
