Beginning in January, the long-standing feud between former Disney Channel star Gomez and model Hailey Baldwin reignited over a series of social media posts. On Jan. 9, Hailey posted a TikTok video with her supermodel friends Kendall Jendall and Justin Skye. The trio mouthed the trending audio: “I’m not saying she deserved it, but God’s timing is always right.”

Gomez and Baldwin have been pitted against each other for years, for both have been romantically involved with popstar Justin Bieber. Gomez was in an on and off relationship with Justin for nearly a decade, but he and Baldwin got married in 2018.  

Many Gomez fans theorized that the Tiktok was directed towards Gomez, who had been body shamed earlier that week. Though Hailey deleted the video, she received significant backlash and clarified that the post was merely “a random TikTok sound for fun” that is not “directed at anyone.” To this, Gomez responded to a fan’s reaction video commenting “It’s OK! I don’t let these things get me down! Be nice to everyone!”

In February, Gomez shared a video on TikTok of her brows mentioning over-laminating them. Shortly after, Kylie Jenner shared a photo of her eyebrows on her Instagram story with the caption “this was an accident?” as well as a screenshot of a FaceTime call with Hailey, showing a close-up of their eyebrows.

“Initially, I believed that all of the social media posts were a coincidence,” Nancy Koo (12), close follower of Hailey on TikTok, said. “However, the more I saw fan-made edits or theorizing videos, the more I began to realize how strange the whole timing was. I thought it was most absurd for Hailey to choose that particular audio amongst many other trending ones, and take her video down immediately once she started to receive attention. Though she may not have intended it, I think her actions are what made everything seem more suspicious.”

People were quick to flood Kylie and Hailey’s comment sections on social media, calling them “mean girls” and “childish.” Kylie denied throwing shade at Gomez by commenting on a fan’s post saying “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 wrote back, “Agreed @kyliejenner. It’s all unnecessary. I’m a fan of Kylie.” 

“I think that Selena Gomez really lives by her motto of ‘treat people with kindness’,” Chloe Yoon (9), avid social media user, said. “She rarely gets herself involved with drama and was even using her platform to refrain her fans from targeting Kylie and Hailey. I think this happening reflects the strong fanbase Selena has, including other influencers who seemingly take her side as well.” 

Though both Kylie and Gomez cleared the air, people continued to attack Kylie and Hailey heavily. People also pointed out how Gomez surpassed Kylie as the most-followed woman on Instagram in the same time-line, arguing that Kylie’s Instagram post was indeed shady and intentional. 

Selena Gomez announced that she will take a break from social media. Fans are currently uncovering old information and footage about Hailey shading Selena in the past, being racist, or for her previous problematic moments. To this day, Kylie, Hailey, and even Justin’s social media comments continue to be filled with hate comments.

“Though I am not active on social media, I have even heard of controversy,” Aiden Lee (11), fan of Justin Bieber, said. “However, I think that it is ironic considering that fans are attacking mostly Hailey and Kylie for being ‘bullies,’ yet they are doing the same by cyberbullying them online. I believe this issue sheds most light on how toxic the social media community tends to be.”