Selena Gomez says she felt 'really violated' during her Disney days

The Selena Gomez-produced series is under fire from two California families who claim the show acted as a trigger for their teens. (Reuters)

Selena Gomez isn’t fond of some of her memories throughout her Disney days.

Gomez, 25, rose to fame when she starred in “Wizards of Waverly Place” on Disney Channel after the company spotted her on “Barney’s & Friends” in 2002. But her early exposure with fame drew many negative memories, the singer told Business of Fashion in an interview published Monday.

“When I was younger, it was all fun to me. When I did state fairs and 100 people would show up, I would be stoked. That was the best feeling in the world. But when I got older, I started to become exposed to the truth behind some stuff and that’s when it flipped a little bit,” Gomez said.

“I realized that, ‘Oh this is actually really hard, and kind of slimy in certain areas,’ and I didn’t realize that certain people wanted certain things from me. My confidence went through a lot with that,” she added.

SELENA GOMEZ WAS 'SCARED' TO GO TO REHAB 'BUT IT WAS AMAZING'

Gomez recalled feeling “really violated” when he was on the beach as a teenager and photographers snapping photos of her.

“I don’t think anyone really knew who I was. But I felt very violated and I didn’t like it or understand it, and that felt very weird, because I was a young girl and they were grown men,” she told the magazine. I didn’t like that feeling. Then, I would say the last season of my show, I was probably 18 years old, is when I felt like the flip happened. I didn’t feel like it was about my art as much.”

Gomez said when she turned 18 she wanted a change and had fallen in love with her then-boyfriend Justin Bieber. She eventually took a short break from the spotlight in 2012 until her solo album debut, “Stars Dance,” in 2014. She took another break in 2016 when she checked herself into an all-female treatment center to deal with anxiety, panic attacks and depression following her Lupus diagnosis.

“I stopped and then I continued, because I realized that I needed to challenge myself. Do I really love this? Is this worth it anymore? I would look at my crowd on tour and think, 'Yes, this is worth it, right?'" She said.

"'But then I would look at myself in the mirror and I just felt like, 'I've had enough, I don't know if I can go on anymore.' And I stopped it for a second. But it didn't mean that I didn't love it, I just had to find what I was going to do with it. As long as I'm healthy and happy in my mind, I'm all about it."