Selena Gomez’s makeup brand Rare Beauty has catapulted her to billionaire status, according to a recent Bloomberg estimate.
But the 32-year-old singer and actor started out as a kid from Grand Prairie, Texas, who couldn’t afford plane tickets to castings and auditions, she said on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in 2008. “When I was 12 years old, Disney Channel had a nationwide casting search, and we could never really afford to fly out to California,” Gomez said. “So I sent in tapes, and [I] guess they liked me.”
Auditions weren’t new for Gomez: She appeared on “Barney & Friends” — braving a line of 1,400 other kids in their hometown to book the gig, she said — and in commercials for Chili’s and T.G.I. Fridays before sending tapes to Disney. Her single mom, Mandy Teefey, juggled three jobs while acting in commercials and local stage productions during Gomez’s early childhood.
Ultimately, Gomez’s remotely filmed audition helped …