WENN

Selena Gomez made a conscious decision to try and change her "sad and hurt" image with her latest album Rare.

The 28-year-old singer opened up to Rolling Stone magazine about the process of making the record, which she dropped in January, and admitted she had more control than ever over the album and what she wanted to say with it.

"I wanted people to take away that this was a journey and that it was completely closed. I don't want people to see me as just sad and hurt. I didn't want that anymore. I wanted people to know that I experienced something real, and that part of me is over," she explained.

Selena has been a staple of celebrity gossip for years, due in part to her former relationship with Justin Bieber. And while she used to be "very conscious" of what she said with her music, things changed for the star when she started working with Interscope in 2014 and specifically with songwriters Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter.

"I spent years of my life being very conscious of what I say and what I do," she explained. "Not because I was scared – I just didn't know if I had a right to say something. I didn't know if it would get messy and cause any sort of uproar. I wanted it to be very safe.

"The moment I started working with Interscope, I was listening to Good for You, and that's obviously Justin and Julia. I fell in love with the song. It was exactly where I was stepping into: being more of a woman and being OK with who I am, and not so scared to explore deeper into that."