She has sometimes struggled in the shadow of her peers, in finding a way to assert that she’s more than just Bieber’s ex and Taylor’s BFF. Her voice does not exactly jump off the radio and announce, “HI, IT’S ME, SELENA GOMEZ.” Even her biggest hits, the vaguely bhangra-indebted “Come and Get It” and the hiccupping ballad “The Heart Wants What It Wants,” sound like they could have been recorded by anybody. Selena Gomez - born in Grand Prairie, Texas, to Tejano-music-loving parents who, yes, named her after that Selena - has until now had some trouble cultivating a distinct musical personality. Although Gomez and Lovato have enough in common that an adult with slightly different priorities than mine could be forgiven for having difficulty telling them apart - they both began their careers on Barney and Friends, for one particularly poetic example, and later starred in separate Disney shows - their talents and respective charms are actually quite different. (Gomez’s came out last week Lovato’s is out today.) But do not let this coincidence confuse you. They’ve also released new albums within a week of each other, titled Revival and Confident, respectively. Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato are both 23, and both at that standard “Break Free” moment in their careers. And that is our cue to gasp, as though we did not see that part coming. For maximum impact, this change happens so quickly and theatrically that it’s as though a smoke bomb has gone off and our star has emerged from the cloud transformed. Sometimes they also pose naked, in an artful photo shoot that conveniently doubles as a metaphor for aesthetic purity.

They record songs full of imagery about busting out of chains, cutting their strings, stripping naked.

They fire their managers, who were either their parents, Svengalis, or (worst-case scenario) some combination of the two. (It’s also familiar enough to inspire great parody on the first season of BoJack Horseman, ex–child star Sara Lynn proclaimed her adulthood with the subtly titled club banger “Prickly Muffin.”) We know how it’s worked in the past: Clean-cut artist develops devoted tween fan base, then, with great hubbub, declares independence. Grande was a former Nickelodeon child star turned 20-something pop idol, a celebrity narrative arc so familiar that we, the pop-consuming audience, can recite its beats by heart. “This is the part where I break free,” Ariana Grande sang last year in one of her biggest hits - a brilliantly self-aware line.

Selena gomez revival album photoshoot