You can count on one hand the number of child stars who have made it across. Elizabeth Taylor. Natalie Wood. Jodie Foster. Leonardo DiCaprio. Christian Bale.
If fan love alone were all it required, Gomez would be there already. The adulation helps her keep balance on the tightrope. Working in her favor is that the person she is in front of thousands of diehards is the same one she is in a one-on-one.
"We love you, Selena!" shrieks Erin Daly, 12, of Aston, who with friends Shannon Savage, 13, and Adelina Alvarez, 12, arrived at the mall at 4 a.m. They have patiently waited 14 hours to see the thrush whom Daly calls "my role model."
Selenamaniacs know every word to "Who Says," the singer's platinum-selling empowerment anthem about not letting the bullies define you. They buy her Dream Out Loud clothing line (sold at K-Mart, not at pricey mall boutiques). They are Facebook friends of the girl who calls Justin Bieber her boyfriend.
"Girls relate to her," says Erin Siminoff, vice president of production at Fox 2000, producer of Monte Carlo. "They want to be her. She has an accessibility and a sophistication."
"She's a sweetheart to her fans," says Colette Villas, 17, of Newtown Square.
Some of her biggest fans are fan moms.
Sarah Freymoyer, managing editor of the website www.phillyburbmoms.com, speaks for them when she enumerates Reasons to Love Selena: "Her songs have positive messages; she's wholesome; she covers herself up when she dresses."
"My daughter started out as a Miley Cyrus fan," Freymoyer says of the onetime star of Disney's Hannah Montana. "But then Miley spiraled down so quickly."
As have so many other Disney alumnae such as Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Christina Aguilera and Vanessa Hudgens.
