Gomez was born in Grand Prairie, Texas[1] to Ricardo Gomez and Mandy Teefy (née Cornett), a former stage actress.[4][5] Her father is Mexican American and her mother is of half Italian descent.[6][7] Her birth parents divorced when she was five years old, and she was raised as an only child by her working mother.[4][8] In 2006, her mother remarried Brian Teefy.[9] She is named after Tejano singer Selena.[10]
In a 2009 interview, Gomez said she developed an early interest in acting from watching her mother perform in theater productions. "My mom [Mandy] did a lot of theater, and I would watch her rehearse. When she got ready for the show and put on her makeup, I would sit behind her and color. She said, 'You have my lines memorized better than I do!' [...] One day I said [to her], 'I want to be like you!'"[8] She earned a high school diploma through homeschooling in May 2010.[11]