Selena Gomez urges women to ignore social media pressures

Selena Gomez wants young women to feel like they are "worth more than a comment" on social media.

The 24-year-old star recently visited a high school in Los Angeles, California, where she met a group of girls involved in Step Up, an organisation that connects women from underprivileged areas with mentors who help them to realise their potential.

Asked why she visited the girls, Selena said: "It reminds me of why I do what I do. These girls inspire me every day. They give me strength in areas in my life I didn’t know I needed."

And despite being the most-followed person on Instagram, the brunette beauty warned the girls against allowing themselves to be distracted by the pressures of social media.

Selena told the ‘Today’ show: "I just hope that they know they’re worth more than an Instagram like, and they’re worth more than a comment on any other social platform."

This comes shortly after Selena admitted her addiction to Instagram made her feel miserable, as she began to attach an unhealthy degree of importance to things she "didn’t want to care about".

The ‘Hands To Myself’ hitmaker explained that her infatuation with the photo-sharing website caused her to feel "like s**t" – even though she has 114 million followers.

Selena said: "As soon as I became the most followed person on Instagram, I sort of freaked out. It had become so consuming to me. It’s what I woke up to and went to sleep to.

"I was an addict, and it felt like I was seeing things I didn’t want to see, like it was putting things in my head that I didn’t want to care about. I always end up feeling like s**t when I look at Instagram. Which is why I’m kind of under the radar, ghosting it a bit."