Selena Gomez flashes her string-of-pearls smile and black-olive eyes as 3,000 fans give her a rock-star welcome Monday at the King of Prussia Mall. Gomez, the recording sensation, star of the Disney TV series The Wizards of Waverly Place, and anchor of the Fox mistaken-identity comedy Monte Carlo (opening Friday), is buoyed by the shout-out. With self-assurance and self-doubt in dizzyingly equal proportions, Gomez, 18, is walking the tightrope from teen idol toward mature stardom in five-inch heels, struggling against the perception she's just a "Disney girl." If fan love alone were all it required, Gomez would be there already. "I come from Disney World and am not taken seriously," Gomez explains matter-of-factly Monday afternoon before her triumph at the Mall.


"It inspires me when moms tell me they want their girls to be sassy and stand up for what they believe in, like [her Wizards character] Alex." Gomez deals with "the negativity and rejection" that she faces from casting agents and from the haters on Facebook the old-fashioned way - with affirmations. "It's such a funny thing, how nothing's funny when it's you," go the lyrics to Gomez's "Who Says," her epically relatable song about bouncing back from put-downs. After Barney, she did some Disney shows before ultimately getting cast in Wizards at 14. Gomez dated Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Lautner (Twilight's Jacob) before keeping company with pop sensation Justin Bieber. When designers approached her to launch her Dream Out Loud line of clothing, Gomez was psyched. The kids in Ghana want to go to school, want homework, want to learn."

If she had the power, she says, "I'd build schools in Ghana." While her own songs are for the most part mood-elevating, Gomez isn't the type of music lover who uses songs to lift her spirits. I'll listen to Death Cab for Cutie or 'More Like Her' by Miranda Lambert." Gomez's edge in Ramona and Beezus and in Monte Carlo, where she has a dual role as a down-home Texas girl mistaken for a spoiled heiress, distinguishes her from the sunshine overdrive of many teen stars. "In Ramona and Beezus, we saw this other side to her," observes Siminoff, who is betting that Gomez has the resources to play three-dimensional characters. "Not everything is a happy ending," Gomez reflects.

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