: The movie starred Selena Gomez alongside Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and Rachel Korine. For Gomez, who was transitioning away from her wholesome Disney Channel image ( Wizards of Waverly Place ), the film was a massive departure.
In March 2013, Selena Gomez was 20 years old and at a critical turning point in her career. Having wrapped up her career-defining role as Alex Russo on Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place , she needed a vehicle to signal to the world that she was growing up. That vehicle was the neon-soaked, Harmony Korine-directed crime film Spring Breakers , which hit theaters in March 2013.
Despite the numerous images that have circulated online, Selena Gomez has never posed for or appeared in Playboy Magazine. The famed March 2013 issue, which has been the center of this viral rumor, was . According to media reports from the time, the purported cover was a digital fabrication created by a fan using image manipulation software. Selena Gomez Playboy Magazine March 2013
Internet users took the Spring Breakers promotional imagery and photoshopped them onto mock Playboy magazine covers. These realistic edits continue to circulate online, misleading fans into searching for a March 2013 issue that does not exist. The Real March 2013 Turning Point: Spring Breakers
: Digital manipulators created a highly realistic, NSFW mock-up cover using a lookalike's body paired with Gomez’s face. : The movie starred Selena Gomez alongside Vanessa
: Around that era, she participated in several edgy editorial shoots to promote her transition to adult roles, including a 2013 feature for Flaunt Magazine and a later controversial "Lolita-style" shoot for V Magazine in 2015.
Consider motive and timeline
The highly sexualized marketing of the movie caught the attention of the real Playboy brand. In April 2013, Playboy’s Official Twitter Account posted a promotional photo of Gomez and Hudgens with a tweet reading:
The connection between the star and the magazine didn't completely disappear. In subsequent years, the official Playboy Twitter/X account occasionally posted links reacting to Gomez's authentic, mature photoshoots—such as her V Magazine or Flaunt features—or her personal Instagram posts. When these articles resurfaced over the years, they often retroactively blurred together with the 2013 timeline in search algorithms. The Reality: What Selena Gomez Was Doing in March 2013 Having wrapped up her career-defining role as Alex