Selena Gomez built her name on talking openly about mental health. Now the company she launched to spread that message is the reason she is facing a federal fraud lawsuit, and the allegations inside it are messy.
Wondermind was supposed to be Gomez’s next big thing after music and acting, a wellness platform built with her mother, Mandy Teefey, and Newsette founder Daniella Pierson. Five years later, instead of an app, a media empire, or a mental fitness movement, the company has investors, courtrooms, and some very uncomfortable claims about what was really happening inside its offices.
What Investors Say Wondermind Promised
Wondermind launched in 2021 with Gomez listed as co-founder, chief impact officer, and head of marketing, positioning itself as a place offering easy, doable ways to put mental fitness first every day. The company aimed to capitalize on public interest in mindfulness by treating mental fitness the way people treat a gym membership, something to work at daily.
In 2022, the startup raised $5 million in an early funding round from backers including Serena Williams’s venture fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia Capital, with $1.2 million of that coming from the five individual investors now suing the company. Those investors say they were told Gomez would be intimately involved in the company as head of marketing and publicity, and that her fame and fan base were central to the company’s value.
According to the lawsuit, none of it panned out the way it was pitched. The suit claims Gomez signed a contract obligating her to perform certain duties and then simply ignored it. Investors say the products they were promised, including an app, a podcast, and an editorial publication, never materialized.
The Allegations Get Personal
The lawsuit does not stop at broken business promises. Five years after Wondermind began, the investors are suing for securities fraud, common law fraud, and breach of contract, seeking to have their investments returned along with damages. Court filings claim Gomez ignored her obligations to the company partly because of long running personal struggles with her mother, who served as co-founder and co-CEO.
The complaint also leans on earlier reporting. The suit cites a 2025 exposé describing alleged chaos and mismanagement under Teefey’s leadership, including missed payroll and unpaid vendors, and accuses former co-founder Daniella Pierson of exaggerating her business track record. Investors say that after that reporting came out, Teefey told them Pierson had misappropriated company funds to cover her New York apartment rent and other personal expenses.
That earlier exposé is also where the substance abuse claims originated, and it is worth noting Teefey has pushed back on them. Teefey has denied accusations of substance abuse and internal dysfunction as the case moves toward a still unscheduled trial.
Pierson’s camp has disputed her own portrayal too, with her spokesperson telling Forbes she would not characterize her exit as being pushed out, adding that leaving Wondermind was a very difficult decision but that she was proud of what the team had built.
The defendants are being sued for securities fraud, common law fraud, breach of contract, and other claims, and representatives for Wondermind, Gomez, Teefey, and Pierson have not responded to requests for comment.
For now, everything in the complaint remains an allegation, not a proven fact, and Gomez has not addressed the suit publicly. But a company built around destigmatizing mental health struggles is now the subject of a lawsuit alleging its own leadership hid exactly that kind of struggle from the people who funded it. Watch for a response from Gomez’s team as the case moves toward trial.