Selena Gomez and Her Mother Accused of Defrauding Investors as Mental Health Startup ‘Collapsed’

In 2021, Selena Gomez, her mother Mandy Teefey, and The Newsette founder, Daniella Pierson, launched Wondermind with the goal of making costly mental health tools more accessible.

The media platform’s website, which has a sign-up for its newsletter, describes its origins: “One day, we were all talking about it and realized there was no easy, inclusive space where people could come together to explore, discuss, and navigate their feelings. So we thought, why not make it happen? And Wondermind was born.”

Now, five years after it began, Wondermind and its founders are being sued by investors who claim they pumped nearly nearly $1.2 million into Wondermind Global Inc. and were fed false promises about the company’s infrastructure, leadership, and resources.

According to a new lawsuit filed on Wednesday, investors were led to believe that a groundbreaking Wondermind app would be made, advertising deals would be struck, and celebrity cover stories were already underway. Instead, the complaint alleges, “for three years, while the Company quietly collapsed around them, not one of its founders, officers, or directors said a word to the investors whose money was funding the collapse.”

The trio and Wondermind are being sued for securities fraud, common law fraud, and breach of contract. The plaintiffs are seeking rescission of their investments in Wondermind, along with damages and costs.

The lawsuit also claims that investors were not aware of the full facts behind their alleged claims until The Cut published an article into the startup’s operations last year, which reported relationship tensions between Gomez and her mother, as well as a power struggle between Teefy and Pierson. The report revealed the “utter disarray” of the company to the plaintiffs including Teefy’s alleged “substance abuse disorder and her gross mismanagement” of the company; Gomez’s “abject dereliction of her duties” and “her active efforts to distance herself from it”; and the startup’s failure to fulfill basic obligations such as “paying its employees and vendors” on time.

Pierson — who was ousted from Wondermind in 2023 — is the sole defendant in another securities fraud claim, which alleges she made misstatements to investors to encourage their purchases of stock, and is also accused of conversion and unjust enrichment. The suit cites an August 2025 article by Forbes that alleged Pierson inflated the readership and valuation of her lifestyle newsletter during business pitches. Pierson is also accused of misappropriating investment funds for her “own personal purposes” and having “impoverished the Plaintiffs, without justification.”

“Daniella categorically denies the allegations against her and welcomes the opportunity to present concrete documentation and financial records that establish the facts,” a rep for Pierson said in a statement. “To be clear, she has never used investor funds for personal expenses. Quite the opposite: Daniella invested her own money into the business and did not draw a salary from the company.”

Representatives for Wondermind, Gomez, and Teefey did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This article was updated on Aug. 14 at 11:05 a.m. to include a statement from Daniella Pierson.