Selena Gomez stars as Alex Russo in Wizards of Waverly Place on the Disney Channel.

DISNEY CHANNEL / CRIAG SJODIN

Selena Gomez has been featured in Entertainment Weekly and Variety and interviewed by People. Fan sites for the actress have popped up on the Internet, as have debates about who’s better (or thinner, or prettier) — Gomez, Miley Cyrus or High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens.

Keep in mind that this was “before” the premiere of Wizards of Waverly Place, the Disney Channel’s hope of being the next Hannah Montana. Wizards stars Gomez as Alex, who along with her two brothers has wizardly powers inherited from her father, who lost his own powers when he married a mortal — although he can still teach them to his children. The series also stars 14-year-old Jennifer Stone, as Alex’s noncomformist best friend, Harper.

But the focus is clearly on Gomez, who three months after her 15th birthday is already facing the pressures that sudden fame can bring. Still, Peter Murrieta, the show’s executive producer, says his young stars are ready.

“It’s very difficult to be a teenager, period,” Murrieta says. “Without anything else, it’s just a hard thing. When you add the possibility of becoming a star almost exactly overnight, it just makes it more stressful. What I can say about both Selena and Jennifer is that they are great people who have their heads on their shoulders right.”

Although nobody sings in Wizards (new episodes run Saturdays at 8:30 p.m.; repeats Monday through Saturday at 3 p.m.), the new show and Hannah share a formula: Both are about teenage girls trying to live ordinary lives despite having a big secret. In Wizards’ case, Alex and her brothers, Max (Jake T. Austin) and Justin (David Henrie), are wizards. They inherited the powers from their father (David DeLuise), who lost his powers when he married a mortal (Maria Canals Barrera).

And as with Wizards’ spiritual ancestors Bewitched and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the show’s magic is an excuse for plenty of wacky situations. In three early episodes, Gomez’s Alex at various times whirls like a dervish, walks like an Egyptian, slides through a ribbon of chocolate sauce face first and creates all sorts of havoc when she uses a time-travel spell to “help” her Justin with his clumsy attempts at a first kiss.

The show doesn’t have Hannah’s pop-star hook, but it’s often funny in its over-the-top silliness and should really score with Disney’s tween audience. And Gomez is already familiar to fans of Hannah, where she guest-starred as a pop-star rival of Hannah’s. She takes inspiration from the way that show’s star, Miley Cyrus, has handled fame.

“I’m scared,” Gomez said this summer. “But when I hang out with Miley and see how other kids look up to her, how they get so excited just because they looked at her, I think that making the kids’ day means a lot.”

In his decade-plus in the biz, Wizards executive producer Murrieta has worked on such series as the Christina Applegate sitcom Jesse and the Faith Ford-Kelly Ripa comedy Hope & Faith. He feels lucky to be working with Gomez and Stone, as well as Wizards’ other actors.

“I’ve worked with adults who are far more difficult than anybody in my cast right now,” he says. “I’ve seen Selena stand back by the doorway when they load the audience out at the end of the night, thanking everybody for coming. They are more gracious and professional and friendly than a lot of grownups I’ve worked with.”

Gomez’s mother, Mandy Teefey, declined to comment for this article, saying through a Disney Channel publicist that she wanted the focus to be on Selena. But Stone’s mother, Christy Stone — who says she never imagined herself as a Hollywood mom — backs up Murrieta’s comments.

“When Jennifer has talked to anybody, or anybody has come up about the show, it’s always been positive,” Christy Stone says. “One of the first things she said when she got the part was, it would be really neat to have young girls look up to you and be excited about meeting you, and to be a positive role model for them, and I know she’s looking forward to that.”

Murrieta, who’s now 41, says that he was a mischievous child — and that he finds it so easy to write for Gomez that he once told her that she’s the best version of himself he has ever written for. But he has praise for Stone and the rest of the cast as well.

“I think that working on this show, seeing the depths and the abilities these actors have shown me, I really believe that they can evolve, he says. “The sky’s the limit. I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see them having careers in film or TV. They’re incredibly talented, and they have a passion.”