As a girl in the late ‘90s and early aughts, few figures loomed larger than Britney Spears.
She was IT. Her blonde waves, her sugary sweet voice, her sexy-but-virginal winking public image, she represented an ideal I knew I was supposed to strive for and also knew I’d fail to achieve. I choreographed dances to “…Baby One More Time” in my best friend’s room, tying our shirts up in knots in a paltry simulacrum of the sexy schoolgirl outfits Spears and her dancers wear in the music video. I resented her and I revered her all at once.
And then, over the years… she morphed into something else: a cautionary tale. Her very public mental health struggles (and that infamous head-shaving incident) made her a prime target for public ridicule and dismissal.
We all know now that neither version of Spears — the ideal or the cautionary tale — were accurate portrayals of who she really was or is today. As Spears herself acknowledges in her new memoir, “The…
