The price of being a popstar

Cameron Chappell, Staff Writer

Britney Spears is arguably one of the most beloved pop stars of the past two decades who is best known for her hit songs and catchy dance moves. However, she is now the face of a worldwide movement. On Apr. 22, 2019, a small group of Britney fans gathered outside of West Hollywood with posters bolding the hashtag #FreeBritney. Although Britney had seemed to stay out of the spotlight in recent years to perform at her Vegas residency, she had long been trapped in a conservatorship under her father, fighting for her freedom but often never heard. 

Spears was among many child stars of the late ‘90s that rose to fame quickly and starred in Mickey Mouse Club along with other big names, such as Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake. While trying to navigate her life through the often grimey music industry, she entered from the young age of 11 years old and had to grow up under a spotlight of scrutiny. She always knew she wanted to sing and that her small hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana would only take her so far. Spears signed a deal with Jive and released her first album Baby One More Time in 1999 at the age of seventeen, quickly becoming the best-selling albums by a teenager ever. Going through puberty and becoming a woman can be a very difficult path that every girl has to go through, but it is an otherwordly level of struggle with the media watching and critiquing every single move that is made. Spears was always compared to her other female and male counterparts and told that she acted both too childish, and then later, too sexy for her age. She was made to be a bad influence for young, teenage girls who looked up to her and liked her music. While doing interviews she was often asked invasive, inappropriate personal questions about who she was dating and her sexuality. 

Spears was taken advantage of by the people around her and never truly had a group of people that had her complete best interest at heart. She was the exact target the media and paparazzi loved to pick and follow. She was heavily bullied and stalked every moment of her day and would be on the front page of a magazine for simply ordering food at a drive-thru. She lost control of herself and felt like she could never be a truly whole person again. The early 2000s was a time when the media could be openly misogynistic and get away with things they cannot do now. Paparazzi made fun of Spears’s weight, mothering skills, and relationships. Spears was admitted to hospitals due to stress and hospitals were one of the few private areas where no cameras and media were allowed. The comments and media took a massive toll on Spears’s mental health to where she was considered to be mentally unstable, unable to handle her finances and unable to care for her kids full time. But the real question is why was she still made to perform if she is so unstable? In Jan. 2019, Spears went on a long hiatus and refused to perform until her father was taken off as primary conservator in the conservatorship. 

We now fast forward almost two decades later and Britney is still not free from the toxic environment she has always been stuck in. She lives a quieter and more private life than before, but one can only imagine how different her personal life and career could be if her management had truly cared. For people in the spotlight, the heckling and abrasiveness of the media and paparazzi has never stopped.