Britney Jean Spears is an American music artist, TV personality, actress and mother.

She’s an international star, known in many countries for her talent and sweet personality. After

seven hit albums, seven album tours, multiple fragrances, and over 100 awards and countless

nominations, Britney has her own empire. While Britney was building her career she has had her

fair share of problems, which caused her to struggle and eventually get help. Currently, she’s a

host of the second season of a popular TV show “America’s X-Factor”. Britney seems to always

be on the move and doing more each year than she did before, expanding her fame and creating

more of a fortune.

However, Britney hasn’t always been as famous as she is today. Born in McComb,

Mississippi on December 2nd

, 1981 she was born to Jamie and Lynne Spears, and was raised in

Kentwood, Louisiana. Ever since she was a young girl, Britney as well as her parents, knew that

she’d be a star. At the age of 3, she started to take dance lessons and at age 6 sung at her

kindergarten graduation. With much help from her parents and family, Britney made it to the

popular TV show “Star Search” and made it to the finals; now everyone knew what she was

capable of, and she was only getting started. She attended the Professional Performing Arts

Center in New York City, where she learned how to dance and sing. After finally joining the

Mickey Mouse Club House in 1993, Britney was appeared television more and more getting her

name out in the world. Not too long after, she was noticed and joined an all girl group

“Innosense” for a short period of time before she left and created her first album “Baby One

More Time” in 1998; this made her a star. Before releasing her album, she started her first tour in

malls across America featuring four songs off of her album along with two backup dancers

accompanying her. Britney finally released her album in January of 1999 and five months later

she started her first official album tour across America; this was a success.

“I'm still the same person I've always been.” –Britney Spears

Currently Britney is always faces negativity due to her rough history of choices. Even

though she has come around tremendously from her downward spiral in 2007, people fail to look

past that time and never credit her for her improvements. The media always looks for ways to

slander her, either her fashion choices or bad habits. Also, the media is known to print false and

altered stories, and the public doesn’t always know the truth from these articles. Because the

public doesn’t know the truth or the full truth, Britney is viewed very negatively by the public

and faces criticism on a daily basis. There is a lot that the public doesn’t know, and because of

this they won’t know how much of a remarkable figure that Britney really is, because of how she

has learned from her past, and bettered herself.

Britney’s problems started in 2000 after she released her second album “Oops! I did it

again.” She was dating boy band pop star, Justin Timberlake and the relationship looked almost

perfect. However, it was rumored that Justin had helped prevent Britney from running with the

wrong crowd and getting involved with drugs. Their relationship lasted two years and ended

right after she released her first and only motion picture “Crossroads”. After the breakup, Britney

was left heartbroken, as that was her first love and she was only at the young age of 21.

However, at the same time Britney was starting to change from the “innocent girl next door” to a

young woman who wanted to do her own thing. She had released her third album and was

starting to change her look to a sexier, southern, blonde bombshell. As her image changed, her

music started to as well. Her songs started to become more provocative and risqué as well as

controversial. Her performance in 2003 with music icon Madonna proved to be highly publicized

nothing but controversial. While performing with fellow artist, Christina Aguilera, Madonna and

Britney shared an intimate kiss that sent the media crazy calling Britney “no longer a role model

to young girls”. Her response to these critics was “I would like to be called an inspiration to

people, not a role model - because I make mistakes like everybody else. When I'm offstage, I'm

just like everybody else”. Britney kept pushing on, releasing her fourth album “In the Zone”,

which was highly successful compared to her last album “Britney” which did not place any

singles in the Top 10 on Billboard’s hot 100.

In January 2004, a few months after releasing “In the Zone” and making an impulsive

decision, Britney and fellow childhood friend, Jason Alexander, went to Vegas and eloped. The

marriage only lasted 55 hours but made the public raise eyebrows. When asked why it happened,

the answer was it was a joke taken too far. This was the start of Britney making impulsive

decisions, even if innocent at first that would have serious consequences.

In the spring of 2004, Britney publically announced her relationship with her back up

dancer Kevin Federline. In the beginning of her relationship it looked like a picture perfect

couple and she seemed generally happy; she even got married in the fall to Kevin Federline and

took a break from her music career to focus on her new family. In May of 2005, Britney released

her own TV show “Britney & Kevin: Chaotic” which was based on their relationship while

Britney was world touring. The TV show captured Britney being her, and a more mysterious but

mature side of her; the show only lasted one month before being cancelled.

Later that fall Britney gave birth to her first child Sean Preston Federline, on September

14th

. After Britney gave birth she was over the moon happy, but so were the tabloids. Not too

long after, Britney was facing criticism from the media due to her poor parenting skills and

reckless behavior. She was seen driving with her five month son on her lap in February.

Britney’s reply to the criticism was that the paparazzi were making her feel scared for her child

and she wanted to quickly leave the area. She also defended her roots by saying that she’s a

country girl and that’s what country people do; things that might seem dangerous but that are

almost natural. Then a few months after, Britney was seen almost falling while carrying eight

month old Sean while being attacked by paparazzi for photos. With all of the criticism she faced,

Britney was depressed and upset with herself and just wanted her privacy. “Oh, I’ve wept. Yeah,

I’ve definitely wept just with the world, you know, how judgmental they are. You know what; I

know I’m a good mom.” Britney was expressing how she was like everyone else, and had

feelings about people criticizing her.

Almost one year after giving birth to her first child, Britney gave birth to her second,

Jayden James, on September 12th

, 2006. This event brought happiness to the couple again with

their second child, but the happiness didn’t last long. Only two months after the birth of their

second child, Britney filed for divorce from Kevin Federline. Now, Britney was left with two

young children and alone, thus triggering her depression again.

While her divorce was still settling, Britney was out and showing more impulsive and

risky behavior. She was spotted only a few weeks after announcing her divorce clubbing with

notorious party girls, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. Rather than spending time with her

children, Britney wanted to go out and get her mind off of all the drama she was facing due to

her failed family; this of course sent the media crazy, wondering if Britney was going to continue

to hang out with the wrong crowd.

For the next few months, Britney was seen out and about along with a strange

accomplice. She was now dating one of her former paparazzo, Adnan Ghalib. While in the midst

of a nasty custody battle with soon to be ex-husband Kevin Federline, Britney had started to let

her depression consume her. On February 16, 2007 Britney walked into Esther’s hair salon in

Tarzana, California and complained that her extensions were too tight and bothering her. Rather

than asking to get them taken out and fixed, Britney impulsively decided that she wanted to

shave her head completely bald. The employees refused, as it was a big decision that she made

quickly, so Britney decided she was going to do it herself. She buzzed her hair off, with a smile

on her face, as she watched her hair start to disappear; this was a warning sign that she needed

help. After she was finished with her hair, she got three tattoos and left, leaving the media and

the public wondering “What happened?” Hours after she buzzed her hair off, Britney was

voluntarily admitted into a rehab center. For a few hours, Britney walked around and inspected

the place, but then checked out less than 24 hours later.

The next few days the public watched to see what would become of the pop star who was

starting to have major behavioral issues. On February 23rd

, Britney went to Kevin Federline’s

house to see her children and got into an argument. Angry over not being able to see her

children, Britney hurriedly left and was spotted not too long after in a parking lot at a gas station.

While her friend ran inside, Britney who was in the passenger seat, tried to ignore the paparazzi

who were taking photos of her through the front and passenger side window. Once her friend

came back, Britney started to drive off only to stop and get out of the car. Angry over having no

privacy, she started to threaten the paparazzi and attempted to attack them. The photographers

continued to snap pictures and made up crazy headlines that Britney had lost it. That same night,

Britney re-entered rehab and stayed for the whole treatment.

After successfully completing her rehab treatment of 30 days, Britney was diagnosed

with depression and gotten the help she needed. She then tried to get back to her old ways of

performing by starting her “M+M’s Tour” which was exclusively at the House of Blues across

the country. Talk for the tour had started in 2006, but now it was the perfect time for her to have

it. This tour only lasted 20 days, but it gave Britney the thrill of performing live again.

The custody battle between Britney and Kevin was getting heated throughout 2007 and in

August, Britney and Kevin were fighting it out in court. Kevin tried to make it clear that Britney

was emotionally and mentally unstable to handle raising the kids full time and he demanded full

custody of the children. Before Britney and Kevin had an agreement that they would share

custody 50/50 but after the end of the custody case, Kevin was awarded majority custody of the

children. This crushed Britney, who just wanted to be with her kids (and was starting to recover

from her depression), now had less time with her kids.

On August 30th

of that same year, Britney was about to get what she finally wanted; she

performed live at MTV’s VMA’s. Off of her new album that was in the works, Britney

performed “Gimme More” a song about how the public wanted more of Britney and her crazy

antics and how she was going to make her comeback. Of course, criticism followed not too long

after her performance. People said she was making a fool of herself and needed to get off the

stage and try to be a mother. There was also speculation that she was even lip-syncing during the

performance. Still in recovery Britney tried to get herself back together and finish working on

her next album “Blackout”. With her critics the performance was a disaster, but with her fans

they knew she was back.

Even though things started to look up for Britney, it wasn’t the end of her rollercoaster

problems. On January 3rd, another extreme moment for Britney occurred. After spending the day

with her children, she didn’t want them to leave her. She rashly decided to lock herself into the

bathroom with her youngest son Jayden and refuse to let him go, pleading to let her keep him

with him. Finally after four hours, she released her son and was taken to UCLA for a medical

evaluation and sole custody of her children was given to Kevin Federline. A few weeks later,

Britney returned to UCLA for a follow up evaluation and was released a week later where she is

diagnosed with Bipolar disorder and was treated. It seemed like the best thing for Britney was to

have someone help her prevent her impulsive decisions and rash behavior was for her parents to

intervene. On February of 2008, Britney’s parents Lynne and Jamie Spears gained legal custody

over Britney, stripping her of her own rights over herself. This action was to ensure Britney was

getting the full and correct treatment she needed to get better and to keep the negative influences

away. Along with taking control over her life, her parents fired her agent Sam Lufti who wasn’t

helping Britney improve, but keeping her down.

After many months of recovering correctly and fixing her life again, Britney returned to

the MTV’s VMA’s, a year after her performance. By the end of the night, Britney had received

not only her first, but three “Moon Men” Awards which had restored her confidence. Her smash

hit “Piece of Me” had won two of the “Moon Men”, a song about how the media and public are

always watching her and criticizing her for the meaningless things and that they need to get over

themselves. In order to keep up the success, she released her sixth album “Circus” in November

of 2008. The album was her biggest selling album next to “In the Zone” with 15 million

combined sales. Britney even moved to Calabasas, California to get away from Hollywood with

her children to get more privacy. The next step was to kick off her tour “The Circus: Starring

Britney Spears” the first world wide tour since 2004; the tour lasted nine months and showed

how Britney could still sing, dance and tour. In the midst of her touring, she made official her

new relationship with her brother’s best friend and new manager, Jason Trawick. Like all of her

previous relationships, Britney seemed to be happy and stable again. Her parents and close

friends approved, and Britney was happy and had a more positive outlook. Along with the

approval of their relationship, Britney’s parents believed that he was the best thing to happen to

her as well as he was very good with her children from her previous marriage to Kevin. Now,

Britney could even have her kids with her while she was on tour, this let her bond with them and

made her extremely happy. It seemed like Britney’s luck was finally starting to look up.

Now the public was starting to see her life turn around and start to become positive again.

In October of 2009, Britney was named the new face of Kohl’s “Candies” clothing line which

helped her gain back popularity. After being the face of Candies, Britney could now design her

own clothing line for the company which was highly successful. After designing, Britney wanted

to go back to creating another album, one that she named simply “Femme Fatale” (meaning

dangerous woman in French). The album in total took two years to write and is considered one of

the best albums made by Britney Spears today. When asked about the album, Britney says that

she wrote it for her fans who have stuck by her through her struggles and that she loves her fans.

“Onstage I'm the happiest person in the world.” –Britney Spears

It seemed only natural to have Britney do another world tour for her album Femme Fatale

after it was released three months earlier. As she toured she still faced criticism from her haters

as they remarked that she “wasn’t dancing as good as before” and the whole album wasn’t

focused on Britney like her previous, but more was featuring Britney. However, she was still

receiving many positive reviews especially from Rolling Stone Magazine. "Possibly her

flashiest, fastest moving, and most entertaining production yet", and added that the night

belonged to Spears, as "she managed to prove that she's still progressing as a showgirl. Not only

that, she's doing it better than even diehard defenders would’ve predicted. At 29, the pop star

whose career seemed in danger of ending just a couple years ago has shown that she's back –

hopefully this time to stay" (Barry Walters from Rolling Stone.)

Femme Fatale’s tour only lasted six months and ended in December of 2011; that same

month, long time boyfriend, Jason Trawick, proposed to Britney which was “like an early

Christmas present”. She was waiting for a long time and it was the best thing for Britney as he

got along with her children and was helping her maintain her issues.

Britney went through many major struggles in her life; many due to the way she was

criticized and the effects that the media had on her life. She lived her life under a magnifying

glass, everyone watching her every move and that caused her to become stressed and could have

possibly led to her bipolar disorder. Many other celebrities support Britney, because they know

the struggle it is to live a life as a celebrity, as well as always being watched.

“Britney’s been doing it since she was like 13. It’s kind of fair that she had a little bit of a

meltdown. I mean, she’s been through a lot. I think she’s gonna be alright now. She’s an

intelligent girl.” – Taryn Manning

Along with being watched, as each relationship she was in ended, the aftermath was

highly publicized which let Britney have no privacy as she tried to move on. This started her

depression as she was constantly facing slander for her relationships, along with her parenting

skills after her second marriage. When the media prints a story, they don’t understand that the

person they are writing about is an actual person and has actual feelings; they will go to any

extreme to tell a story, true or false. Because most of the public only sees negativity about

Britney, they are not convinced that she is a good person that needed help because she had no

privacy, but just a crazy person. Negative stories sell a lot better than positive ones in today’s

society, which is why most of Britney’s history was exploited and over dramatized.

Most of Britney’s issues started around 2006 into 2008 and with her life being watched

she could never escape her them. It is believed that her issues started with her depression starting

with the failed relationship with Justin Timberlake and was never addressed directly, and kept

getting bottled up until it was noticed in 2007 when Britney started to act “crazy”. She faced

many internal issues with her depression and undiagnosed bipolar disorder, along with a nasty

divorce and custody battle.

She used many of her relationships to make her happy, even if only for a short time.

When Britney was in love, she was happy but when the relationship failed she was depressed

again. It was a bad cycle that she was stuck in until she had received help with medication and

therapy.

In order to help change people’s opinions and to figure out how people viewed Britney, I

conducted a survey of various questions to people of today’s youth. In total I interviewed 15

people anonymously so they could answer more accurately, as well as I asked it online to get a

wider range of interviewees. These questions ranged to the interviewees overall opinion of her

to how they’ve seen the media portray Britney.

The first question I asked was “Do you like Britney Spears as a music artist?” I asked this

to see how many people liked Britney’s music to begin with to see if maybe the answers might

be leaning more to the negative side. From the answers, most people generally liked Britney’s

music to a degree.

Secondly, I asked “Do you believe that Britney is a good person based on the way media

portrays her?” I asked this question to see if anyone’s opinion could be based upon what they’ve

seen about her. Most people believed that Britney could be a good person, but one third

disagreed and believes that the media doesn’t portray her to be a good person.

Third, I asked if they believed that “Britney was as good as she was from the past?” This

question was very broad and a general question, the person could have taken it if she was as

good as an artist, a person or overall. More than half of the interviewees believed that she wasn’t.

I then asked was “Do you think Britney is emotionally or mentally stable?” I asked this

question due to the fact that I previously knew that there was speculation if she was or not. Out

of 15 people almost half said that they believed she wasn’t stable (most likely due to the

incidents in 2007)

The next question was “Do you think Britney should end her career and retire?” I wanted

to know how many people still wanted Britney around. The results indicated that the majority of

the people who took my survey still wanted Britney around, but some (four) wanted her to retire.

The next question I had asked was “Have you seen negative articles about Britney (either

online or in person)?” I asked this question even though I almost knew the answer was going to

be yes, and all 15 people had agreed, saying that they have (Reasoning may be, because the

media often prints negative stories rather than positive.)

The last question that I had asked was to see if people had seen “positive articles about

Britney, either online or in person.” 10 people said that they have, and 2 said they haven’t. I

knew that I would get less people saying that they haven’t as the media focuses more on her

rough past than her positive future.

After conducting the survey and seeing how people view and judge Britney Spears, the

results weren’t surprising. Many people do like Britney, but she does have her critics like any

other celebrity. Also, people aren’t as informed on Britney and her personal life, as well as only

what is printed in the media. If the survey was conducted with a larger amount of people, the

results would have been different as there might not have been many Britney lovers.

Much of today’s society only knows what is printed on the newspapers and on TV and

not the exact truth. People alter stories to get them to sell and the public often forgets that there

are two sides to every story, and that the people they are reading about are actual people with

actual feelings. We are often quick to judge who and what we don’t know and that’s the case

with Britney. Since her downfall, she has received help through therapy and medication and also

the positive help from her family and children. Her life isn’t as stressful as her parents and fiancé

look out for her and her best interests and help her make crucial decisions in her life. In order to

avoid seeing bad articles about herself, she has them blocked from seeing it. She’s working to fix

her custody issues with her children and looking to start a family with her new soon to be

husband. Through her struggles, Britney has still always had one of the most loyal fan bases of

any celebrity which helped her become more successful than she ever was. During her career,

Britney had launched clothing lines, perfumes, books, CDs, and games which were always big

sellers with the public. Now, with being the host of the second season of “America’s X-Factor”

she is moving into a new stage of her life into television. She is now currently in the works to

create her eighth and next album which will further expand her music empire. Britney, who is

known as the pop princess has now become the pop queen.

Even with all of her internal and external struggles, Britney has become more successful

than most celebrities. Her net worth is $200 million dollars, making her one of the richest women

in entertainment. Because of her history, Britney uses it as an inspiration to better herself, and to

keep it as a reminder to stay healthy for her children and family. With this paper, I hope the

audience can understand why Britney had her issues, and how to view her in a more positive

light. Also, I hope to help people understand that, even though celebrities are successful, they

don’t always have it easy, as they are always being watched. The pressure of the media can cause

a person to have a breakdown, as the pressure may be too great for some. However, Britney rose

against the pressure and is now back and better than ever.