Why Britney Spears’ memoir shows fans want to read more than just celebrity gossip
Britney Spears at a movie premiere in Hollywood in 2019. Valerie Macon / AFP via Getty Images file
When Britney Spears shaved her head in 2007, the incident sparked widespread speculation over whether the pop star was experiencing a mental health break. The then-25-year-old checked into a rehab facility after the incident.
Over a decade later, Spears revealed that the hair change was her “F— you” to the world. “Everyone thought it was hilarious. Look how crazy she is!” she wrote in “The Woman in Me.” “Even my parents acted embarrassed by me. But nobody seemed to understand that I was simply out of my mind with grief. My children had been taken away from me.”
This is one of many revelations in Spears’ memoir, which hit shelves Tuesday. The book, and the widespread buzz around it, has underscored how celebrity memoirs have become a vehicle for stars — especially women — to reclaim autonomy over their stories. While the genre has always had broad appeal, some experts and fans say its allure now extends beyond a demand for behind-the-scenes gossip.
“Celebrity gossip gets very maligned as useless gossip, but it is a way to discuss human behavior,” said Ashley Hamilton, 32, co-host of the podcast “Celebrity Memoir Book Club.”
With Spears, for example, the prevailing public narrative around her was that she was a person who needed to be contained. Even her fans have taken Spears’ social media behavior as evidence that she is erratic or in need of help.
Spears was released from her conservatorship in 2021. Just last month, police did a wellness check at Spears’ home after people made 911 calls citing an Instagram video she had up showing her dancing with fake knives. Spears clarified in a later post that the knives were fake and she was just trying to “imitate” fellow artist, Shakira.
“It’s terrible that people talk about her that way,” said Cat Hoggard Wagley, 30, a fan of Spears who posted her thoughts about the memoir on TikTok. “There are still people, not just celebrities, who are dealing with what she has dealt with in the mental health care industry.”
The late ’90s and early 2000s, a time in which Spears made headlines almost daily, was a particularly unforgiving era for female stars, Wagley said, because gossip magazines appeared intent on humiliating these celebrities.
Reading Spears’ own words helped give Wagley an added perspective on how the era also shaped people who grew up consuming these headlines.
“Women my age went through the culture that [Spears] did and at a different level we experienced the misogyny that she experienced,” Wagley, who is a therapist based in Indiana, said.
“When someone goes out there and gets vulnerable, it gives people permission to get vulnerable with themselves,” she added.
Spears’ book comes on the heels of the release of recent female celebrity memoirs by Jada Pinkett-Smith and Julia Fox. All three use their books to share how they felt controlled or misunderstood in their interpersonal and professional lives.
