By: Sara Nigro
Friday, October 24 marked a big day that many fans and pop culture aficionados have been waiting for for years. Britney Spears, the one and only Princess of Pop, released her long-awaited memoir, The Woman in Me.
Spears, most well-known for her hits such as "...Baby One More Time", "Oops, I Did it Again", and "Toxic", has been a staple in popular culture for the past 2 decades. She has made a name for herself as a performer, but also as a fixture in the tabloids.
Her story is one that has been anticipated for a while now, not only because of her fame as a musician, but from her very public legal struggles in the past few years. Because of this, not many details are left out of her life story, and she makes an effort to start all the way at the beginning.
Spears writes about her life chronologically, starting all the way back from before she was born. She includes details about her grandparents' marriage, her bond with her great-grandmother, and the impact her parents' childhood eventually had on her own experience growing up as a young girl in Louisiana.
Her childhood is not glossed over as she knows that her family dynamic is essential to the story of her later life. We as readers get the play by play of her rise to fame, her intimate relationships, and the foreshadowing of familial control that we learn about later on in the book.
Technically, the memoir is not exceptionally well-written. After reading other acclaimed celebrity memoirs such as Jenette McCurdy’s, I’m Glad My Mom Died, Spears' writing falls flat. While McCurdy has proven her ability to write in an engaging, meaningful way, Spears writes in short, choppy sentences that feel somewhat juvenile.
While her writing can appear immature, I think sometimes her personality proves more important to her story than the need to show off her skills as a writer. Spears began her career with a “nice girl” image, which she discusses often in her book. This girly, light-hearted kindness that she often credits to growing up in the South, shines through in every chapter. So, while Spears is not going to be the next Jane Austen, her personality is able to be felt by the readers and aids in telling her story.
And of course, the content of the book is what keeps the readers captivated. Who doesn’t want to hear the truth about the Justin Timberlake cheating rumors? Or hear her side of the story when it comes to her “breakdown” and her eventual infamous conservatorship?
Spears makes sure to detail all of the important life events in her career and throws in some small details such as when she started smoking cigarettes as a teenager. Or when she started taking Prozac to deal with the overwhelming lifestyle of the entertainment industry. Some of these lines seem unnecessary but are often brought back later in the book, proving to be key details when it comes to the more complicated events in her later life, often during her 13-year conservatorship.
The most notable aspect of this memoir is the believability. While truth is subjective, I found it validating to see the similarities in her memoir to the stories told in documentaries such as Netflix’s Britney vs Spears, noting Spears was not involved in the creation of these films. Finding the same story from Spears as well as others she worked with, brings a credibility I believe many readers were skeptical of prior to reading.
Although the writing is not as impressive as other successful memoirs, it brings truth to her narrative, a story that she had not been able to tell for many years. She uses her freedom to detail her honest experience, while keeping the fun, lighthearted tone that she has been known for during the early years of her fame.
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