When Britney Spears was still trapped in her conservatorship, there were endless fan theories that the photos and videos she posted to Instagram were a cry for help. Was her Christmas tree up for too many days? Had she hidden a message in a photo of a Scrabble board? The singer's posts were raked over for clues that she needed saving by her followers.
Now that Britney is free, she is sharing her thoughts with a new degree of openness. And so, after her sister Jamie Lynn began promoting her upcoming memoir with a tell-all interview on Good Morning America, Britney was quick to swap Instagram for Twitter to set the record straight.
‘I wish I would be able to do what you’re doing and do interviews !!! I’m scared of all of it,’ Britney told her sister in a series of screenshots from her Notes app. ‘I admire you for being so strong,’ she added, as she gave her rebuttal to Jamie Lynn’s on-air interview.
The iPhone Notes app gets a bad rap. Historically, it is what celebrities have hidden behind to make their statements while sheltering from potential cancellation after making controversial comments or thoughtless actions. But, for Britney, the Notes app has provided her with a voice during her new-found freedom.
Understandably she’s cautious of media appearances after spending nearly her entire life being manipulated and manoeuvred by people in her industry. Yet, from her phone she can share her thoughts and feelings about the years that traumatised her - without anyone else editing.
Consequently, her tone has been labelled by some followers as erratic. She throws out anecdotes and emojis with abandon: ‘The only knife [knife emoji] I ever saw you with at home was cutting the biggest piece of squash [squash emoji] I ever saw in my life,’ Britney wrote in response to Jamie Lynn’s accusation that she’d once locked them in a room with a knife.
But amid the tiny love hearts, crying faces and exclamation marks, Britney offered one of the first insights into how she felt during the most troubling years of her life. ‘I was so scared,’ she wrote to her sister. ‘I needed you…My family, my blood and your support more than anything.’
‘You guys did absolutely nothing UNTIL a year ago!!!...because of an Instagram post!!!’ she also alleged of Jamie Lynn and their brother Bryan. ‘THAT makes me the saddest... why??? Because I needed you WAYYYYYY before that.’
Rather than instability, as some have suggested, the way Britney writes surely seems more reflective of her sincerity. She lets her feelings flow without hesitation, in a stream of consciousness that's arguably refreshing to read in a showbiz world of carefully crafted statements and press releases.
Among social media’s many downsides, one positive is that it offers a way to immediately give your point of view, celebrities included. Britney doesn’t have to wait to go on Oprah to tell her side of the story. She has done it from her bed, with a fever, watching Jamie Lynn’s interview on TV while typing into her phone.
After she's made it clear that a public feud is not what she wanted, it's sad to see Britney at odds with her family. But at least she now has the power to reclaim the narrative for herself, in her own words - with or without emojis.
READ MORE: Britney Spears Hints Sister Jamie Lynn ‘Didn’t Save Her’
Why This 'Tribute' Was One Of The Most Painful Moments Of Britney's Conservatorship