At the age of 18, the singer Britney Spears

At the age of 18, the singer Britney Spears has won honors and accolades--and also become the target of media critics, for reasons having nothing to do with her talent. Her singles ". . . Baby One More Time" and "Sometimes," from her debut album, . . . Baby One More Time (1999), soared up the record charts while drawing accusations that their lyrics condoned domestic abuse and masochism, interpretations that miss the mark, according to the singer. The criticism has done little to deter Spears's fans: they have purchased almost 12 million copies of her album, and her stadium concerts typically sell out the day tickets are made available. In Entertainment Weekly (December 24/31, 1999), Ken Tucker wrote that Spears has "chosen her . . . influences well: a bit of Janet Jackson in her take-charge dance moves, a smidgen of Mariah [Carey]'s sultry sassiness, some Stevie Wonder in her croon, and, behind the scenes, Backstreet Boys mentor Max Martin cowriting and coproducing unshakable hits."

Britney Spears was born

Britney Spears was born in the small town of Kentwood, Louisiana, on December 2, 1981 to Jamie Spears, a construction contractor, and Lynne Spears, a second-grade teacher. She has an older brother, Bryan, whom she has described as protective, and a younger sister, Jamie Lynn, who is considering a singing career. Britney Spears has always loved to sing, and she remembers standing in front of the bathroom mirror while holding a hairbrush she pretended was a microphone. "My mom would have company over when I was little, and she was so used to [me singing all the time], she didn't even realize I was doing it," Spears told an interviewer for TV Guide (May 8, 1999). "And the company was always like, 'Lynne, tell her to be quiet.'" Spears, who remains a devout Baptist, made her first public appearance when she was four, singing "What Child Is This" in her church. When she was eight years old, she traveled with her mother to Atlanta, Georgia, to audition for the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club, based on the original series, which aired in the 1950s. Although the producers considered her too young for the show, they were sufficiently impressed by her singing ability to refer her to an agent in New York. There, for the next three summers, Spears studied at the Professional Performing Arts School at the Off-Broadway Dance Center. The lessons paid off: she began to win parts in commercials, and in 1991 she landed a role in the Off-Broadway production of Ruthless, based on the 1956 film thriller The Bad Seed. When she was 11, Spears auditioned again for Mickey Mouse Club, and this time she was invited to join the cast. She performed for two seasons alongside fellow mouseketeers Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Christina Aguilera, and Keri Russell, each of whom has also gone on to fame as a singer or actor.

When the show was canceled

When the show was canceled, in 1993, Spears returned to Kentwood, where she completed one year of high school. During that time she lived a normal high-school life, attending the prom and other functions, but she quickly became discontented. "I went home and it was like a year and I was just like 'Eh,'" she told John Norris during an interview for the MTV Web site. "I wanted to sing and I wanted to perform and performing for all these functions in my home town just wasn't enough. You know?" At 15 she returned to New York to try to find singing jobs. An executive at Jive Records, eager to win a share of the burgeoning teen market, heard a demo tape she had made and signed her to a development deal. Eric Foster White, a producer who had previously collaborated with the singer Whitney Houston, was assigned to work with her--an arrangement that delighted Spears, since Houston had long been an idol of hers. She also traveled to Sweden to work with the producer Max Martin, who had already teamed up with several other young performers--including the Backstreet Boys and Ace of Base--and has been credited with helping to rejuvenate pop music in the latter part of the 1990s.

In October 1998 Spears's first single

In October 1998 Spears's first single, ". . . Baby One More Time," was released. To promote the song, Jive Records sent Spears on a cross-country tour of the nation's shopping malls, a strategy that had been used in the 1980s to launch the careers of Tiffany and Debbie Gibson, pop singers to whom Spears is often compared. Backed by two dancers and armed with promotional copies of the record, Spears was seen by thousands of teens, and by December of that year her single had sold 500,000 copies. Spears later toured as the opening act for 'N Sync, a band made up of five boys who were quickly becoming teen idols. This gave her even more exposure to her intended audience, and as a result her debut album, also called . . . Baby One More Time, quickly landed on the Billboard charts at number one. The title song's lyrics were criticized by some, who interpreted them as a celebration of domestic violence. The song's refrain, "Baby, hit me one more time," was taken literally by these critics, despite Spears's protests that its meaning was metaphorical; in the Rolling Stone interview, she said, "It means just give me a sign, basically. I think it's kind of funny that people would actually think [it meant to hit me physically]." A second single from the album, "Sometimes," caused similar concerns, when the lyrics "Sometimes I run from you / Sometimes I hide / Sometimes I'm scared of you" were thought to have masochistic overtones. Neil Strauss, a music critic for the New York Times (July 6, 1999), found fault with the song for other reasons. "These meanings--the hitting, the fear, the implication that when Ms. Spears says no she means yes--are not so much intentional as they are evidence of careless songwriting, glitches in the pop machine." Spears stirred still more controversy when she appeared scantily clad on the cover and inside photos of Rolling Stone's April 1999 issue. Fans were apparently less offended than media critics, as . . . Baby One More Time went on to sell more than 11 million albums worldwide. The music industry showered her with honors. Spears won four Billboard awards, including female artist of the year, new pop artist of the year, Hot 100 Singles artist of the year, and female Hot 100 Singles artist of the year; several MTV awards; a Teen Choice Award; a People's Choice nomination for favorite female performer; and a 2000 Grammy nomination for best new artist. Her second album, Oops! . . . I Did It Again, was released in May 2000 and sold 1.3 million copies during its first week. In June the television special Britney in Hawaii aired on the Fox network.

Spears recently agreed to endorse

Spears recently agreed to endorse Clairol's Herbal Essences line of hair-care products. Despite the trappings of celebrity, she generally comes across in interviews as a typical teenage girl. She often talks of her fondness for the actor Brad Pitt and for cookie-dough ice cream. She has named shopping as a favorite activity, and she collects dolls. (Unlike most teenage girls, she has had a Barbie-like doll made in her image.) Although she has been frequently linked with Prince William of England and Justin Timberlake of 'N Sync, Spears has claimed that her concert and recording obligations get in the way of dating. She has said that she would like to try acting once more.