Britney Spears’ New Memoir Changes The Conversation On Mental Health

When Britney Spears shaved her head in 2007, she instantly became the butt of jokes and casual cruelty. Late-night talk show hosts excoriated her. People on then-nascent social media platforms laughed at her. Even respected journalists used her as a punchline.

Spears never provided a real explanation for her choice (not that she owed one to anyone). But with the publication Tuesday of her much-anticipated memoir, The Woman in Me, Spears finally seizes back her own narrative—and also takes control of a troubling narrative about mental health that has plagued women like Spears who rose to fame early and were punished by the media when they stepped outside predetermined boundaries.