Issue date: Feb 20, 2000

In this article:
The newly tattooed singer
"Don't be afraid to ask your parents for help,"
If anything is missing, it's a boyfriend.
From: '80s pop star Debbie Gibson
Britney facts
Check out the Photo Gallery
Check out the Animation

By Stephanie Mansfield

he moment she turned 18, in December, Britney Spears felt different. It wasn't because she had one of the most popular records of all time (... Baby One More Time, 10 million copies sold), had been asked to guest-star as herself on The Simpsons or had sold out her entire upcoming national tour.

Eighteen may no longer be much of a threshold for kids in the real world, but for a bubble-gum goddess who was a Star Search winner at 10 and a TV personality at 11, coming of age meant emancipation.

"I still feel like a teenager in some ways," the double Grammy nominee admits in her girlish Southern drawl, "but there is somethin' about being 18. You feel like you're more of an adult."

For starters, she can legally pose nude for Playboy. "Oh, God. Never!" she shrieks.

There have been a few defiant acts. The first was getting her navel pierced. (She wears a silver-and-turquoise ring.) The second was a tattoo.

The small black-winged fairy peeking up from the rear waistband of Spears' black thong "made her feel like a little rebel," says Felicia Culotta, her traveling companion and chaperone for the past three years. Watching Spears get ready for a photo shoot, Culotta, a friend of Spears' mother, Lynne, says the singer had been "dying" to get a tattoo after a Christmas trip to Hawaii with friends. When she returned and was in New York with Culotta, a hairstylist recommended a tattoo artist in the Garment District. The two women, accompanied by Spears' 300-pound bodyguard, went to the parlor and picked out the fairy. It was inked at the base of her spine. And, yes, it hurt. "Her mother doesn't know yet," Culotta says, grimacing.

The newly tattooed singer -- her platinum-blond hair blunt-cut, her right ear stuck with enough diamond studs to keep De Beers in business -- is awaiting the release of her second CD and, in the process, tweaking her image to reflect her new maturity. For good reason. The former Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer, whose Southern-magnolia manners belie a shrewd knowledge of the entertainment business, is ambitious and savvy enough to realize prepubescent girls are a fickle fan base, despite the billion-dollar pop industry that has spawned Britney-endorsed baby T's, calendars and other paraphernalia -- not to mention the bare-midriffed Britney clones waiting in the wings. Her managers are holding their breath as Spears, with quick-change artist Madonna in mind, asserts more product control and aims for an older audience.

"People assume I'm some puppet and people are telling me what to do all the time," Spears says. "When I first got signed to a record label, I was 15. So I did have some help at first. You don't know what you're doing. But now, with experience and as time goes on, I know what I need."

Almost overnight, the former gymnast from Louisiana has gone from kittenish jailbait in thigh-highs and baby T's to a voluptuous video vixen who showed up at last month's American Music Awards in a glued-on Chloe jumpsuit that displayed, to one and all, the entire coast of Britney.

But don't ask her about body image (or whether the rumor that she got breast implants is true). And don't ask about being a role model for other young women her age. ("I try not to feel that pressure.") As for the blatant sexuality of women on MTV: "Some people go too far. I guess it's because they have insecurities. ... But if I do a video, of course, I'm gonna wear something I feel comfortable in, confident in."

One thing she's happy to talk about is the communication gap between teenagers and their parents. It's a common experience, and an animated Britney Spears has a few words of wisdom.

"Don't be afraid to ask your parents for help," she insists. The singer -- who acknowledges, "I owe a lot of my success to my family" -- is particularly close to her mother, a second-grade teacher. (Her dad, Jamie, is a contractor, and she has an older brother and younger sister.) "I always have her to confide in. I think that's really important. There are a lot of my friends who never talk to their moms about anything. They have nobody to go to except their friends. And if they're in the wrong crowd, who can they call when they're in trouble?" She stresses she's no saint. "I've had my times when I've gone out and partied. I know what it's like. I don't want to do it again. Kids doing drugs every weekend. It's because they're lacking something in their life -- maybe the feeling of being loved.

"Parents and teenagers don't have the quality time they used to. I think it's important to have a routine with your child. Have dinner together. Sometimes parents come home tired. [The kids will] go to McDonald's. They will do their homework and not even say hello."

It was her mother who groomed Britney for a career in show business, and she's the one who now telephones nervously from the family home in Kentwood, La. (pop. 2,600), to inquire about a certain designer outfit her daughter might appear in on national television.

But her mother also knows about the Britney backlash: the "I Hate Britney" Web sites, the nasty rumors and negative stories. Spears says the first thing she does after reading something bad about herself is pick up the phone and call her mother. "I'll call her up, crying. I'll be devastated and she will help me deal. It's so weird. Every week, there's something in the tabloids. She's helped me just say, 'OK, whatever.' ... There are days I get down. Hormones, totally. I'll get into the tub and have a bubble bath and just cry. I'll think, 'What's wrong? I should be so happy.' ... After I have my little cry, I feel better."

To teens with fragile self-esteem being bombarded with unrealistic images, she says, "Don't pay attention to what you read or see on TV. Just go with what you feel inside. Pay attention to you. You're finding out who you are."

And, yes, Britney Spears says she knew she was loved. "Always," she smiles. Still, there are the usual teen insecurities. "I wish I were taller," she says. "I wish my hair was thicker." (She usually wears hair extensions.)

If anything is missing, it's a boyfriend. Her name has long been linked with that of 'N Sync's Justin Timberlake (indeed, they recently had a dinner date in Los Angeles), and she has been corresponding with Britain's Prince William ("I gave him a picture and signed it"). She'd like to hook up with someone in show business. "I think it would help a lot. Of course, if I met somebody at McDonald's and I fell in love with him, I'd have to go with my heart. But it would help being in the same industry, because you know what that person is going through, scheduling-wise. Somebody else might not realize I'm really, really busy all day long."

She has a wicked crush on Ben Affleck. The two had an arranged dinner, and the actor surprised her in her trailer before the Billboard Music Awards. "He is so real," she says, eyes widening. "And so warm."

On the table is a movie magazine with -- you guessed it -- a grinning Affleck posing seductively on the glossy cover. Spears sighs and flips through, looking for more pictures. Suddenly, she looks younger than 18. "Y'all, what time does Fred Segal close?" she yells. The singer wants to go shopping at that exclusive store, but it's too late. It is suggested that they call the store to keep it open. Spears shakes her head. She's still a small-town Southern girl who wouldn't dream of inconveniencing anyone.

And for a girl who could have anything in the world, she seems a little wistful. She picks up the magazine again and gazes at Affleck's chiseled face.

"My dream is to make a movie," she says, "and have a love scene with Ben Affleck." She dissolves in a fit of giggles.

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"I hope she doesn't rush her personal growth process in terms of portraying an image that is very sexual. I refused to. She made a comment in Us magazine that she didn't want to be another me in terms of image, insinuating that a sexier image lasts and a more innocent one does not. I hope she realizes that's really not where the focus is at all. To each his own. At the end of the day, if you work on your craft, you will endure. There are very few people who can stay hot on the charts decade after decade."

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Britney Facts

Nickname: Boo Boo
Collects: fairies, diamond jewelry
Favorite uniform: Abercrombie & Fitch baggy jeans, baby T, baseball cap
Least favorite body part: her toes (thinks her itty-bitty toenails are too small)
Addicted to: Vanilla Ice Blendeds from L.A.'s Coffee Bean
Doesn't bother with: candy. Absolutely no sweet tooth. Better to go with diamonds -- or fairies.
Name of bodyguard: Rob
Object of desire: Ben Affleck
Favorite actresses: Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts
Hopes to age as gracefully as: Goldie Hawn
In her CD player: Usher, Lenny Kravitz
Sneakers: Skechers
Probably regrets saying: "I don't want to pierce anything. Belly rings are, like, old." She now has a silver-and-turquoise belly ring.
Biggest fear: flying
Next single may be: Oops, I Did It Again

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