Britney Jean Spears: The Pop-Princess Stuck Inside Instagram.

by Brittany Talissa King

It was 1998 when I saw her on my Panasonic T.V.

I had just returned home from school and stationed myself in front of the family computer. As I chatted with classmates on AOL, and fed my two Tamagotchis dangling from my belt loop. In the background was MTV, intermission with cereal commercials, until “A World Premiere” music video took over the screen. As I gossiped with my chat room, I heard an unfamiliar electronic piano beat blast behind me, “Dun-dun-nuh…” then, a girl sang, “Oh baby, baby…” over the melody. I stopped typing mid-sentence, turned my black swivel chair around, and faced the 50" television screen.

I watched as the pretty girl with the plaid school-uniform, dance free in her high school hallways, thinking, “Who is she?”

Before I knew it, my brown hands flung in the air, swinging from side-to-side, landing on my hips; as if I were an extra backup dancer — mimicking the cool girl singing, “My loneliness is killing me…” I sang the next catchy lyric with her, “I must confess I still believe. Still believe!” In what? My 11-year-old self did not know…how was I supposed to know? But what I knew, this teenager, this pop-singer, was a star. After the last chorus lingered in the family room, “Hit me, baby, one more time!” I watched…