Key Takeaways
- Britney Spears wrote an Instagram caption on Saturday (Oct. 17) claiming she originated the schoolgirl image that younger performers have recently copied.
- Spears wrote that she is "the original apple B school girl who did backflips and backhand springs," adding that unlike recent imitators, "at least mine was real."
- The schoolgirl look traces back to her 1998 debut single "...Baby One More Time," shot at Venice High School and directed by Nigel Dick.
Britney Spears is reminding everyone that she paved the way for a new generation of performers.
In a new Instagram post on Saturday (Oct. 17), the singer stated that younger artists have rebuilt the look she wore at the start of her career.
"A lot of girls last year have definitely done the complete image I used to have when I was younger… and yo that's cool, but at least mine was real…" Spears wrote. "I'm the original apple B school girl who did backflips and back handsprings and fell in love with people on every set I ever went to… these years were precious, so young and naive…"
Spears’ schoolgirl look arrived with her debut single "...Baby One More Time," released in 1998. The video was shot at Venice High School in Los Angeles with Nigel Dick directing, and Spears reportedly pushed for the uniform concept herself.
That visual became her signature, and the song went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Captions like this one have become a fixture of her public life since her conservatorship was terminated on Nov. 12, 2021, the 13-year arrangement she detailed in her 2023 memoir The Woman in Me.
"The world has been hateful to me, and I'm still standing, living, and dreaming," she wrote before signing off with a message for her haters: "To all the girls who say I'm History… I'M PROPHECY."
In other recent Spears news, the singer praised Janet Jackson on Instagram and called her a “god.”
“At 13 years old, if a Janet Jackson video came on the TV, my mouth dropped open,” Spears wrote to fans. “I kept repeating in my head, ‘No, no. Please come back, I wanna see that again. Where the hell did that come from?’ It was her ability to be incredibly mysterious, so dark with a vibe that sucked you in immediately, and then this haunting, simple, angelic tone.”
