Chap­ter 9 marks a turn­ing point in my career, where I moved from being an unknown artist to a world­wide sen­sa­tion. The jour­ney began with the con­cept for the “…Baby One More Time” video, where the label orig­i­nal­ly envi­sioned me as a futur­is­tic astro­naut, resem­bling a Pow­er Ranger. How­ev­er, I did­n’t feel that image res­onat­ed with me or my audi­ence, so I sug­gest­ed a dif­fer­ent con­cept. I envi­sioned the scene as a group of friends sit­ting at school, bored out of their minds, only to break into dance once the bell rang. The idea of bring­ing the school set­ting to life felt more relat­able, some­thing that my audi­ence could con­nect with. The chore­og­ra­phy, led by my amaz­ing dancers, brought the con­cept to life smooth­ly, and the ener­gy of the rehearsal was pal­pa­ble. Work­ing with the dancers, espe­cial­ly those from New York City, gave the per­for­mance a raw­ness that was key to its suc­cess. New York dancers, with their heart and spir­it, brought a unique vibe that helped the music come alive. The rehearsals at Broad­way Dance Cen­ter, a place I had trained at as a child, brought back so many mem­o­ries and made me feel com­fort­able as I showed off my capa­bil­i­ties.

As the video came togeth­er, I had more cre­ative input, and I felt heard by the direc­tor, Nigel Dick. I insist­ed on incor­po­rat­ing cute boys and school uni­forms to make the tran­si­tions into casu­al clothes even more excit­ing. Cast­ing Miss Fe as my teacher added a fun touch—her nerdy glass­es and frumpy clothes made every­thing feel light­heart­ed. Film­ing that video was by far the most enjoy­able part of cre­at­ing my first album, and it marked a moment when I tru­ly felt the pas­sion for music. I was unknown at the time, and with that anonymi­ty came a cer­tain free­dom. There was no pres­sure to impress, no rep­u­ta­tion to pro­tect. I could per­form with a gen­uine sense of joy, know­ing that if I made a mis­take, it would­n’t matter—no one knew me yet. In those moments, I could look out at the crowd and feel like I was a blank can­vas, ready to be shaped by the expe­ri­ences to come.

The suc­cess of “…Baby One More Time” came rapid­ly after its release. After per­form­ing in small malls for weeks, no one real­ly knew who I was yet. My demeanor was gen­uine, though, and it wasn’t an act—I was just a six­teen-year-old girl try­ing to share her music. By the time the video was out and the sin­gle hit the radio, recog­ni­tion start­ed to pour in. The release of the song on Octo­ber 23, 1998, fol­lowed by the video, was a turn­ing point. With­in a month, the song was every­where, and by Jan­u­ary 1999, the album was top­ping the charts. I debuted at num­ber one on the Bill­board 200, a record I was proud of, becom­ing the first woman to debut with both a num­ber-one sin­gle and album at the same time. I could feel the world open­ing up, and the excite­ment was over­whelm­ing. I no longer had to per­form in malls to pro­mote myself. My career had shift­ed into a new gear, and I was now a glob­al sen­sa­tion.

The speed of my rise was dizzy­ing. I toured with NSYNC, includ­ing Justin Tim­ber­lake, a close friend from our Mick­ey Mouse Club days. Along­side my dancers, my man­agers Lar­ry Rudolph and John­ny Wright, and my secu­ri­ty guard Big Rob, I was con­stant­ly sur­round­ed by peo­ple who sup­port­ed me. Life on tour bus­es, per­form­ing in dif­fer­ent cities every night, became my new nor­mal. With the suc­cess of my album, I became a reg­u­lar on MTV’s Total Request Live, and Rolling Stone took notice. They sent David LaChapelle to Louisiana to shoot a cov­er sto­ry for me. The mag­a­zine’s April issue fea­tured me in a con­tro­ver­sial shot: me in my under­wear, hold­ing a Tele­tub­by. While the pho­tos raised eye­brows, they sym­bol­ized my entrance into the spot­light and sparked con­ver­sa­tions. Though my moth­er had con­cerns about how young I looked, I was con­fi­dent in the direc­tion I was head­ing. I knew I want­ed to work with LaChapelle again, and this was just the begin­ning of many more cre­ative endeav­ors to come.