Britney Spears: Her ghostwriter also had a difficult childhood

When Britney Spears’ autobiography “The Woman in Me: My Story” is published today, almost two years after her incapacitation was lifted, Sam Lansky (35) will also feel a nervous tingling in his fingers. As ghostwriter of the tell-all book, the American journalist and author made a significant contribution to shedding light on the turbulent and complicated life story of pop star Britney Spears (41) and capturing it on paper. Who is the man behind the book that will soon top all the bestseller lists?

Biography as the ultimate challenge

What a Task: The Autobiography of Britney Spears. The life and thoughts of the former teen star seem to have become more and more confusing and impenetrable in recent years. At the same time, you think you’ve already read everything about Britney Spears. At the end of the 90s she turned the pop world upside down with hits like “… Baby One More Time” and “Oops! … I did It Again”.

In 2008 she was incapacitated by her father. This was followed by many, sometimes disturbing, stories about Spears, who no longer seemed to be able to find her way back to normality. Since her father’s guardianship was lifted in 2021 and after 13 years of being ruled by others, Britney Spears has once again been taking care of her needs alone. Her message, perhaps also her revenge on the world, can be read in her autobiography, which is published today. It is a book with an explosive effect, with ghostwriter Sam Lansky helping her significantly.

Lansky dealt with his difficult childhood in a novel

Who is the man who took on this challenge? Lansky studied literature in New York and has since been known and appreciated in the scene as an author for renowned media such as “Time Magazine” and “New York Magazine”. He has often heard journalistic confessions from stars like Adele, Johnny Depp and Madonna and translated the fate of pop icons into words. Lansky has experience in having sensitive conversations with quite complicated personalities.

And yet working with and for Britney Spears is likely to be of particular importance to him. And that has to do with his own past, which seemed to have been anything but easy. Lansky wrote the autobiography “Gilded Razor” in 2017 and the autobiographical novel “Broken People” in 2020. The former straight-A student from a privileged home tells of many injuries to his soul, resulting from numerous affairs with older men and excessive drug consumption up to almost fatal doses. It was only after a boot camp in the Utah wilderness that he found his way back to normality – and also to his current job. Parallels to Spears’ excesses are obvious, so both of them may have found each other over this.

Lansky is a biography novice

Because it is noticeable that Spears did not rely on one of the industry’s old hands when she commissioned the responsible ghostwriter of her biography. Apart from his own biographical work, Lansky is a beginner when it comes to writing a star biography. Born in 1988, Sam was just 10 when 16-year-old Britney with blonde pigtails pouted her “…Baby One More Time” into the lens. He was 15 when Britney and Madonna French kissed on the open VMA stage, and 17 when Spears crashed and shaved his head.

At the same time, Lansky also knows what psychotherapy means. When he was 19, he went to a clinic in New Orleans for treatment. And he probably also knows what it feels like to fail at high standards and then crash. Britney Spears experienced it all – but in front of the whole world. Her biography, eagerly awaited and widely commented on by global media, finally shows Britney’s view of almost untold years – sensitively captured by Sam Lansky.