Jamie Lynn Spears opens up about her daughter and getting back into the spotlight
(CBS) Jamie Lynn Spears, who disappeared from the limelight after becoming pregnant at 16, has decided to open up about her teen pregnancy and step back into the spotlight to re-launch her music career.
While Spears is ready to take the stage again, her priority still remains her 3-year-old daughter Maddie Briann.
"These days, the only thing I'm afraid of is not being a good mom," said Spears to Glamour magazine. "As long as Maddie is healthy and she loves me, the rest doesn't matter."
The 20-year-old is also using her music to tell the truth about her teen pregnancy and about life as a young mother.
"That's been the coolest thing - realizing that it's okay to just be myself and really tell my story," she told the magazine. "I expect the scruntiny. The last time anyone heard anything of me, I was 16 and pregnant. All I can do is be my best - there will always be people who will never like me."
Spears, the younger sister to pop star Britney Spears and a former star of Nickelodeon's "Zoey 101," told the magazine she was too embarrassed to see a doctor and ask for birth control.
"I was 16. I'd had one boyfriend. It doesn't make it perfect or all right. But I was judged for something that probably most everyone does," she said. "I was young. I was in love. I was like every other teenager, except I had this last name. And I made a decision that is forever my decision."
When she found out she was pregnant Spears decided to do an interview with OK! Magazine to get to her fans before they heard the news from someone else; she claims that she "wasn't trying to glamorize teen pregnancy."
"I hated when [the tabloids] said that," she said. "Everybody is dealt a hand of cards. It was my choice to play them the way I played them. But the hateful comments hurt."
Spears removed herself from paparazzi-ridden Los Angeles to her home state of Louisiana to have her daughter. Spears claims that though she and her finace Casey Aldridge have split, they both are committed to doing what is best for their child.
"We tried," said Spears. "We really wanted to do it right. We loved each other. I will love him as Maddie's father until the day I die."
Spears is ready to get to back to work and show people who she really is now.
"I was a kid who did a kid show. Then I went away and raised my child, and the world has never met me as an adult. This is the first time anybody is really meeting me as a grown woman and grown mother making a descion about what to do with my life. Do people have an idea of who they think I am? Yes, and that's fine with me. My music will speak for itself."