From cute little Mousketeer to a young women on the edge of despair, in the depths of depression and completely bewildered. That seems to be Britney Spears’ young life in a nutshell.

But as we all wait with baited breath, fingers poised to write the next deprecating blog and to hear of her latest disaster, let us not lose sight of the fact that this ‘child’ has given so many people an immeasurable amount of pleasure over the past 10 years with her concerts, singles, albums and her well rehearsed and polished dance routines.

Which one of us hasn’t scurried over to the dance floor on hearing the opening bars of a Britney’s “Baby One More Time,” and danced with friends and enjoyed the product of this young girl’s hard work, determination and lost childhood?

Maybe we all need to remember the ‘Britney’ that was not the ‘Britney’ she has unfortunately become. She received two Grammy nominations, won four Billboard Music Awards, and won Favorite Pop/Rock New Artist at the American Music Awards. Her first album sold 14 million copies in the U.S. and 25 million copies worldwide.

Britney’s second album, Oops!…I Did It Again was released in May 2000. It debuted at #1 and sold over 1.3 million copies its first week, breaking the previous record for one week sales of an album by a female artist. It stayed in the top three for seventeen weeks and sold 10 million copies in the U.S. and 20 million copies worldwide.

Britney didn’t come from a wealthy, privileged background like Paris Hilton or Nicole Richie. She worked hard to get where she was. With nobody looking after her personal interests, only the copious amount of cash she generates, she has been neglected by family and friends, and husband Kevin Federline, in ways that any other teenager or young woman with a remotely caring family would never have experienced.

Britney is reminiscent of one of those hand-held kid’s games, where the object is to get the little silver ball into a hole. Britney, like the ball, is running round and round trying desperately hard to find the comfortable resting place where she can be ‘Britney.’

What she needs is several months out of the spotlight. She needs to take herself off to a country where she is barely known, Switzerland, Austria, even Brunei (if they’ll have her) and surround herself with people who genuinely care about ‘Britney,’ not her talents, not her fame, not her fortune, just Britney.

Doesn’t anyone hear this young girl’s cries for help?

Surely we don’t want to wake up later this year to the news that little Britney has gone the same way as Anna Nicole Smith and so many other celebrities who couldn’t find solace in anything except drink, drugs and finally death.

There’s still time for Britney to recapture her self, her body, her looks, her musical status show the rest of us that she can do it!

Following the relentless hounding by the press of Princess Diana, until her death, the world suddenly stood still and realized the pressure the young Princess had been under and her cries for help that went unheard and in all probability contributed to her early death.

We should all look at our daughters, sisters, friends and think for just a moment, how would they cope, how would we feel?� Then maybe we would turn our spite onto something worth commenting on.

Yes, these celebrities sell magazines, blogs, movies, TV shows and much more but when all is said and done do they finally really need to literally pay with their lives?

Let’s not be poised, ready to write of Britney’s death later this year.

ABB