It’s been over ten years since Chris Crocker’s tearful defence of Britney Spears in his viral-video-turned-early-noughties-meme Leave Britney Alone!
However, the hardcore-fanbase are still as impassioned as ever about the golden haired Louisiana songstress.
And some are taking it a little further than others…
They say you should never meet your idols, but what if you actually became them?
31-year-old Bryan Ray from Los Angeles is so enamoured by the Hit Me Baby One More Time singer, he ended up sinking a cool $80,000 into looking like his beloved Britney.
When he was just 17-years-old, Bryan, who manages a marijuana edibles company, decided to copy Britney’s paparazzi-ready grin, purchasing a set of beaming white veneers.
However, things escalated rapidly from there. To date, Bryan has endured over 90 procedures, all to look like his dance-pop heroine; including a nose job, cheek injections, hair removal and Botox. Could this be a Toxic habit?
As reported byVT, aspiring model Bryan explained where the root of his obsession began:
Ever since I was young there was something about Britney Spears and the qualities she had that I thought was the perfect package.
I was obsessed, I watched all her interviews, learned all her choreography and then paid to have the same perfect smile as, I felt that during that time we were very similar.
Bryan also spoke about the extent to which Britney has influenced his identity, providing a constant source of inspiration throughout his life:
So many people refer to me as ‘Britney’ and for a very long time friends have greeted me with her infamous quote ‘It’s Britney, b****!’ from her song ‘Gimme More’ which I absolutely love.
Britney will always be one of my biggest inspirations, I love that she was the biggest star in the world went through an incredibly hard time and came out on top.
As a person who spent many nights as an eight-year-old bopping around to the Baby One More Time album – and still knows all the words to Lucky – I can remember the appeal of Britney.
She had all the diva glamour of Mariah Carey, but there was something vulnerable about her which made her somehow – despite her wealth and fame – relatable.
She also made being a teenager seem like the coolest, most complicated thing in the world (to pre-teens at least). For all these reasons, it is unsurprising that Bryan, who aspires to look young forever, would look up to Britney.
Bryan is now about to appear in brand new TV show Plastics of Hollywood, which is probably not a show for those with a mortal fear of dolls. The US show focuses on a talent and modelling agency… for real life human dolls.
His other plans include continuing to impersonate and perform as Britney:
Now with my looks, I want to get into modelling, I love impersonating Britney Spears so I want to continue doing that and see where it takes me.
I used to perform in west Hollywood, doing songs and numbers – it’s still something I want to do in the future.
It’s official. Britney fans have outlived One Directioners and they are about a thousand times more intense.
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.