LeAnn Rimes sees a lot of parallels between the Britney Spears story and her own rocky journey through childhood stardom.
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"I saw the Britney Spears documentary and was thinking, like, all these people that make money out of her and she has nothing to do with it," Rimes told The Times in the UK. "It's just soul-sucking. That poor girl. That poor woman, really."
Both were teen stars in the '90s. Spears jumped from "The Mickey Mouse Club" to the global pop charts, while Rimes had a Top 10 country hit in "Blue" at age 13. Below the surface, both were on the wrong ends of business dealings that landed them in legal battles against their own fathers.
"Looking back, I think my dad did the best that he could," Rimes said. "Parents managing a child is always a recipe for disaster. For me it became a business and I ended up not having parents."
Rimes can relate to juggling homeschooling with international touring and other crossover star obligations.
"Good thing I was a teenager and had so much energy. Now I'd be curled up on the bed, not moving for days," Rimes said. "Sometimes when I have busy days I get so triggered. It takes me right back to not being able to say no, not having control."
A silver lining in Rimes' life story and in the journey chronicled in Spears' book "The Woman in Me," both emerged from less-than-typical teenage years with a strengthened sense of resolve.
"I don't feel like I stepped into my womanhood till the last five years," Rimes said. "Learning to say no was probably the best thing in the world. I started to realize how disappointed I felt in myself when I did things that I just didn't want to do."
