Britney Spears wrote a lengthy post on Instagram speaking about her childhood, and how her hairstyle acts as a refuge.

“I know I need bangs 😜😜 !!!!!” she shared. “Who would have thought bangs could make you look waaaaay younger ?!?!”

She later recalled feeling like “an ugly duckling” and that she “never felt pretty enough” to expose her forehead under her bangs.

“I stopped having bangs in the 3rd grade and I remember like it was yesterday,” the singer said. “It was such a big deal to expose my forehead …. only pretty people in the south could do that and I never felt pretty enough to pull it off. All the beauty pageant girls did it but I never felt beauty pageants were my thing … I had bad teeth and felt like an ugly duckling.”

In fact, Britney remembers going to a modeling agency and being told she “wasn’t pretty enough.”

“‘Maybe I can be like the older girls and show my forehead,'” she recalled thinking. “I did and it looked sooooo bad but I thought I was gorgeous 🤣 !!!! I think I knew it didn’t look good but I did it because I thought it made me cool …. and I’ve pretty much had it like that ever since !!!!”

You go, Britney!