#FreeBritney Has Now Morphed Into #FreeAmanda

Spears fans are slowly turning the spotlight onto the conservatorship of actress Amanda Bynes
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 1, 2021 10:30 AM CDT
#FreeBritney Has Now Morphed Into #FreeAmanda
In this June 5, 2011, file photo, Amanda Bynes arrives at the MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, file)

As Britney Spears emerges from under the thumb of her father and, perhaps eventually, her conservatorship overall, her fans have turned their attentions to another famous female conservatee. TMZ caught up with multiple "Free Britney" supporters at a Los Angeles rally this week to ask what they'll do with themselves once Spears' conservatorship battle finally wraps up, and the outlet says the answer was "unanimous"—they want to now free Amanda Bynes.

The 35-year-old What a Girl Wants actress and former childhood star—who's reportedly been suffering from mental health issues and admitted in the past to substance abuse—has been under a conservatorship since 2013, with her mom, Lynn, in charge of most aspects of her life. That conservatorship was recently extended through 2023. Elle notes, however, that there's one big difference between Bynes' conservatorship and Spears': the former is reportedly able to control her own finances, putting Bynes' mother, in effect, mainly in charge of medical decisions for her daughter.

NBC News reporter Doha Madani tells BuzzFeed there's another key difference between the two women: Outsiders' perception of them is very different. While Spears has been "very public," working and regularly posting on social media while under the conservatorship umbrella, Bynes has mostly remained quite private, showing just glimpses of her life—"and the glimpses that we have are not that great," Madani says, noting Bynes' erratic posts on social media as one example. "What we've seen from Britney Spears seems to be a lot better than what we've seen from Amanda Bynes," she adds.

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Bynes herself hasn't publicly spoken at length on how she feels about her conservatorship. Still, the "Free Britney" crowd is ramping up for its new mission. Spears superfan Megan Radford tells TMZ that fans are ready to help Bynes end her conservatorship next, as well as to educate people on conservatorships in general, and on the abuse that can take place within those arrangements. However, that's still to come—Radford says that until Spears herself is completely freed from being overseen, liberating her remains the movement's main mission. (More Amanda Bynes stories.)

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