The Mickey Mouse Club was a Disney-owned variety show with a cast of child and teenage performers. The cast performed songs, dances, and skits on the show, the original run of which aired in the 1950s. It was rebooted in the 1970s, and a third time in the 1980s and 1990s. The third run of the show, called The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, was the version on which Spears performed. The show functioned as a de facto training program for many young actors and singers, providing them with a built-in audience and an introduction to the world of show business.

A conservatorship is a legal relationship in which a judge appoints a guardian or guardians for an individual who does not have the capacity to care for themself. Typically, people who are placed under conservatorships are either minors, elderly people experiencing dementia or other loss of function, people with disabilities that prevent them from living independently, or people with severe mental illness who cannot manage their own affairs or who are in danger of hurting themselves or others. Conservatorships can leave individuals vulnerable to abuse if the system is used inappropriately, as in Spears’s case.