Earlier this year, we reported on a long, vulnerable Instagram post wherein Justin Bieber said he was going to take a break from music to focus on “repairing some of the deep rooted issues” with which he’s long struggled. Now, in another long, vulnerable Instagram post, the legendarily obnoxious pop star has shared the fruits of his reflection, which read much better than his past public apologies. They, in many ways, reflect what many have said about child stardom, which is that it’s dangerous and wildly stupid to surround any child, no matter how talented, with sycophantic predators and gazillions of dollars.
“You see I have a lot of money, clothes, cars, accolades, achievements, awards and I was unfulfilled,” Bieber writes in the post. “Have you noticed the statistics of child stars and the outcomes of their life? There is an insane responsibility and pressure put on a child who’s brain, emotions, frontal lobe (decision making) aren’t developed yet.” He goes on to admit that he “never even learned the fundamentals of responsibility” and turned 18 “with no skills in the real world, with millions of dollars and access to whatever I wanted.” Who wouldn’t resist arrest and piss in unattended buckets?
His emptiness, which he notes was fueled by “pretty heavy drugs” and a poor view of relationships, led him to what sound like some pretty rough struggles with depression. “You start forseeing (sic) the day through lenses of ‘dread’ and anticipate another bad day,” he writes. “A cycle of feeling disappointment after disappointment.”
Now 25, Bieber credits his wife, Hailey Bieber (née Baldwin) and his Christian faith with turning his life around. Marriage, in particular, he says, has taught him “patience, trust, commitment, kindness, humility and all the things it looks like to be a good man.”
Read it in full below.
It’s all very earnest and we wish him the best. Now, just stop picking fights with men 31 years older than you and you’ll be just fine.